New York Nine

I realize that greater writers than myself at ESPN have already dissected this topic to a higher degree of compentcy than I will, but I felt obliged to weigh on on the discussion. If you have not heard after dragging his ass for years trying desperately to get to it, Randy Johnson finally won his 300th game against the Nationals last week, sparking the ever-popular "will he be the last 300 game winner" argument, but more interestingly, is he the best left handed pitcher ever? Such a statement seems hyperbole at first, after all I've seen Johnson many many times stink up the joint and while he was great, can we really say after looking at the entire illustrious history of baseball that this dude with a mullet is the best who's ever thrown with the other arm? However premature it may seem, the title of Greatest left handed pitcher of all time is in truth not all that unbelievable and deserves to be at least in the disucussion along with Lefty Grove and Warren Spahn.



As some of you may already know, Johnson's accomplishments thus far have been impressive to say the least. Johnson has more strikeouts than any other lefty, and 700 more than Carlton. He won five Cy Youngs and finished second three times. Despite competing against more pitchers (thanks to expansion), he led his league in ERA four times and finished second three times. He had a much better adjusted ERA than Spahn and faced superior competition to Grove. He threw two no-hitters, one a perfect game, and struck out 20 in one game. For certain, there hasn't been many guys to come around like Johnson especially when you consider his career path and the era in which he played. Beginning in earnest in Montreal and then later shipping out to Seattle, Johnson was at best a middling pitcher in his 20s lacking the control and mechanics to be a great pitcher, but suddenly the lights just went on and Johnson became a force to be reckoned with winning more games in his 30s than his 20s. What's more, Johnson pitched in an era like no other, where we saw now that a large group of the players where practicing better baseball by chemistry and became stronger than ever able to foul off more pitches and hit them further than ever as stadiums shrunk because well chicks dig the long ball. All of this considered and he still was able to put up the numbers that he did? I mean over 12 years he posted a197-80 record with a 166 (!!) ERA-plus? That's crazy and compared to the compartively less dominating ERA+ of 158 and 124 of Grove and Spahn respectively, the numbers seem to indicate that compared to his peers was even more impressive than the other two leftys were. For sure, all of this considered, to suggest that Randy is the best lefty ever is at least plausible.


However compelling Johnson may be, there is at least a discussion for another lefty who has exactly 300 wins, the great Lefty Grove. Although I'm sure most people reading this blog probably didn't see Lefty, but his numbers are hard to argue. With a record of 300-141 and an ERA of 3.06 Lefty has the best winning percentage of any 300 game winner .680 compared to Johnson's .647. Of course this was a different era where hitters weren't as powerful, but as Philadelphia A's Grove still faced tough competition like the Ruth's and Gerig's of the world and yet still managed to dominate the competition. The incomprable Rob Neyer puts it best;

And for what it's worth, he also led the American League in ERA in nine seasons. Do you know how hard it must be to lead your league in ERA nine times? Roger Clemens is No. 2 on the all-time list, having done it seven times. Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, and (yes) Randy Johnson each have done it four times. Tom Seaver did it three times, and Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer each did it twice. Think about that: Grove led his league in ERA as many times as Seaver, Ryan and Palmer put together. That, my friends, is dominance.

Indeed, one could argue that the true measure of how dominant a pitcher is is how his numbers fare compare to the rest of the league and in this facet Lefty stands alone. Sure his strikeouts are no where near the stratosphere of Johnson's but the bottom line is a pitcher needs to prevent runs and lefty did it the best. Of course Grove's candidacy is not without its faults, after all he played in an era before integration and never had to pitch against anyone of color, a fact that should not be discounted. Further, as I mentioned he played in a bygone era before television or the internets or anything like it to be able to actually see how dominant Grove was. We have plenty of tape to show how great Johnson is, but all we have with Grove is the numbers and some still photos. While those are convincing its hard to adequately compare the two.



Finally we have the winningest pitcher in the live ball era, Warren Spahn. Pitching from 1942 to 1965, Spahn compiled an unbelievable 363-245 record all while on so-so teams wallowing away in obsurity in Milaukee and later Atlanta and yet he still managed to dominate. Nine top finishes in ERA, 13 20-win season, and unlike Grove he pitched against the best baseball players in the world. Of course, Spahn lacks the domination factor of a Grove or Johnson striking out only 4.43 per nine innings, but what Spahn did better than anyone is dominate over a long run and for a whole lot of innings. Indeed as Johnson famously said to Spahn "Oh, I threw 270 innings and had 12 complete games." Spahn just said, "That's a nice year, Randy, but I did that every year." While Johnson was great in his time for a considerable time it's just hard to compare to Spahn's longetivity. In short, he was just so great for so long its hard to say he wasn't the greatest of all time.



This is hardly a open and shut case and there are virtues for each candidate and more, but I think for me the nod goes to Spahn, but not by much. All three pitchers were amazing in their own right and easily the best of their eras so it really hard to quanatively evaluate all three adequately. That said you can really pick any one of these guys and not be too bad, all three are some of the best the game has ever seen.