Best pitcher of 1968: Lolich, McLain or Gibson?

Question

2 Tigers and a Redbird

an amazing fact about Gibson is that he suffered from asthma and still dominated!

Answer 1

Wow, Gibson era was incredible at 1.12
Denny McLain won 31 games
Mickey Lolich won three world series games.

Tigers win the series and Gibson has maybe the greatest season of all time. And no one has won 30 plus games since. You're killing me here!!! lol

I'll have to go with Gibson. A note of interest: McLain served up Mickey Mantle's 535th home run (batting practice pitch) in order to pass Jimmy Foxx as third (at the time) all time. Mickey would hit one more before he retired.

Answer 2

Of course Mickey Lolich was the World Series hero with 3 wins as the Tigers came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Redbirds. Denny McLain became the first hurler to win 30 games in 34 yrs and it hasn't been matched since with a 31-6 record. But Bob Gibson with a 22-9 record and an amazing era of 1.12 was the best pitcher of them all that year. It makes you wonder how did he lose that many games with an era like that.

Answer 3

McLain played 7 more times than Gibson. He started 41 games while Gibson only started 34.

Also if your going to look at Win/loss stats as a reason a pitcher is good...all i have to say is Jason Marquis 12 wins (2 behind leader in MLB) and his ERA is 5.82. I trust era more than win record.


Scored 671 runs, Allowed 492 runs - Tigers all year

Scored 583 runs, Allowed 472 runs - Cardinals all year

Tigers had more run support, while Cardinals had a little more defense.


Mclain - 28 complete games, 6 shutouts
Gibson - 28 complete games, 13 shutouts.

I guess when Gibson was good, he was GREAT. But when he was off he was good.

Answer 4

Tough question, but 1968 was a pitcher's year because MLB had widened the strike zone and this upset the balance of power in the game that year. This is why Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a mere .301 average and only 5 NL players batted over .300 that year. Look at the stats and you'll see that runs and hits were down league wide, so I'd say the low era numbers are overrated.

Lolich was 17 ~ 9 with a 3.19 era and 197K's in 32 starts,
McLain was 31 ~ 6 with with a 1.96 era, 280K's and 6 Shutouts in 41 starts , while Gibson was 22 ~9 with a 1.12 era and 268K's and 13 shutouts in 34 starts.

The question to me is how did Gibson manage to lose NINE games? Other than that, I'd call it pretty even, but I'd lean towards McLain.

Answer 5

I vote for Don Drysdale.

1968, the year of the pitcher !!

McLain had 31 wins, and Gibson had a 1.12 ERA , but DD had a string of 58 2/3 IP without giving up a run, a record he held until 1988 and another Dodger Orel Hershiser.

Pitchers were so dominating (Yaz led the AL in batting w/ a .301 Avg) that MLB lowered the mound for the 1969 season

Answer 6

That was an awesome year for pitching. I would choose Gibson by the way. Lolich and McLain were excellent too, not to mention Drysdale and his then record streak. But do not forget about Juan Marichal.

Answer 7

It's pretty close between Gibson & Mclain, but even though Mclain had 9 more wins I would give it to Gibson because of the 1.12 ERA which was the major reason for a major rule change after that season.( lowering of the pitcher's mound )

Answer 8

You left out a couple of guys who had great years in 1968.

#1-Bob Gibson W-22 L-9 ERA-1.12
IP-304.2 H-198 BB-62 SO-268 HR-11
Per 9 Innings
H-5.85 HR-0.325 BB-1.83 SO-7.92

#2-Luis Tiant W-21 L-9 ERA-1.60
IP-258.1 H-152 BB-73 SO-264 HR-16
Per 9 Innings
H-5.30 HR-0.557 BB-2.54 SO-9.20

#3-Dave McNally W-20 L-10 ERA-1.95
IP-273.0 H-175 BB-55 SO-202 HR-24
Per 9 Innings
H-5.77 HR-0.791 BB-1.81 SO-6.66

#4-Denny McLain W-31 L-6 ERA-1.96
IP-336.0 H-241 BB-63 SO-280 HR-31
Per 9 Innings
H-6.46 HR-0.830 BB-1.69 SO-7.50

I would take any of these four. Lolich wasn't in their class, even if he did have a great World Series.. I have been a Cardinals fan since the 50's, Bob Gibson is the man but he was not "the" reason ML baseball lowered the mound after the 68 season...

Answer 9

Michael Francis McCormick (born on September 29, 1938 in Pasadena, California) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the New York Giants from 1956 to 1958, then the San Francisco Giants from 1958 to 1970. He played for the New York Yankees in 1970 and then the Kansas City Athletics in 1971.

In 1956 he became one of the most hyped rookies in history after posting a 49-4 American Legion record at age 17, including four no hitters and a 26 strikeout game. Though he struggled with his control for the first few years of his career, he later became one of the best pitchers in baseball. He led the league in ERA in 1960 and won the Cy Young Award and The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year in 1967 with the San Francisco Giants. As of 2006 he is the Giants' only Cy Young award winner. He also hit the 500th home run by a pitcher in baseball history (and also gave up Hank Aaron's 500th career home run in 1968). McCormick was a member of the National League All Star Team in 1960 and 1961.

Answer 10

Bob Gibson. I mean they had to alter an aspect of the game for this lone pitcher because of his dominance, so i think he is the most significant between these 3 players without a doubt.