Pre-War Pitchers - Who reminds you of them today?
 

I got to thinking about this question while reading Alan Levy's great bio on Rube Waddell. I began to wonder who in today's pitching ranks resembles Waddell (pitching, not personality wise of course :D).

Waddell = C.C. Sabathia / Randy Johnson
Both large, lefty-power pitchers with the capability to blow it by the batter. They also share great breaking balls (but CC and Randy, of course, don't do cartwheels off the mound after striking out the side!)

Christy Mathewson = Greg Maddux
Not power pitchers by any means, but have perfected the art of pitching. They both could place the ball exactly where they wanted it and strike out their opponents with accuracy, smarts, and finesse.

Walter Johnson = :confused:Who's the fastest, most intimidating guy in the game today? I couldn't think of one but he would certainly be it.

What does the board think about my comparisons? Any other pitchers from the pre-war era that remind you of a current day pitcher?

I look forward to your input!

Physically, Roger Clemens reminds me of Cy Young. Both stocky and durable looking. Not factoring in any enhancements, of course!

Randy Johnson in his prime.

Chris Carpenter.

Aaron Harang.

Roy Halladay.

Roy Oswalt.

And after watching him Tuesday night, I'm editing to add CC Sabathia.


How dear to my heart was the old-fashioned hurler, who labored all day on the old village green. He did not resemble the up-to-date twirler who pitches four innings and ducks from the scene.

Roger Clemens and Joba Chamberlain

Satchell Paige and Pedro Martinez.

CC Sabathia and Hippo Vaughn

C.C. is a bit of a hippo.:)

Frank, that's one of my favorite baseball poems of all time -- the last stanza:

The old-fashioned pitcher,
The iron-armed pitcher,
The stout-hearted pitcher,
Who finished the game.

Greg

David Wells

You can only compare what you have seen .....
 

I'm 78, and I can only compare the current pitchers to the pitchers that I have seen pitch from the mid 1940's on.

Red Ruffing, Spud Chandler, Bob Feller, Sal Maglie, Van Mungo, Ralph Branca, Steady Eddie Lopat, Smokey Joe Page, Preacher Roe, Hal Newcombe, Satch, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Johnny Sain, Ewell Blackwell, Johnny Vander Meer, Hal Newhouser, Warren Spahn, Bill Voiselle.

To try to compare anything before that, would be a mental fairytale. :)

Doc Halladay is definatley a throwback. He throws so many complete games and does it in the AL East.

Paul Byrd has the old time windup

CC
 

CC's success on 3 days rest was such a big story, but as we all know that was more than common in the dead ball era. Rube Waddell once pitched both ends of a double-header. He not only won them both but pitched shutout ball (and when Connie Mack asked if he could pitch game 2, Rube quipped, 'don't know, let me go warm up and I'll let you know how I feel)! This was in the middle of summer, mind you.

Clemens

How about Tim Wakefield, who else still chucks the knuckler?
Even his follow through looks like it could be from 100 years ago.