Here is my full pitchers write-up.
Ok, here we go. Just a brief synopsis of why I drafted the team I have followed by a player by player breakdown of why I believe I have the best team in this draft. First, it is my belief that with all the legends at the plate, pitching becomes even more important. As a rule, great pitchers seem to come out slightly ahead when facing great hitters. Hitters always have slumps, pitchers rarely do. With that in mind I set out to draft the best pitching staff in this draft. I believe I did just that but it is unconventional and will require some explanations in my player write-ups. In the same vein, if batting suffers most in a great on great matchup then you need great batters to start with. Those were my goals in drafting my team. I tended to value batting average over power. Now, on to my players, first the pitchers.
Walter “Big Train” Johnson - I don’t need to say a lot about Big Train. Most baseball historians consider him the greatest pitcher ever. For his day he was a big man, 6’1” and over 200lbs with very long arms. To make matters worse, he threw with a sidearm delivery. Over his 21 year career he totaled 417-279 W/L, a 2.17 ERA, a 1.061 WHIP and 165.4 WAR. He also totaled 3509 strikeouts. In his best season, 1913, he went 36-7 with an ERA of 1.14 and a WHIP of .780. He was awarded the AL MVP for that season. The man was devastating on the mound, he even tamed The Babe. He normally worked on 3-4 days rest so I’ll start him in games 1, 4 and 7. I don’t think more needs to be said about Big Train. His awards and rankings are so long I won’t type it all, its at the bottom of the link. His numbers were staggering and obviously he is in the HOF.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnswa01.shtml
Satchel Paige - ah, the interesting pick. A brilliant pitcher who didn’t make it to be a MLB rookie until he was 42. Even after a shoulder injury and at that age Satchel was still a very good pitcher but that isn’t why I drafted him. When discussions of the best pitchers of all time happen, Satchel is always in the conversation. The Athletic just did a series this year on the top 100 baseball players of all time. Satchel came in 10th. Not 10th best pitcher, 10th best player. While we’ll never know the real stats of Satchel Paige we do have some and even more important, we have the opinions of legends of the game who played against him. For those who love stats
@UKNorse I’m talking to you, this is about all you can hope for In regards to Satchel.
https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2012/6/13/3079411/satchelpaige
This statement “Bob Feller seldom had an especially generous word to say about people who might have been considered as good as him,” said Tye. “The kinds of things that he told me in an interview that I expected to last 10 minutes and went on for 2 hours; The things that he told me made me think, that if Bob Feller thinks he might have been the greatest ever, who am I to disagree with him?”
Needless to say, when Bob Feller, a man some would argue deserves that title “Greatest Pitcher Ever” in his own right, says a man deserves that title, he probably deserves it. This legendary status among his peers is a large part of why Paige was the first of the Negro Leaguers to get the call to the Hall. That quote is from
https://sports.cbslocal.com/2016/02/09/satchel-paige-facts-greatest-pitcher-ever/ .
There are many others statements from the greats about Satchel. I don’t think it’s arguable that Satchel isn’t among the top 10 pitchers in history, likely the top 5. He was that good and that good for decades. He was the first from the Negro League to make the HOF and he was a 2x All-Star
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/paigesa01.shtml
Smoky Joe Wood - This is my flyer pick but I picked him for very good reasons. He threw on par with Walter Johson and almost certainly would have gone down in history as one of the elite pitchers to play the game. Unfortunately, he broke the thumb on his throwing hand before the 1913 season and it never healed properly. He toughed it out for 3 more seasons with brilliant results but the pain caused by the thumb caused him to take twice as long between starts to recover. He had a career 117-57 record, 2.03 ERA, 40.0 WAR and 1.087 WHIP. 1912 was his banner season as he went 34-5, giving him 1 of 7 30 win seasons in MLB history, with an ERA of 1.91. His best ERA season was his last as a pitcher, 1915, where he dominated with a 15-5 record and an ERA of 1.49. He still gets debated about with regards to the HOF, he was just that good but his career as a pitcher was just too short to get into the HOF. With Big Train, Satchel and Smoky Joe, I have no doubt I have 3 of the best pitchers who ever played the game. He was the 1912 AL MVP, 1915 AL pitching title, 3 seasons in the top 10 WAR for pitchers.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/woodjo02.shtml
Fergie Jenkins - Fergie was sort of Greg Maddox lite in his day. He wasn’t a power pitcher, he was a control pitcher and he was very good at it. You have to view his numbers in context. He spent his entire career on some of the worst teams in MLB history. I don’t think he was ever on a good team. As a result, some of his numbers don’t stand out but his ability was known. He is in the HOF, his career numbers are WAR 84.2, WHIP 1.142, 284-226 W-L, 3.34 ERA with 3192 strikeouts. He was a 3x All-Star and won the Cy Young in 1971, 8 seasons in the top 10 WAR for pitchers.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jenkife01.shtml
Rollie Fingers - He’s my closer. He has 1 AL MVP and a Cy Young and a 7x All-Star under his belt to go with his 341 saves. He was basically the first great closer and is in the HOF. Career Stats: 944 G (37 GS), 341 SV, 1,701 1/3 IP, 2.90 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 7.09 BB%, 18.71 K%. I found this description of his “peak”, “In 1971, Fingers moved midseason to the closer role. Starting in that next season, 1972, his first full season as a closer, until 1978, Fingers had a seven year run that was incredible. He led the league in saves twice, in games pitched three times, and he still posted a 2.58 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, and he threw an incredible 123 innings per season on average over those seven years!”.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fingero01.shtml
