who is the best pitcher of all time?

Question

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Answer 1

1. Cy Young
2. Walter Johnson
3. Roger Clemens

in that order. And to those who have pre-judged Clemens because of the Mitchell Report, feel free to thumbs down my comment. "Innocent until proven guilty"

Answer 2

Most fans idea of the best pitcher ever is derived from numbers they see from past accomplishments on sheets of paper. It turns out to be the pitcher with the most wins, best ERA, or someone from their favorite team and more than likely a person they actually never saw pitch. If that is all that is involved with coming up with the best a computer could make the selection. I saw them all, in person, from the 1960's on including, but not limited to; Seaver, Ryan, Gibson, Clemens, Perry, Ford, Carlton and all the others. The most dominant pitcher I ever saw was Sandy Koufax. This question has been asked many times and directed to those great players of the past, such as Morgan, Mays, Aaron Ashburn, Stargell, and many more who actually faced many of these pitchers, and the overwhelming vote for the best was Koufax. His career was cut short with arm problems but during those four or five years in the early 1960's I believe there could never have been a better and more dominant pitcher than Koufax. No radar guns then but he was consistently at a 100mph with his fastball and maybe the best curveball ever. And guess what? he was 175 pounds and his name never came up on any list involving alcohol and drugs.

Answer 3

Cy Young, Walter Johnson and Christy Matthewson come to mind.

Cy Young played in two different eras. Matthewson's World Series record is legendary.

I'd give the edge to Johnson because he did the most with less talent around him. Take a look at all those shutouts!

Answer 4

Lefty Grove, but I could pick Walter Johnson or Roger Clemens next week.

There's a lot of guys who could cluster right below them starting with the #4 slot, but these three hold the medalist rankings. Pedro might shove his way in, but he's not yet done.

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And, please, Ryan NEVER enters this "best ever" discussion because of his record 2795 walks. Second placer Carlton has around 1800 -- Ryan doesn't just own the record, he's on his own continent with it. It simply cannot be squared with being The Best Pitcher Ever, because TBPE keeps runs from scoring and does that by keeping runners off base. Ryan was an excellent pitcher, utterly brilliant at some aspects of his role, and totally worthy of his Hall plaque. But he's not TBPE, and is rather far back (probably between #35 and #50, roughly) in the line.

Answer 5

Walter Johnson or Cy Young. They pitched when baseball was a game. When there were just pitchers and not specialists like the game is today.

Answer 6

Walter Johnson.

The guy played for bad teams basically all of his career. He is the alltime leader with 38 games won by 1-0 score.

Had he been dying in 1955 and not Cy Young is would be his name on the award.

Besides, the guy did all that without throwing fastballs at hitters' chins, cause he was one of the 'good guys' back in the day.

Answer 7

Roger Clemens, Walter Johson Lefty Grove, Christy Mattewson, CY Young, Randy Johson, Greg Maddux, Tom Seaver, Pedro Martinez, Eddie Plank, Mariano Rivera

Cant say anything bad about the rocket innocent until proven guilty!!!!

Answer 8

Cy Young

Answer 9

come on cy young he only has the best award for a pitcher named after him!! but after him i would have said satchell page

Answer 10

Cy Young

Answer 11

Tom Seaver.
Well, maybe not, but he was my favourite pitcher when I was growing up and he's close enough to the top to be considered (first ever unanimous Hall of Fame choice).
If not Seaver, how about one of his former teammates: Nolan Ryan?