The Best Pitcher in Baseball Is?

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Off the top of my head, I was thinking Maddux. I feel like I have lots of his rookies somewhere (as they were readily available and mass produced in the heart of the junk wax era). Just don't have one available for a picture right now.

As far as going beyond our gut feelings, here are the WAR stats from Baseball Reference. WAR isn't perfect, but I think it does a pretty good job. According to WAR, Roger Clemens would be the answer to your question for best pitcher since 1980. Maddux and Johnson also highly rated. Verlander, Scherzer, Kershaw, Grienke, and other currently active pitchers don't show up until number 27 and up.

Here are the top 35 pitchers according to the WAR stat from baseball reference (Rank, Name, (Seasons), WAR, Innings pitched, Righty/Lefty):

Rank Player (yrs, age) WAR for Pitchers IP Throws
1. Cy Young+ (22) 165.6 7356.0 R
2. Walter Johnson+ (21) 152.3 5914.1 R
3. Roger Clemens (24) 138.7 4916.2 R
4. Kid Nichols+ (15) 116.7 5067.1 R
5. Pete Alexander+ (20) 116.2 5190.0 R
6. Lefty Grove+ (17) 113.3 3940.2 L
7. Tom Seaver+ (20) 106.0 4783.0 R
8. Greg Maddux+ (23) 104.8 5008.1 R
9. Randy Johnson+ (22) 103.5 4135.1 L
10. Christy Mathewson+ (17) 100.4 4788.2 R
11. Phil Niekro+ (24) 97.0 5404.0 R
12. Bert Blyleven+ (22) 96.1 4970.0 R
13. Gaylord Perry+ (22) 93.0 5350.0 R
14. Warren Spahn+ (21) 92.5 5243.2 L
15. Tim Keefe+ (14) 89.1 5049.2 R
16. Eddie Plank+ (17) 87.5 4495.2 L
17. Pedro Martinez+ (18) 86.1 2827.1 R
18. John Clarkson+ (12) 85.0 4536.1 R
19. Steve Carlton+ (24) 84.1 5217.2 L
20. Nolan Ryan+ (27) 83.6 5386.0 R
21. Pud Galvin+ (15) 83.3 6003.1 R
22. Robin Roberts+ (19) 83.0 4688.2 R
23. Mike Mussina+ (18) 82.8 3562.2 R
24. Fergie Jenkins+ (19) 82.2 4500.2 R
25. Bob Gibson+ (17) 81.7 3884.1 R
26. Curt Schilling (20) 80.5 3261.0 R
27. Justin Verlander (17, 39) 76.4 3131.0 R
28. Jim McCormick (10) 76.0 4275.2 R
29. Tom Glavine+ (22) 73.9 4413.1 L
30. Old Hoss Radbourn+ (12) 73.2 4527.1 R
31. Clayton Kershaw (15, 34) 71.2 2540.0 L
32. Zack Greinke (19, 38) 70.4 3214.2 R
33. Max Scherzer (15, 37) 69.7 2639.1 R
34. Carl Hubbell+ (16) 68.8 3590.1 L
35. Don Sutton+ (23)