re: Aaron Nola... Greatest of all time?

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I'm sorry but the ball is so much different now that you can't begin to compare. The COR and the seams are completely different. The national BA is down 35 points in four years. We hit 188 homers in 1997 and have hit 164 in the last four years combined. There's really no way to know if Nola stacks up - there's no way to know if anyone stacks up.

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you compare them based on their current counterparts. how does nola stack up to pitchers from other teams. then you compare that the same way with mcdonald/sirotka/shultz/etc and how they stacked up with other pitchers at their time. aaron nola has been viewed as one of, if not the best pitcher in the entire country (his era) the past 2 years. only ben mcdonald can say that out of any other pitcher in lsu history. i'm not comparing their statistics head to head but comparing their numbers against other pitchers when they actually played. nola's are absurd compared to his peers.

All of that is great. If the topic wasn't "Greatest of all time."

I don't see how anyone can legitimately make that statement when Ben and the guys in the 90s played against steroid ball and Nola and his peers are playing whiffle ball.

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I don't see how anyone can legitimately make that statement when Ben and the guys in the 90s played against steroid ball and Nola and his peers are playing whiffle ball

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Once again, Nola's peers played against the same bats. Did McDonald or anyone else win back to back SEC POY and First team AA? That is a serious question

ETA: Aaron Nola is the first pitcher from any school to win back to back SEC POY That is a pretty strong case for him being the greatest

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jesus christ. nola has been SEC pitcher of the year twice. no one else has ever done that. that means nola was better than his peers two straight seasons. no other pitcher has been named the best of their peers for two straight seasons. the bats used is completely irrelevant. no one is comparing their stats and making a determination based on career ERAs.

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Jesus Christ, indeed. But to answer your last sentence, yes, plenty of people here are comparing their stats. And I didn't compare the bats - I compared the ball (which is frequently overlooked). Read.

Nola has the greatest mantle of all time. Fine. He has the greatest trophy case. Fine. That's not the freaking topic. The topic is simple: "Aaron Nola the greatest of all time?"

And I don't see how you can compare him to the GOATs because he's basically not even playing the same sport. The #2 HR team in the country this year was ULL and they've hit 66 so far. Or.... about 1/3 of the 97 team. We get a man on, no one out in the first inning and bunt now.

It's not the same game.

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ZERO of what you just posted has anything to do whether or not he is the best. Zero

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Zero? Zero? You quote a tiny portion and say Zero? Ok. Cool.

Aaron Nola is a very good pitcher but not the best I've seen in 30+ years at the Box.

Without Nola, LSU would have been a very disappointing team this year.

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Aaron Nola is a very good pitcher but not the best I've seen in 30+ years at the Box.

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Enlighten us if you don't mind, this means nothing if you give no examples esp to the younger generation.

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Without Nola, LSU would have been a very disappointing team this year.

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This is true.

In regards to this debate, its pointless to look at stats and compare them between Nola and McDonald. Both were GREAT pitchers... and when you are that good you will have crazy stats and numbers. You cant just go off of stats as the only deciding factor because neither player really has an advantage over the other statistically speaking.

That said, if I had to pick 1 pitcher from LSU to go out there and play in the biggest game of the year, I would take Aaron Nola. And thats because of how consistent he always was with his command and control on the mound, and how he never ever seemed rattled or nervous or lost his cool. And I think Nola had more endurance.

Nola went 30-6 in his career as a starter, with 52 game appearances, with a 2.09 ERA in 332 innings pitched and gave up 240hits, 77 earned runs, 4 wild pitches, 52 walks with 345 strike outs.

McDonald went 29-14 in his career as a starter, with 62 total appearances, with a 3.23ERA in 309innings pitched and gave up 263 hits, 111 earned runs, 20 wild pitches, 71 walks with 373 strike outs.

A few things that stand out to me: Nola made 10 less appearances in his career than McDonald, yet pitched 23 innings more than McDonald did in his career. 332 innings pitched in 52 appearances, Nola averaged 6.38 innings per appearance. McDonald, 4.98 inning pitcher per appearance. Nola was able to stay in games longer than McDonald...meaning Nola had more endurance.

The other thing that stood out to me was the difference in walks and wild pitches, which have nothing to do with the type of bat being used. Nola had 52 walks with 4 wild pitches in 332innings pitches. McDonald had 71walks (40 alone his last year at LSU) with 20 wild pitches in 309 innings pitched. McDonald almost had as many walks his JR and final year at LSU than Nola did his entire career. So, Nola pitched 23 more innings, but had 19 fewer walks and 16 fewer wild pitches than McDonald did. Better command and control out on the mound.

Oh, and in regards to the difference in the bats. Im not saying there isnt a difference, because there is, but some people in here are making it sound like it was a HUGE difference and teams were scoring 5 runs more back then than they are now, which just isnt true.... During McDonalds career, batting averages were at .295, scoring averages were 6.46, ERAs were 5.20, and Ks/9 were at 6.23. In 2013, batting averages were at .274, scoring averages were 5.27, ERAs were 4.38, and Ks/9 were 6.53. There is difference, but not a huge 1 like some people think. The only big difference was home runs.
And, if you take the difference in ERAs between the 2 time frames and subtract the difference from McDonalds ERA to see what his ERA would hypothetically be today, it would be a 2.41ERA. And you can add the difference to Nolas ERA to see what his ERA hypothetically would have been in the McDonald era and it would have been a 2.91ERA.

Both guys were amazing and the best pitcher in college baseball during their outstanding careers. You really cant go wrong with either. And I dont like threads like this because it makes it seem like you are bashing 1 player to praise another or something like that, and I dont think I did that but if someone thinks I did, i apologize because I didnt want it to seem like that. They are easily the top 2 pitchers in the history of LSU baseball IMO and you cant go wrong with either.

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"When he takes the mound, I think he is about as likely to keep LSU in the game - or as likely to shut the opposition down and give LSU a chance to win - as any pitcher we've ever had, and that would include Ben McDonald," former LSU coach Skip Bertman told The Advocate.

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As an Astros fan, I'd be very happy if he ends up in H-town.