Pedro Martinez is filthy

[twballgame9]

They just showed a sequence of pitches where he was throwing fastballs, starting at 86, and ending at 91-93. Each pitch on the pitch tracker moved like 8 inches. The pitch tracker line looked like a parabola.

Amazing how some dudes just have great life on their pitches.

[twballgame9]

Best pitcher of my lifetime. Period. Attacking hitters after 130 pitches. Just awesome, vintage Pedro. Glad I watched this game.

[claver2010]

Best pitcher I've ever seen and numbers back him up as the best ever.

[twballgame9]

The only guy that comes close is Maddux. Maddux and Pedro put up numbers that look like guys from dead ball eras, and they did it in the height of the steroid era. I think that they occupy like 9 places between them on the list of top 10 ERAs below the league average. When Pedro had his 1.75 ERA, the league average was in the 5s. When Gibson had his 1.12 ERA, the league average was about 2.5

[Endless Mike]

Watching Pedro pitch live is one of those "Someday I'll be telling my grandkids about this" moments.

[twballgame9]

Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Top Ten Starting Pitchers Of All Time (By ERA+)
Last week I looked at the top 10 OPS+ of all time, so this week I'm looking at the top 10 ERA+ which is basically ERA normalized to era (ERA/era. HA!)

Of course as you'll see by who is ranked #1, career ERA+ doesn't take into consideration stamina or longevity. It's only a measurement of how good a pitcher is while they are actually pitching!

#1 Pedro Martinez (160)

Martinez has had more than his share of injury problems over the years but when he's been healthy he has been better than anyone. Ever. Along with holding the record for the greatest ERA+ of all time, he also holds the record for greatest single season ERA+. His mark of 290 in 2000 is astounding. It basically means his ERA was nearly THREE TIMES lower than an average pitcher that year. To get a better idea of how overpowering he was in 2000, look at these numbers: 284 strikeouts, 32 walks. 2000 wasn't his only great year of course. He has actually had an amazing 6 seasons with an ERA+ of over 200. In other words, he's had 6 seasons where he was more than twice as good as an average pitcher.

#2 Lefty Grove (148)

Grove was never as overwhelmingly awesome as Martinez has been as he only made it over an ERA+ of 200 once (219 in 1931) but he was a more consistent pitcher. He made it to the career mark of 300 wins (with 141 losses) which Martinez looks increasingly unlikely to reach as he continues to have injury problems.

#3 Walter Johnson (147)

His career ERA of 2.17 is quite ridiculous but of course you must consider (and ERA+ does) that he played a large portion of his career in the "dead ball" era when sub 3.00 ERAs were the norm. To give you an idea of just how dead the dead ball era was, in 1908 the league average (American League) ERA was 2.29! But even taking that into consideration, Johnson was an overpowering pitcher. He had 4 seasons with an ERA+ over 200.

#4 Ed Walsh (146)

Walsh's career ERA is an even more ridiculous 1.82 (he is the all time leader in career ERA) but he pitched his entire career in the dead ball era (he retired in 1917.) To give an idea of how insane things were back then, in 1910 Walsh had a 1.27 ERA and an 18-20 record! Walsh only had 7 full seasons (more than 25 starts) in his career.

#4 Joe Wood (146)

Wood spent his entire career (except for 2 innings pitched in 1920) in the dead ball era as well. He actually only had 2 seasons with more than 30 starts. One of those was 1912 which was easily his greatest season. He had a 34-5 record with a 1.91 ERA that year and won the World Series MVP award. Wood retired at the age of 30 in 1920 due to injury problems which never allowed him to fully make good on the promise he had shown in 1911 and 1912. Walter Johnson and Satchel Paige both claimed that Wood threw faster than any other pitcher of their time.

#6 Brandon Webb (144)

Webb has only pitched 5 seasons thus far and his career high ERA+ (thus far) actually came in his rookie year in 2003 when his 2.84 ERA was good for an ERA+ of 165. He won the Cy Young award in 2006 with a 16-8 record and a 3.10 ERA.

#7 Roger Clemens (143)

Clemens has had one of the most impressive careers of any pitcher in baseball's history. He won 7 Cy Young awards during his career while piling up 354 wins and 4672 strikeouts. He had 3 seasons with an ERA+ over 200 ('90, '97, '05) which were incredibly spread out over 15 years.

#8 Addie Joss (142)

Joss's career was only 9 seasons long. He retired in 1910 at the age of 30 due to illness and that took his life the following year. His best year was 1908 when he went 24-11 with a ridiculous 1.16 ERA (for an ERA+ of 205, the league average was 2.39!)

#8 Johan Santana (142)

He's only had 4 complete seasons as a starter but his career is already shaping up as one of the all time greats. His peak year thus far was 2004 when he went 20-6 with a 2.61 ERA (182 ERA+) Mets fans are hoping he surpasses those numbers this year.

#10 Roy Oswalt (141)

Oswalt has been very consistent so far in his career. His ERA+ has never been below 125. His peak ERA+ was actually his rookie year in 2000 when he had a 2.73 ERA for a 169 ERA+.

[BCEagle74]

The old site the guys that I thought the Rangers should pick up, but little did I know they were 4 flushing cheapskates and bankrupt.

Fuentes, Martinez and Dunn.

All 3 had monster career years.

I had Pedro in my ESPN pool.

I would sign him for 3 years the first day of free agent mania.

[BCEagle74]

A list without Bob Gibson and Koufax is bogus, no matter what the criteria.

[twballgame9]

A list without Bob Gibson and Koufax is bogus, no matter what the criteria.

The point is that Joe Shitbag fourth starter had a 2.78 ERA in the 1960s. ERA+ measures how good you are compared to the rest of the league. Pedro was helped by the watered down pitching, but he had a season where his ERA was THREE TIMES BETTER than the league average. In other words, while the was tossing a 1.80 ERA he rest of the league was throwing up and average 5.40. That is absolutely disgusting.

And while Pedro is compared to watered down staffs, Gibson and Koufax pitched in an era when dudes were winning the triple crown with .300 averages and 40 HRs. The mound was higher as well. And both of those guys FACED PITCHERS one out of every 9 at bats in a game.

[claver2010]

What Koufax did for those 5 years is probably the best 5 year period ever.

114-34 1.95 ERA, 275 innings/year, 289 K's/year.

[twballgame9]

What Koufax did for those 5 years is probably the best 5 year period ever.

114-34 1.95 ERA, 275 innings/year, 289 K's/year.

Pedro Martinez, 1997 to 2003, excluding 2001 for injury (6 years):

3 Cy Youngs, 2 second place and a third place.

111-33, 2.19 ERA, 215 IP/year, 266 K/year (think about the Ks in the number of innings pitched - ratio is an astounding 11.14 K/IP). 4 of those 6 years, he had a WHIP UNDER 1.00, including one year where he had a WHIP of .737. In 4 of those years he gave up single digit HRs.

[BCEagle74]

As least Sandy or Bob didn't travle with a pet midget.

Like WTF was that?

[branchinator]

I don't think many people truly appreciate just how good Pedro was in his prime. His fastball reached in the high 90s, his changeup fell off a table, and his curveball had amazing movement on it. And he'd throw any of those pitches in any count. He was so good that whenever he gave up a HR, you felt violated. It's going to be very tough for any NL team to beat the Phils this year with Hamels, Lee, and Pedro and that lineup. Of course, their bullpen may do them in this year since Lidge is awful now.

[Endless Mike]

As least Sandy or Bob didn't travle with a pet midget.

Like WTF was that?

Watch what you say about Bani!