Walter Johnson

Society For American Baseball Research ^ | SABR, 2017 | Charles Carey

[kawhill]

The great Ty Cobb admitted his fastball “made me flinch” and “hissed with danger.”

[kawhill]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_career_complete_games_leaders Walter is no. 5 on the list. Not bad.

[aposiopetic]

How true.

[dznutz]

Ruth timed it perfectly and moved to the outfield right before the dead ball era ended. It would have been interesting to see how he would have fared if he kept on pitching. Johnsons ERA rose the 1920 season and thereafter, coinciding with the end of the dead ball era.

Interesting the article stated Johnson batted .433 in the 1925 season, he had 97 at bats for the year. Must have really juiced the ball up that year.

[Tymesup]

There’s some footage of Johnson pitching that’s recently surfaced. He threw with a different motion than we see today. More sidearm, and got some momentum from his hips.

In 1916, Babe Ruth threw 323.2 innings without allowing a home run. Johnson topped that by throwing 369.2 innings without allowing a home run. This included at least two starts against Ruth, although the Bambino only had 3 homers that year.

[Freee-dame]

The use of pronouns creates a lack of clarity. Even though the noun closest to “it“ was Montgomery County, you interpreted my comment as meaning that Walter Johnson was a top five school. I meant the entire county back in the 70s etc. I, of all people, should not have used “it“ when I am so aware of politicians using way too many pronouns often when the antecedent is not even the word or person they meant.

[CommerceComet]

It is interesting to note that Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson are 1-2 on the all-time wins-above-replacement list. Ruth had a career WAR of 182.6 and Johnson of 167.8. Cy Young and Barry Bonds are 3-4.

The first three accumulated those stats in 154-game seasons rather than the current 162-game season. Eight additional games over a 20+ year career is an additional season to accumulate stats with most of those additional games occurring during their prime.

[dznutz]

It is interesting to note that Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson are 1-2 on the all-time wins-above-replacement list. Ruth had a career WAR of 182.6 and Johnson of 167.8. Cy Young and Barry Bonds are 3-4.

I think Bonds stats should have an asterisk next to them as his success may be attributed to performance enhancing drugs. Ruth relied on hot dogs and beer.