Mathewson Vs. Johnson

[nat]

"in order to know what these statistics really mean, one would need to do an analysis of how league pitching stats might have changed over that period."


It's been done. Let's use ERA+ (because it's easy and handy, not because it's the only think you might want to look at). It takes a player's ERA, adjusts it to account for the park he pitched in, and then compares to it league average. 100 is average, higher is better. This allows cross-era comparisons, because if Joe has a 110 ERA+ in 1920 and Mike has a 110 ERA+ in 1950 it means that, relative to his competition, Joe's ERA (after adjustments for his park) was 10% better than league average, and it means the same thing for Mike.


Cy Young

ERA+ IP
138 7356



Walter Johnson

ERA+ IP
147 5914


Christy Matthewson

ERA+ IP
136 4788


Obviously all three were all-time greats, but Matty is a clear #3 in this company.