re: Will there ever be a greater pitcher than Nolan Ryan in the modern era?

I think longevity is his best argument. Sure, he's a Hall of Famer, and he was fun as all hell, but the argument is whether he is this inner circle Hall of Famer, and the best pitchers will have both peak and longevity. If you'll note, I didn't really talk about his peak either.

He was top 10 in ERA+ 7 times. He lead the league in ERA+ twice. He was top 5 just three times. Three. Let's compare that to Blyleven: led the league once, top 5 7 times, and top 10 12 times.

You want to talk about a record that will never be broken: his career walks record is insane. He's 922 walks ahead of the #2 guy, Steve Carlton. That would rank 145th all-time if it were a pitcher, and it's two more walks than Darryl Kile threw in his career. It's a staggering record.

While we're on the subject of WAR for pitchers, and I've made my feelings on WAR pretty clear, Blyleven has 96.5, good for 11th all-time. Also, FIP well overstates Ryan's quality, as it assumes that hits are no responsibility of the pitcher, which erases one of Ryan's huge weaknesses. He lead the league in Hits/9 TWELVE times. If you're beating the stats that consistently, it's not a fluke, there's something about you. His 6.6 H/9 is the highest of all-time among qualifying pitchers.

I like Ryan. He's fascinating, and probably the most UNIQUE pitcher in history. There's nothing else like him, and he was ornery cuss who made Bob Gibson look soft. But he's not the best pitcher in modern baseball, nor is he even close to it.

I'm not saying he is the best modern era pitcher.

But to say he wasn't good at preventing runs is silly.

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Bery Blyleven

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Blyleven sucks dick on MLB the Show so I'm taking this comment with a grain of salt.

Man, you're right on FIP. Then I have no idea why Ryan's FIP numbers are so crazy. He's such an outlier, on every stat that he doesn't really fit in any statistical modeling. He breaks the mold. Ryan's a really weird pitcher.

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Also, FIP well overstates Ryan's quality, as it assumes that hits are no responsibility of the pitcher, which erases one of Ryan's huge weaknesses.

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i hate this metric

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This and his beat down of Robin Ventura are why, i think, Ryan gets so much praise from "John Q Fan".

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There will likely never be a greater noogie in the modern era. Something tells me Mordecai 3-Finger Brown gave some treacherous noogies in the pre-modern era though.

Is Ryan still considered a modern era pitcher?

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So YOU are basing A Pitcher on how he does on some how????

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Assuming 'how' is meant to be read as 'show', but it's a video game dumbass.

And it was a joke.

I'll get off your lawn old man. Go back to worrying about kidney stones and why you haven't taken a shite in the last month.

Sonic baws