[bonds20001]

Paige...overall..and no one really knows how old he was..would have set all the records if he was allowed to play when he was a youngster..
He probably would be the one everyone chases for the record books.

However, selecting one pitcher is almost impossible..stretched over 100 + years of baseball, in different eras, different rules, different hitter weapons..maybe I can list the best in each category..

So, as the ? was asked, it has to be Paige as the best ever..

As a teacher once said.."Do not over think it..just answer the question asked!!"

[gherkin1496]

Pedro's 1999 and 2000 seasons are just downright nasty seasons. So he was the best i ever saw

---

but best ever has to be walter johnson.

[thepozr]

My grandpa always talked about Koufax and how great he was. I'm 37 and I was always a Braves fan, so I always thought Maddux was the best ever. However, when my grandpa gave me my first Koufax card, I became a fan and started reading more about him. Just look at his last 4 years pitched. That says it all for me. Too bad his career was cut short.

[zeprock]

I'm gonna take the Big Train, Walter Johnson. Johnson led the league in strikeouts 11 times! ERA 5 times and wins 6 times all the while pitching for a team not known to contend. He won the pitching triple crown 3 times, threw a no-hitter, threw over 50 consecutive scoreless innings, won two Most Valuable Player Awards and a World Championship. He's in the Hall of Fame and was selected to the All-Century team. Over 400 wins with a .599 winning percentage, 110 shutouts and over 3500 strikeouts. If they'd handed out Cy Young Awards in his day, I bet he'd have won 7 or 8 of them. Walter Johnson.

[stera8]

Satchel Paige. All time. Everything jacoby says I agree with

Last great career pitcher - maddux because his knowledge and control is ridiculous.

[newfiecomicguy1]

I only starting watching in the late 70's so I never really saw the old legends. IMO Greg Maddux is the best that I saw. He had incredible control and was fantastic at fielding.

[jacobystealshome]

I only starting watching in the late 70's so I never really saw the old legends. IMO Greg Maddux is the best that I saw. He had incredible control and was fantastic at fielding.

oh yeah...maddux is maybe the best fielding pitcher the game ever saw. he was incredible

[dallas_collecter84]

Walter Johnson is the best pitcher ever in my opinion. I read a story about him once:

A batter stepped into the box(I don't remember the hitter) against him. Walter Johnson fired two fastball strikes past the guy without him taking a swing. When the man started to walk away, the ump called out to the batter, " you still have one left." The batter replied, " I don't want it, you can't hit what you can't see."

When there are stories like that out there about him, I can't imagine anyone else being the best ever.

[Phillies_Joe]

All players must be compared to thier how they performed aginst contempemoraries. Saying player "A" was better then player "B" when they played in different era's by comparing thier statistics is misleadinging. For my money....give me Pedro Martinez at his height with the R Sox. An ERA 2.50->3.00 runs per game less than the leaguge average....who is your daddy indeed!

I am not a Sox fan.........

[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.