Greatest baseball player of all time?

Hard to narrow it down to a single greatest baseball player ever. By position may be doable. Most interesting choice listed here would be Pedro Martinez. I get that choice, but there are so many other infamous names that would come to mind more immediately- and, I don't even follow baseball THAT closely.

 

For one season Louisiana Lightning Ron Guidry had the greatest season I've ever seen. 25-3 in 1977 and won his first 13 games.

 

right, hes not a big name like a griffey or koufax but he was as much if not more dominant than anyone in the modern era. during the height of steroids when people like brady anderson were hitting 50 jacks and bonds and mcgwire 70 plus.

I cannot explain how dominant this bastard was. I remember he was traded to the expos from the dodgers for a bag of sunflower seeds (delino deshields).


try to find anything comparable from the modern era. im not sure anything comes close across the stat line. greg maddux would be closest but not near as dominant power wise and clearly opposite ends of the spectrum in the postseason where maddux could never finish a big game or get a W (where power pitchers are more effective). randy johnson would be close as well but wild as hell inflating all his important numbers.

Pedro, 1997-03: 2.20 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 11.3 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 W/L 219-100

less than a 1 whip is insane. barely a 2 era. and nolan ryan didnt even average 10ks per 9 for his career much less 11.3 for a 7 yr stretch.

got me looking up stats thinking about this.

The all-time leader in this statistic is retired pitcher Randy Johnson (10.61 k/9). The only two other players who have averaged over 10 are Kerry Wood (10.32) and Pedro Martínez (10.03).

nolan ryan averaged 11 k/9 twice in his 27 yr career. pedro struck out 13.21 k/9 in '99 and 12.57 k/9 in '01 plus 5 other years over 10+. thats pretty insane.

he wasnt my favorite player at all but watching him for that decade or so was the equivalent of michael jordans dominance in basketball.

 

thats craziness. i remember hearing about it as a baseball fan and saw a documentary which covered it but id forgotten how crazy his record was. how many innings did he throw that season? 300?

wasnt his era 1.something?

 

Cobb was great by all accounts and a hellion . Just a miserable person even his teammates hated him. However I think he batted over. 400 4 years straight and stole a million bases. Pete rose eventually broke his hit record.

 

I think if measured on accomplishment Babe Ruth has to be at the top. As a pitcher he set records that have only recently been eclipsed. As a hitter he changed the game single handedly. Before him baseball was a single, steal, sacrifice game. He brought power hitting to baseball.
Was he the best athlete? Probably not...or maybe considering how much he ate drank and partied while acomplishing his feats.

 

It was 1978, not 1977 that Rod Guidry had the monster year

25-3
ERA 1.75
IP 273.2
SO 248
BB 72

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Did he ever have another season close to that. 25-3 is insane even though win loss is more indicative of the team you're on.

And 200 innings is the measure of a workhorse nowadays. He almost went 300.

 

There is one story that says the yanks had a game, maybe a double header and couldn't find the babe. They sent some goons looking and they found him face down in a gutter. Think he hit like 3 Homers or something to that effect. Had a monster day.