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Post by sharksrog on Feb 17, 2013 21:01:50 GMT -5
According to John Thorn, the official historian of major league baseball, most think the best pitching in major league history came in the dead ball era of Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and "Three-Finger" Brown. Not so, says Thorn.
Thorn says the best pitching in major league baseball was -- or actually IS -- right now. As Thorn puts it, today's pitching is so much better than even 40 years ago. No longer can a hitter look for just two primary pitches. No longer can he look for a fastball when the pitcher is behind in the count.
According to Thorn, who is officially "in the know" on these things, we are seeing better pitching today than ever before.
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Post by allenreed on Feb 18, 2013 12:03:02 GMT -5
Who "officially" certified him as being in the know? His is an opinion, and you know what they say about opinions. I still have to go with the 60s, which has been designated as the decade of the pitcher. But of course, that's just my opinion.
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donk
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by donk on Feb 18, 2013 13:32:04 GMT -5
According to John Thorn, the official historian of major league baseball, most think the best pitching in major league history came in the dead ball era of Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and "Three-Finger" Brown. Not so, says Thorn. Thorn says the best pitching in major league baseball was -- or actually IS -- right now. As Thorn puts it, today's pitching is so much better than even 40 years ago. No longer can a hitter look for just two primary pitches. No longer can he look for a fastball when the pitcher is behind in the count. dk..I don't know what the heck ths guy is talking about...70 years ago I threw 5 different pitches and from 3 different release points......poor example,but no one got by with 2 pitches... According to Thorn, who is officially "in the know" on these things, we are seeing better pitching today than ever before. dk..if you like guys throwing one inning, maybe....but I don't think that is the case....the pitchers in the 30's and 40's had to have control and stamina..no longer a part of baseball....and the myth that players come to camp in better condition is BS....pitchers would come to camp and be in good enough shape to throw 3 innings in games..not so today...also, pitchers would throw a complete game before the season started..... Nice to see that the Giants have convinced Tim he has to keep his rear foot against the rubber and follow thru over his front foot...seems like that was my advise 3 years ago...and the final word was to get control and pitch to contact....wow.... |
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donk
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by donk on Feb 18, 2013 13:32:29 GMT -5
According to John Thorn, the official historian of major league baseball, most think the best pitching in major league history came in the dead ball era of Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and "Three-Finger" Brown. Not so, says Thorn. Thorn says the best pitching in major league baseball was -- or actually IS -- right now. As Thorn puts it, today's pitching is so much better than even 40 years ago. No longer can a hitter look for just two primary pitches. No longer can he look for a fastball when the pitcher is behind in the count. dk..I don't know what the heck ths guy is talking about...70 years ago I threw 5 different pitches and from 3 different release points......poor example,but no one got by with 2 pitches... According to Thorn, who is officially "in the know" on these things, we are seeing better pitching today than ever before. dk..if you like guys throwing one inning, maybe....but I don't think that is the case....the pitchers in the 30's and 40's had to have control and stamina..no longer a part of baseball....and the myth that players come to camp in better condition is BS....pitchers would come to camp and be in good enough shape to throw 3 innings in games..not so today...also, pitchers would throw a complete game before the season started..... Nice to see that the Giants have convinced Tim he has to keep his rear foot against the rubber and follow thru over his front foot...seems like that was my advise 3 years ago...and the final word was to get control and pitch to contact....wow.... |
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sfgdood
Long time member 
stats geeks never played the game...that's why they don't get it and never will
Posts: 90
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Post by sfgdood on Feb 18, 2013 13:37:29 GMT -5
threads like this are pointless and comes down to mostly guesswork since everyone here with the possible exception of Donk has not been alive to witness all eras of pitching.
~Dood
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Post by sharksrog on Feb 19, 2013 13:03:18 GMT -5
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Post by sharksrog on Feb 19, 2013 13:29:36 GMT -5
Randy -- threads like this are pointless and comes down to mostly guesswork since everyone here with the possible exception of Donk has not been alive to witness all eras of pitching. Rog -- Sorry your perspective is so limited, Randy. Clearly there is no one alive who has seen every pitcher or even close to it. When I heard John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball, say that the pitching of today was far better than even 40 years ago, I found that meaningful. That is just his opinion, of course, but if baseball certified him as its official historian, they must think his historical context is pretty good. One can look at pitching -- or any other sport -- in different ways, of course. It is indeed likely that pitching, hitting and fielding have improved and continue to improve over the history of baseball. But I choose to judge the top pitchers on how they compared to their peers. I suspect Walter Johnson wouldn't fare nearly as well if he pitched today, but I consider him to be the greatest pitcher ever. Over 12 straight seasons, Walter NEVER put up an ERA above 2.22. (Mariano Rivera's career ERA is 2.21.) Eleven of those 13 seasons his ERA was 1.90 or less, and it was 1.55 or less in 6 of them. Including a low of 1.14. Yes, we're talking about the dead ball era, and ERA's were lower than. But the average AL ERA over this period ranged from 2.38 to 3.30. Over that 12-year period, Walter's ERA wasn't a whole lot more than half the league average over the period. Yes, it was the dead ball era, but Walter gave up just 0.1 homers per nine innings. In nearly 6000 innings, he gave up fewer than 100 homers. Walter is second all-time with 417 wins (despite playing for a crummy Washington Senators team). He walked just 2.1 batter per nine innings, yet his 3509 strikeouts remained the record for half a century and still rank 9th all-time. I don't think Walter compares to today's pitchers. Over much of his career, he threw only a fastball. But for his era, I don't think there has ever been anyone better. Now, if you don't want to think about things such as this, OK. But don't call such discussions pointless. If so, you might as well forget about Babe Ruth. And in your case, perhaps Willie Mays as well. If you remember Mays at all from seeing him play, you don't remember the Willie Mays who was perhaps the 2nd-best player of all time. Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1563&page=1#ixzz2LMy2hWrE |
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Post by sharksrog on Feb 19, 2013 13:31:18 GMT -5
If this thread is pointless, baseball history is pointless. I'm having a hard time believing it.
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