ATG Pitcher Card Addition Poll

As a general rule if a pitcher was in league less than 10 years or had losing career record with the suggested card only good year tended to say unimportant.

The Koufax request made me think. Another good year from Koufax. But is it really any different from the two we already have? Still I listed it as important. But wouldn't it be interesting to have one of the early Koufax years when he had less than 200 innings and thus would not have the *. People building full 5 man rotations would then have Sandy as an option. Perhaps the 1960 card. And speaking of Sandy how did it take the Dodgers 6 years to decide he belonged in the rotation every 5th day?

As I near the bottom of the pitcher list I am beginning to wonder. Are these really the top candidates for addition?
I mean Hong-Chih? What about him makes anyone think all time great?

Is 200 innings the magic number to get a SP* rating? I did a search of the 2007-2011 pitchers by IP and seems like there's a soft gray line between 190-200 IP that separates the 4-man rotation pitchers from the 5-man, except for Cliff Lee S8 212.1 IP in 2010, for some reason.

But If I do the same sort for ATG pitchers, that boundary is much more fuzzy. I find Nolan Ryan S6* (1986) 178.0, Bret Saberhagen S8* (1994) 177.1, Bruce Hurst S6* (1986) 174.1, David Cone S7* (1994) 171.2 and Bob Feller S9* (1954) 140.0 below 190 IP as 4-man rotation guys, but nearly two full pages of results for 5-man rotation pitchers greater than 190 IP, topped by Paul Dean S9/R5 (1934) 233.1,Bob Shaw S7/R4 (1959) 230.2, Red Ames S7/R5 (1916) 228.0, Orval Overall S9/R5 (1906) 226.1 and Ernie Broglio S9/R5 (1960) 226.1.

It's confusing to me. What's the actual standard? Games started?

I'm actually of the opinion that the set is substantial as is. I only look to add players who we either don't have, or don't have a representative card. I personally am not that interested in adding more pre-1900 pitchers, and as far as the 2000 and up guys, other than maybe the Verlander 2011, I don't care if we add those guys or not. I would rather see a sprinkling of more recent cards, if at all. You can play 20xx if you want; those cards are there.

I play LOTS of Franchise Leagues, so my thinking is skewed from that angle more than most. Of these pitchers, the 82 Andujar (his 85 card is not very good), Jose Mesa (closed for those good 1990s Indians teams), a good representative Andy Pettite, 81 Fernando Valenzuela (the Fernandomania season, though I would bet he woudnt be a *), 73 Tom Seaver (just hoping for a more dominant Seaver card, but I'm afraid like Feller and Palmer, for some reason Strat doesn't transfer how dominant they were)

It's confusing to me. What's the actual standard? Games started?

The 35 start, 200 inning rule is pretty reliable. Exceptions are made if a pitcher had a workload for a partial season that otherwise would have got him to the 35/200 cutoff with a full season.

Factors that might get a pitcher with less than 35/200 might be injuries or strike shortened seasons. Maybe midseason callup would qualify. It probably helps if the pitcher in question has a track record of high inning totals. Strat might "grandfather" in a pitcher who had been an * pitcher for a decade and then had a GS or inning dropoff.

Bottom line in the end it is a judgement call by Strat. So for all I know if I worked for Strat and was in charge of compiling a season's ratings Feller being my favorite pitcher would be good enough.

While on the subject of judgement calls defensive ratings have historically been a judgement call. Many years there have been suspicions among Strato Fanatics that Yankee players got generous ratings.

is their a stats page that coincides with your survey? be nice to click on the pitchers name and see his stats for that year.

I'm sorry I've been remiss about updating you with the results of the first poll. The top 25 vote getters were fairly unsurprising. Perhaps the most surprising result was the lack of love for Clemens, finishing 65th, 86th and 87th.

The top 25 were:

Fernando Valenzuela (1981)
Orel Hersheiser (1988)
Nolan Ryan (1972)
Justin Verlander (2011)
Sandy Koufax (1966)
Tom Seaver (1975)
Tom Seaver (1973)
Walter Johnson (1912)
Eric Gagne (2003)
Cy Young (1892)
Mariano Rivera (2005)
Sam McDowell (1965)
Hoyt Wilhelm (1954)
Walter Johnson (1919)
Christy Mathewson (1908)
Lady Baldwin (1886)
Ed Walsh (1908)
Fergie Jenkins (1971)
Cy Young (1905)
Jake Peavy (2007)
David Price (2012)
Ferdie Schupp (1916)
Hoyt Wilhelm (1966)
Jim Palmer (1973)
Bob Gibson (1970)

I have started up a second poll in another thread. Please vote!

Bill