Pettitte vs. Halladay vs. Ryan

[darwinbulldog]

The peak vs. longevity argument is just a matter of opinion. I say Niekro was better than Koufax, but I recognize that most people don't share that opinion.

The simplest statistic I calculate to rank players is something I call "Simlab" on my spreadsheets and is an exponential function of WAR and Games that's calibrated to penalize a player either for having a short career or for hanging around past his prime. Albert Pujols for example dropped from #28 to #38 in the past year. It's better than WAR, and it's also better than WAR7, and I daresay it's an improvement on JAWS (which it's fairly close to conceptually but more elegant than just averaging two numbers).

It gives me:
1) Babe Ruth
2) Walter Johnson
3) Cy Young
4) Barry Bonds
5) Roger Clemens
6) Willie Mays
7) Ty Cobb
8) Rogers Hornsby
9) Ted Williams
10) Kid Nichols

as having had the best MLB statistics and also puts Halladay's rank well ahead of Ryan who is, in turn, well ahead of Pettite.

[1952boyntoncollector]

In my PPIBTH algorithm I have Pettite 5 steps ahead of Roy which is 2 x a two step plus 1.

Someone brought up the fact only a few HOFs ERA are over 3.6 etc. I am not sure what an accepted reduction in ERA for AL pitchers is allowed when comparing them to career NL counterparts or pre 1973 seasons for HOFs. I would imagine over a 18 year career your ERA would be .3 less. Andy did really well in his brief time with the Astros for example era wise i believe, but havent checked it out.

My algorithm may be a bit biased as it stands for 'Prove Pettite is better than Halladay' so there may be some markers in there that are slightly tainted.

[bravos4evr]

Nolan Ryan 6th in career fWAR among pitchers with 107.2 ... SIXTH! with a career ERA of 3.19, career FIP of 2.97 and 9.55 K/9 inn



Petite- 30th in career fWAR with 68.9, ERA of 3.85, FIP of 3.74 K/9 of 6.64




Halladay- 38th in career fWAR with 65.2, ERA of 3.38 FIP of 3.39 K/9 of 6.93



It's pretty obvious who the best pitcher is