[ellis2211]

I believe the objective of pitching is to prevent runs from being scored which would bring in the ERA factor, however, in reality the real objective is to prevent the opportunity to score runs, so I think WHIP is a more important statistic in measuring a true pitchers value. At first I thought Rivera would be my selection, but as I thought about it more, Mo had the advantage of coming in one inning (sometimes more) at a time in which the batters have had 7 or 8 innings of another pitcher's timing. Believing that timing is everything in hitting, I have to go with a starting pitcher who typically faced a batter 3 times before being removed. With all of that said, I must go with Pedro Martinez who led the league in WHIP 6 times and finished in the top 5 ten times. I'll take the contemporary guy who walked and gave up hits to the fewest number of guys per inning over anybody else since 1917 excluding Rivera.