Most overrated baseball player of all time

Itals indicate arguable point. Strikethroughs indicate "are you outta your mind?" Those left alone, I have no argument about. That adds up to six on your list who I think you're solid on.

 

I don't have them ranked, but these pitchers were all better than Nolan Ryan:

Lefty Grove
Roger Clemens
Greg Maddux
Warren Spahn
Cy Young
Walter Johnson
Randy Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Grover Cleveland Alexander
Jim Palmer
Bob Feller
Bob Gibson
Pedro Martinez
Tom Seaver
Steve Carlton

That's 15, so I was off-base when I said Ryan doesn't make the top 20 all-time.  He does, just barely.  IMO, of course - and you're welcome to present an argument for Ryan being better than any of the above pitchers.

 

Not what the Hall of Fame's about. And with the way stats are twisted in hundreds of ways, it shouldn't be. OPS will never get anyone into the Hall, and that's a good thing.

 

For the guys you left a strikethrough, ask yourself this: would you rather have their best season or Ryan's? Find me any season the equal of Maddux's 93-98. Or Gibson's 1968. Or Pedro's run in Boston.

 

Calm down, Tex.  I'm not "reveling" in anything, I just thought this would be a fun discussion.

 

1. How often was he on? Was he on as often as Clemens or even Pedro?
2. I said that there some degree of skill to it and it wasn't completely luck. But, yes, luck plays a large role. If Ryan gives up seven more seeing eye singles in his career, are we having this discussion?

 

But it took him a long, long time to rack up all those strikeouts. He sucks! [/ragu and other flapjacks]

 

And if he gave up 12 fewer, then you're talking about 19 no-hitters.

 

And if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.

: : : : : : : : : : : : :

 

Tell him to stay away from the pool table and keep quiet about hating on Nolan Ryan.

 

And 19 magical nights do not make a career. One absolutely amazing night every year (I'm sure he had other amazing games where he pitched as well as he did in the no-hitters but luck did not go his way) does not make you one of the 10 greatest pitchers of all time.

 

Sure, he was harder to hit than anyone who ever played the game (#1 all time in hits per 9 innings).  But in actually preventing runs, Ryan wasn't anywhere near the best all-time.  You can look it up - his career ERA+ (ERA relative to league average) was 112, far from the all-time leaders.