How would you rank these pitchers?

[nat]

Niekro is a serious underrated pitcher. "Wins above replacement" is a stat that measures how many wins (based on runs allowed and historical runs-to-wins correlations) a pitcher would be expected to generate for his team, above a random AAA guy. Reasonable hall of fame candidates usually have around 60 (although some of the more questionable hall of famers come in far below that). Niekro has almost 100. And that's not all just from hanging around, he's also 50 wins above average (a stat just like the one above, except that it compares him to an average pitcher instead of a AAA guy). His top two seasons by WAR are 10 and 8.9, it usually takes about 8 to be in the MVP discussion.

Perry was a half-step behind him. 93 WAR and 42 WAA. Basically, Niekro had one more really good year than Perry, although at his best Perry was slightly better. (Tops out at 11 WAR for a season, which is pretty freaking impressive.)

Marichal, great though he was, isn't really in their class. Niekro and Perry pitched about 2000 more innings than Marichal did. The difference is even more dramatic if you pay attention to the extra value that they generated, basically Niekro and Perry had Marichal's career, and then 2/3rds of another border-line hall of fame career on top of it. About 62 WAR for Marichal, FWIW.

As for desirability of baseball cards, I don't really know. Niekro played for some terrible Braves teams, which probably holds down value of his cards. Perry played for lots of teams and isn't really claimed by any one fan base, which probably does the same for his. Marichal spent practically his whole career with the Giants, which has got to help. SMR gives the price of a 1961 Topps Marichal in NM at 750. For the Niekro rookie it's 425 (1965), and for Perry it's 750 (1962). (So maybe I'm off on the Perry thing.)