Greatest Stuff of All Time

[Iconoclastic]

Eric Gagne has the best stuff of all time from a closer.

[thedude]

A couple guys come to mind:

Walter Johnson
Carl Hubbel
Koufax
Pedro

And there was this kid in the minors who had this fastball that everyone who saw him considered to be the fastest ever. His name escapes me...

[moose32]

1984-86 Doc Gooden

[J_Cuz]

One pitcher who had Koufax stuff but wasted his career was Gooden.
As far as player being better today -- whens last time you saw pitcher pitch 300+ innings ?

Lefty Carlton 1980.

24 wins 304IP 286K 2.34 ERA 1.10WHIP
won World Series

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leade ... gues.shtml

[chadlincoln]

Nobody will ever come close to Cy Young's win record of 512. You could win 20 games a year for 20 years and still be over 100 wins short. Different time and era for him, and doesn't mean he had the best stuff, but he set an amazing record.

[savvy_stu]

Nobody will ever come close to Cy Young's win record of 512. You could win 20 games a year for 20 years and still be over 100 wins short. Different time and era for him, and doesn't mean he had the best stuff, but he set an amazing record.

Nor will anyone ever touch his loss record.

[Tavish]

Pedro or Ryan. Ryan was the toughest guy to hit BA wise. Pedro is 3rd. Pedro is 3rd in whip, 1st in era+.

Ryan was tough to hit because he didn't through many pitches in the strikezone.

Koufax was the best period. He did it with two pitches only, fastball and unbelievable curve. Scoring a run against him was major achievement, two runs was a bad day for him and three runs meant he was rocked!

Scoring two runs against any ace pitcher was a bad day in the 60s. A 3.00 ERA out of your ace during that time meant your staff was in trouble.

[Simulacrum]

I think I read a story about Randy Johnson in Sports Illustrated many years ago that mentioned a game in which RJ's slider was really working. According to this story, after setting a lefty hitter up with one of his usual scorching fastballs, he then delivered his slider. The batter, thinking that this 90 mph pitch was coming straight at his head, dove out of the way. The slider then broke in for a called strike.

I never saw Koufax pitch, but I think we all can agree that that story is a strong example of the nastiness of RJ's slider.

I haven't been following baseball as long as I gather that you guys have, but I'll never forget watching Randy throw his perfect game against the Braves in 2004. I watched it from beginning to end and I'll never forget the way he whiffed Johnny Estrada to end the game. So awesome.

[Tavish]

I haven't been following baseball as long as I gather that you guys have, but I'll never forget watching Randy throw his perfect game against the Braves in 2004. I watched it from beginning to end and I'll never forget the way he whiffed Johnny Estrada to end the game. So awesome.

Almost as awesome as Randy telling PETA to "go to hell".

[Simulacrum]

That was another classic Randy moment.