Greatest Pitcher Ever

Got touched on in the Seaver RIP threads. Who was the best pitcher of all time. Cy Young, poppycock. To my mind, there are four candidates

1. Walter Perry Johnson. 417 wins for a team that sucked ass for 75% of his career. The Big Train would have had 900 wins if he had pitched for the A's, Giants, Cubs or any team the could hit the ball. He won 33 games for the 1912 Nationals no one can name another player on that team. I got two names that stick out to me, Clyde Milan and the crook Chick Gandil. the 1912 Nationals won 91 games, probably don't win 65 w/o Johnson (he closed 13 games!). One of the cases where win totals for pitchers does count

2. Robert Moses Grove. Lefty. 300 wins on the button 2266 K's. But was "robbed" of probably 80-100 wins and 900 K's. If you don't know the story, Grove was kept in the minors for four years when he could have easily been on a major league roster. The owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, Jack Dunn, got burned once when he sold a pitcher named George Ruth to the Red Sox in 1914. he vowed never to do it again and kept Lefty for years until pressure from Kennesaw Landis and a $100,600 check from Connie Mack changed his mind. Mack used him in relief a lot and he pitched in a more hitting dominant era than Johnson.

3. Sanford Koufax. The Left Arm of God. 165 wins, are you shitting me? Koufax had not one but two albatrosses tied to his neck. First, the "Bonus Baby Rule". When he signed, the rules stated that any player signed for a huge bonus had to stay on the major league roster for two years. Killed many prospects, totally unready to play, their skills atrophied on the bench. Certainly hurt Koufax. Then the Dodgers kept bouncing him from the bullpen to the rotation. But, from 1962-1966, he was the best of all time. Look at the batters he had to face on a daily basis. Mays, Aaron, McCovey, Mathews, Banks, Stargell, Clemente, Robinson. Rose, Allen, et al. The Dodgers then ran him into the ground. He threw 154 pitches in an exhibition in 1966 when the Dodgers knew his arm was falling off.

4. Gregory Alan Maddox. In the era he pitched in, astonishing. Unbelievable. But he made it look so easy. Look at Johnson, Grove and Koufax (not to mention Seaver, Carlton, Gibson, Marichal) and how violently they threw. Maddux looked like he was tossing BP. Yet he got chemically enhanced freaks out every damned day. In context, Maddux from 1992-1995 might rival Koufax from 1962-1966.

I've thought forever that Koufax was the man, then Johnson and Grove. But, the more I think, the more I'm convinced that Greg Maddux was the best ever.