Reply #33: Sorry

[sir_captain]

but you're wrong. Ryan gave up almost 5 walks per nine innings. That is very bad. Through 2005, Randy Johnson has walked 2.8/9 innings. That's 2 fewer base runners *every* game. Johnson's WHIP and ERA+ are also vastly superior to Ryan's. Johnson also actually has a higher K/9 ratio than Ryan, believe it or not (though it's very close.) Bob Gibson's BB/9 is 2.9, also much, much better than Ryan's. And all 3 guys have exactly the same HR/9 ratio--.7.

Look, I'm not trying to kill Ryan. He had some awesome years and was an awesome pitcher. But if we're talking about the very best, we have to look at the numbers and do it rationally. And by any reasonable statistical measure, Ryan was not as good as his reputation. On any given day, he could be the most dominating pitcher ever--but over the course of a season, he was going to have a lot of bad games too.