Who are the top 10 pitchers of all time?

Question

Since I just asked about position players, let's go with pitchers as well. For me it goes like this:
1) Walter Johnson
2) Roger Clemens
3) Bob Gibson
4) Warren Spahn
5) Cy Young
6) Pete Alexander
7) Steve Carlton
8) Tom Seaver
9) Lefty Grove
10) Christy Mathewson

I'm not 100% sure Nolan Ryan is a top 20 pitcher. Lots of strike outs, but the rest of his stats are pretty underwhelming. I would have Sandy Koufax at 11, just didn't have enough longevity to cut it for me. No doubt he had the best 4 year run of anyone in league history though.

Answer 1

Mine
1) Walter Johnson
2) Christy Mathewson
3) Sandy Koufax (yes, I know the argument that I just made about Dimaggio will come into play here)
4) Roger Clemens
5) Greg Maddux
6) Bob Gibson
7) Warren Spahn
8) Lefty Grove
9) Cy Young
10) Pete Alexander

Much like the batting, I don't believe that Nolan Ryan belongs in the argument on the top 10 pitchers, EVER.
His 7 no hitters were simply an amazing feat on 7 individual days. His 5714K's, awesome too.
His near 2:1 K to walk ratio though, uhhhh.
His .526 winning %..... uggghh
His # of Cy Youngs,.... uggghhh
He walked more than 200 batters in a season on numerous occasions.
Greg Maddux sometimes walked less than 25. Ryan did not strikeout 8x the batters that Maddux did.

Answer 2

Great list. Great question. Here's mine based only on what's in my mind.

1) Walter Johnson
2) Christy Mathewson
3) Bob Gibson
4) Roger Clemens
5) Sandy Koufax
6) Warren Spahn
7) Pete Alexander
8) Steve Carlton
9) Cy Young
10) Lefty Grove

Maddux, Seaver, Ryan, & Eddie Plank all deserve some consideration. But that's my 10.

Answer 3

A quick answer, mixing a bit of longevity and peak players would be:
Walter Johnson
Roger Clemens
Lefty Grove
Pete Alexander
Greg Maddux
Steve Carlton
Tom Seaver
Warren Spahn
Cy Young
Randy Johnson
I'm not sure I shouldn't have Pedro and/or Koufax in here.
Paige, if he could have played a full career would be here.

Nolan Ryan is NOT on the list. He's nowhere in the list all-time of adjusted ERA or WHIP. He's at #258 for both!
He simply walked too many people too often to be greater than these other pitchers.
Gibson, while great, is not in the top 40 of either of these categories. Or if you like wins as a stat, he's not top 40 there, either.

Answer 4

1 Sandy Koufax
2 Bob Gibson
3 Warren Spahn
4 Cy Young
5 Steve Carlton
6 Tom Seaver
7 Lefty Grove
8 Don Drysdale
9 Mathewson
10 Bob Feller

Answer 5

1. Walter Johnson
2. Cy Young
3. Roger Clemens
4. Sandy Koufax
5. Grover Cleveland
6.Randy Johnson
7.Warren Spahn
8. Nolan Ryan
9. Lefty Grove
10. Randy Johnson.

Answer 6

By total career value (so Koufax eats it):

1. W. Johnson
2. Clemens
3. Grove
4. Mathewson
5. Carlton
6. Young
7. Maddux
8. Spahn
9. Seaver
10. R. Johnson
~50. Ryan

When he finishes -- which I don't expect will be for several years, but we'll see -- Pedro Martinez likely shoulders his way onto this list, somewhere in the top half.

Answer 7

Jim Palmer with 8 seasons of winning 20 games and a career ERA of 2.86 (fourth all-time) has got to be on there somewhere. Not to mention, he pitched every game full of pancakes.

He also won a World Series game in three seperate decades. 3-time Cy Young Award winner.

Nobody remembers him unless he's in his underwear pitching (pun intended) Jockey shorts.

Answer 8

Sandy Koufax has to be in there along with Whitey Ford IMO

after further research, I would not include Ford as his winning percentage is merely a bi product of the team of which he was a part.

Answer 9

I think you have to include Satchel Paige. Plus, I think Cy Young deserves to be higher (511 wins? Come on. There's a reason the AWARD is named after him) and I don't think you can ignore Nolan Ryan, even if it is just for the strike out record.

John Smoltz also has over 200 wins and 150 saves. I think there's only one other pitcher in baseball who EVER did that.

Answer 10

In no particular order:

Cy Young
Bob Gibson
Whitey Ford
Sandy Koufax
Warren Spahn
Satchel Paige
Juan Marichal
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Nolan Ryan