Definitely going to miss a slash line of .127/.167/.160/.326 coming to bat with runners in scoring position but I’m sure the Cubs will adapt.
He is always near the top of my best pitchers of all time list. W-L is a garbage stat and always has been, imho.
Lot of walks and home runs. Not a stellar ERA at a time of really low ERAs. I doubt he would be in my top 20. Definitely not Top 10. My first baseball games was a double header in 1988. Braves faced Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan. Dale Murphy won the first game with a homer to right and the second game with a walk-off single. Edit: Murphy hit a go ahead homer in the bottom of the 8th.
Not as hot of a take as I initially thought. He’s #20 all-time in WAR, definitely thought he was higher.
I just looked and Bill James had him ranked him 33rd in 2007, which I think is going a little too far. 5000 strikeouts and umpteen no hitters has to mean something. Based on his list, I think I'm right having him in the 20 range. I don't discount the old timers though. Everything is relative to competition.
They really need a pre 1920 and post 1920 list. Dead ball and live ball eras are completely different, and Cy Young being #1 with a bullet seems iffy to me.
You are right because pitchers in the dead ball era could afford to take it easy and get a lot more innings. That said, WAR compares players to others in their era. So the dead ball pitchers you are seeing were THAT much better than their peers.
