2016 MLB Regular-Season Thread

The motivational ploy of suggesting Chris Young shouldn't start worked well with a nice assist from Dick.

 

Did you really just judge a pitcher's career based entirely on wins and losses?

 

Not saying you are wrong, but can you provide some actual stats that matter.

 

This is a helluva of a throw by Puig:

 

Well, how about only one season with an ERA below 2, and that was a year in which he only made 21 starts.

 

Cubs have a +67 run differential 1/10th of the way through the season. Ridonkulous.

On the flip side, Braves have a team total of 3 home runs this season. In their first 13 ABs of the year, they had 2. Since then, 1 team home run in 15 and a half games.

 

No. But you can't completely ignore wins and losses, either.

Ryan never had a single season that could compare in "dominance" to Arrieta the last one-plus season or the last four seasons of Koufax's career.

He also led the league in walks eight times. That is not "dominant" at all. He started to pitch with control later in his career -- didn't lead the league in walks once over his last 11 seasons. But over those 11 seasons his best ERA was 2.76. Arrieta's last year was 1.77, a full run-per-game better. Koufax's worst ERA in his last four years was 2.06, and he led the NL in ERA each of his last five seasons. Ryan led the league in ERA twice in 27 seasons, one of those years being the year he only made 21 starts.

Ryan could dominate on any given start, but he didn't consistently dominate the way Arrieta has the last season-plus or the way Koufax dominated for four straight seasons.

 

Ryan probably was a better PITCHER once he hit 40, because he cut down on his walks. He did lead his league in strikeouts from age 40 through 43, which is pretty amazing. But back in the '70s, when Ryan was in his alleged peak years, the book on him was that because of lack of control, he could be had. Maybe he'd strike out 16 of you and pitch a two-hitter, but maybe if you swung hard, you'd hit one or more of those fastballs in the strike zone out of the park. One of the most memorable homers I ever saw came off Ryan in 1974 at Fenway. Yaz hit a liner that went the center tunnel of the bleachers on the fly. That's a 400 footer that never went more than about 12 feet off the ground.
An all-time great, but an odd phenomenon. In essence, he was a classic high school fireballer with no control, and he was able to succeed with that formula at the big league level for 25 years.

 

Yes, you can. You can conetely ignore wins and losses.

 

Maybe you can NOW, Dick, but in the 1970s, they were a more accurate reflection of starter performance because starters went longer. Take a gander at Ryan's complete games in those days.

 

Lots of 1-0 and 2-1 losses. He stinks.

 

No, he played for one of the worst hitting teams of all time, the early '70s Angels. It's the total number of decisions that's most significant. To me, the high total of wins AND losses means Ryan was seen as his team's best chance of winning no matter what the game situation was. In the opinion of a bunch of different managers, Ryan was his team's best pitcher in the 7th, 8th and 9th no matter who was in the bullpen. That's a tribute to him, not denigration.