Is Cy Young the best pitcher of all time?

Question

Here are his stats.

511 Wins(most ever)
749 CG(most ever)
2.63 ERA(34th best ever)
906 games(17th most ever)
815 GS(most ever)
2803 K(19th most ever)
17 SV(not near the top)
.618 Win%(53rd best ever)

Answer 1

Yes,by far just look at the stats.All that really matters is the W.

Answer 2

The best pitcher of all time? Well, how about one of the best.

Like der said, he pitched in a different era. It is pretty meaningless to compare pitchers in different eras because their have been so many different ones in baseball. Like the "dead ball era" and "live ball era" and most recently the "steroids era".

Cy Young was a very durable pitcher obviously, and his ERA is really good. However, you should take in consideration his run support. If he gave up 6 runs every start (if he did, his ERA would've been higher, so just use this as an example for any pitcher), but still got a win, would he be considered a good pitcher? Or a lucky pitcher because he had offense to back him up?

Answer 3

No

if i had to list a couple who i think are better

Walter Johnson
Roger Clemens
Sandy Kofax
Greg Maddux

I would say especially Maddux and Clemes because they played most of their careers in a era where ballparks got much smaller and the ever present rumors of steroids and those players hitting in much smaller parks.

For example
in 1923
yankee stadium was
500 to deep left center (by 1988 is was 399)
429 to deep right center (by 1976 it was 385)


Cy young also would pitch 2-3 times a week, a rubber arm for sure but you are nver going to see a starting pitcher do that again.

the 500 wins is like NASCAR 200 wins (Petty) its hard to compare numbe of victories now because they race 38 times a year instead of the 50+ times in some years when Petty raced

Answer 4

Cy young is no were close to the best. Yes most wins and complete games but... What you have to look at is he also pitched every other game. and back then most people did go for complete games. Thats just how things were. u were expected to. The best of all time is Walter Johnson. He ability to throw a ball as fast as he did and make it look like he was just playing catch was crazy.

Answer 5

It's pretty meaningless to compare pitchers who played in such vastly different eras, but if I were building a team I'd take Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens over Cy Young. Probably Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson too.

Answer 6

Baseball has changed so much that it would be impossible to pick any one pitcher in the history of the game. He would certainly have to be considered one of the best. Back during his days in the majors I doubt that they were able to check the speed of his fast ball. From his stats it's pretty clear he was not a power pitcher. He certainly was beatable as his 315 loses will indicate. As far as ERA, pretty good, even in today's standards. Among the best, yes. The best of all time, no.

Answer 7

No, though he does rank somewhere between seventh and fifteenth, which is still pretty darn good.

That 749 complete games mark is probably the most unbreakable personal record in baseball. Remember that next time the question comes up.

Answer 8

Well, its really hard to compare pitchers from different eras. But I would say yes, considering he won 511 games and he finished like 92% of his games. ♣

Answer 9

No. Walter Johnson is. Compare the stats. Also take into consideration that Johnson pitched the last third of his career in the "live-ball era."

Answer 10

probably in his time but i am sure there are better pitchers like santana. who won the cy young like 4 years in a row.