Johnson, Mathewson, or Young? Which one do you think was the best?

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Never heard of a Johnson or Mathewson award but have heard of a Cy Young so I would give him the nod among those 3. Now the greatest of all time has 7 Cy Young awards.

So if MLB came out with a Doc Gooden award now, that he would make a thread like this 100 years from now?

Cy Young with the length of his career along with the average amount of innings pitched per game, with many complete games should always been the discussion. He just shouldn't bein the discussion because some committee back in the day gave him an award.

[Joshwesley]

I'll take Walter Johnson

I think ty cobb said he was the toughest pitcher he faced.... And the kicker...

He has the best looking card in the t206 set.

The Johnson portrait.

[Joshwesley]

I'll take Walter Johnson

I think ty cobb said he was the toughest pitcher he faced.... And the kicker...

He has the best looking card in the t206 set.

The Johnson portrait.

My humble but accurate opinion

[DeanH3]

Obviously all 3 are ATG's. However, just imagine if WaJo had a decent team behind him.

110 shutouts.
38 1-0 wins.
65 losses by shutouts with 26 of them 1-0 scores.

It's quite possible Johnson could have bested Young in wins if he had played for a good team.

[jl9999]

I'd say Johnson is the best pitcher of the three. I'd also say his portrait is the best card of the three and for my money one of the 2 or 3 best looking cards ever printed in any set ever. Although Young's portrait is also quite nice.



John Leso

[Joshwesley]

I think Satchel Paige would do pretty well in this discussion thread.....

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by Joshwesley

I think Satchel Paige would do pretty well in this discussion thread.....

seriously?

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

seriously?

Such a comparison would never be fair as Satchel's prime career stats are lost to history.

I would love to have more exposure to his stats and less to bonds and clemens.
.
.

[khkco4bls]

I still have to throw John Clarkson in there 328 -178 over 12 years with a 648 percentage 4536 innings. if he could only have pitched longer Like 17 to 22 years like they did god only knows what his stats would have been

[clydepepper]

Any comparison involving Clarkson should be prefaced by the fact that almost his entire career occurred before the pitching mound was moved back 10 feet 6 inches. Even I was faster from a shorter distance.
.
.

[aro13]

Actually, the quality of the other pitchers on the staff have a real, though indirect effect on the record of a given starting pitchers' record:

The burden of being the team's ace is not only that you are almost always going against the opponents' best, which means, on average, less offensive support, but also starts frequently moved up to get more total starts.

Back in the 'day', ace starters would routinely pitch on two days rest and even one in extreme situations. Lesser pitchers' starts would be passed over to accommodate more starts by the ace - plus those same aces would always be available for relief appearances on their day or days of rest.

All this definitely impacts great pitchers' records, so for Someone like Johnson to do all he did is even more amazing.

These points would be reflected by run support. If Walter Johnson got 2.1 runs a game support and the rest of the staff got 3.4 that would make sense. Aces do not always match up, because the schedules are not all the same. If you took a lineup of the best hitters in the game today that averaged 6 runs a game and gave them a pitching staff of Clayton Kershaw and 4 AAA level pitchers - Kershaw would be like 28-3 and the rest of the staff would probably finish around 20 games under .500. That would not make Kershaw any more impressive, because the rest of his staff stinks.