Will any pitchers in ATGIII be Pete-like?

[Ruths ruffians]

When you have Pete on your team in this league, you automatically have an advatantage especially if you get in to the playoffs. I am wondering what pithers amung the new cards will be like Pete or close to it.

Dean

[ADRIANGABRIEL]

Probably not, but Addie Joss will be Three Finger-like.

[Mr Baseball World]

68 Gibson if we get that one?

[Roosky]

If they give us a good walter johnson year.

[Ruths ruffians]

I wonder if there is a better Left Grove year than the one that we have. Bill James in his statistical book has Grove rated I think 2nd to Walter on the all time pitchers list ahead of Pete.

Dean

[Ruths ruffians]

I was noticing that the 1912 Red Sox that had Speaker had Smokey Joe Wood who was 34-5 with a 1.91 era and Hugh Bedient who was 20-9. Looks like two pretty good studs that would be good. Not sure if they are coming or were they with another team that is coming. Not sure.

Dean

[Roosky]

1931 was grove's best year. He had a 2.06 ERA, and that was during the rabbit ball era.

I would love to see us get the 1913 senators, they won 90 games and Johnson went 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA and a .78 WHIP. Now that would be a dream come true for munich_man.

[Mr Baseball World]

1908 for Ed Walsh or 08 or 09 for Christy Mathewson would be pretty good. Joss in 08 also but we already got the 06 version so that one will not be included.

The 13 Johnson card. the 12 Wood. :D

Rotation:

15 Alexander
13 Johnson
08 Walsh
09 Mathewson

Works for me. :D

[The Last Druid]

'68 Gibson is not that great a card. Lefties ruin it.

A most interesting statistic is lifetime adjusted era. This is obtained through the usual statistical normalization process for each year. The results are directly analagous to IQ's. Thus 115 is 1 standard deviation above the mean, 130 is 2, 145 is 3. Excluding active players here is the top all time guys and their scores:

1. Grove 148
Johnson 147
Wilhelm 146
Walsh 145
Joss 142
Nichols 139
Young 138
Brown 137
Matthewson 136
Pete 135
Waddell 135

Koufax is 131 but obviously only had about five great years and a mediocore early career.

I mention this as Pete clearly has the best card of any pitcher currently. His adjusted era that year is an amazing 225. Let's see if any of the other pitchers can come close.

The Big Train that we use was a 148 in 1924. However his 1913 season was better than any Pete ever had. That adjusted era was a 258 (actual era was 1.14). Johnson had three other years that were 215 or greater. Pete's next best year was a 171. Johnson was a better pitcher than Pete. Period. Give us a card that reflects this.

Grove is often considered the best pitcher ever. Not by me but still. His ATG card sure doesn't reflect this. Now he did pitch in a really bad era for pitchers. But the season we get is a 151. His best year was '31 when he racked up a 218. But I don't think there will ever be a great Grove card. Good strat cards are based on WHIP and Slg. Pct. Although he led the league in era 9 times his whips aren't that good, just an artifact of when he played.

Our Matty's card is not very good. And he played in the dead ball era. His adjusted era for 1911 was 169. But he was past his peak and gave up about a hit per inning. However in 1905 and 1909 he had 223 and 230 adjusted eras. His actual eras from those years were 1.28 and 1.14. And his whips those years were superb too.

Joss only pitched 9 seasons. He had a great era but that is because he retired in 1910. However, the only year he had a adjusted era above 159 was a 205 in 1908. Still he is a welcome addition.

Gibson's 68 season was 258. Not too shabby. Gooden '85 was 227. I think the best ever for a season was our Eckersley card at 607. The '78 Guidry we are getting is 208 (the only year he ever broke 140). Our Koufax is only a 160. His best years were 187 and 191 from '64 and '66 respectively.

These adjusted era's are not the definitive stat for pitchers. But they do put the pitcher's performance in the right context relative to the years they played.

So let's see a few guys with 200+ seasons.

And let's dethrone Pete who certainly isn't on my list of top five pitchers for either career or peak seasons.

[mikemartinfl]

good stuff