Game 7, who's your starting pitcher?

doubledragon

You can pick any pitcher in the history of the game, who are you putting on the mound for game 7 of the World Series?

sayheywyo

Bob Gibson
Not a bad hitter for a pitcher either........

perkdog

Greg Maddox

1951WheatiesPremium

I think in these types of debates, it makes it much easier to decide if you’ve actually have some postseason sample size to explore. So I would push my chips in with a guy who in 22 World Series starts pitched to a 2.71 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, tossed 7 complete games with 3 being shutouts and was generally excellent every time he took the bump...

coolstanley

Schilling

JoeBanzai

Any of these guys would be fine.

I'll take Walter Johnson if my opponent has a primarily right handed lineup, Sandy Koufax if they have mostly lefties.

Right handed batters must have hated facing Johnson as much as left handed hated facing his grandson Randy ;-)

JRR300

so difficult to pick one, especially when so many of these pitchers you can only know by seeing grainy bits of film on them and looking at their stats. I was just a kid when I saw both Koufax and Gibson pitch; both just simply dominated games. They will always be in the forefront of my mind. I be hard pressed to pick one or the other. Also, for just one game, I'd prefer a pitcher who can just get batters out himself (strikeouts when needed).

doubledragon

After much pondering, I'll take Curt Schilling in game 7. I always liked his intense focus for the big games.

keets

Bob Feller with Randy Johnson waiting in the BP.

1951WheatiesPremium

@keets said:
Bob Feller with Randy Johnson waiting in the BP.

I think one of my favorite George Carlin lines of all time is...

Think about how dumb the average person is. Then realize that half of them are dumber than that!

doubledragon

@Scooter261830 said:
I cheated a bit for this one...I looked up the top 50 pitchers you would likely want to start game 7.
Before I looked ...I picked Jack Morris.Then I went through the list very slowly reading about each pitcher and how they fared.I reached the top 10 and Morris was nowhere to be seen.I knew I picked a decent one.
He came in at #6.So that's my guy in game 7. I remembered that game 7 versus Atl in 91.That made me think of him.

That game 7 showdown between Morris and Smoltz was a classic. I watched an interview with John Smoltz recently, and he said he was really pissed off when he got pulled from that game. It was a great game for a fan of pitching battles.

JoeBanzai

@Scooter261830 said:
I cheated a bit for this one...I looked up the top 50 pitchers you would likely want to start game 7.
Before I looked ...I picked Jack Morris.Then I went through the list very slowly reading about each pitcher and how they fared.I reached the top 10 and Morris was nowhere to be seen.I knew I picked a decent one.
He came in at #6.So that's my guy in game 7. I remembered that game 7 versus Atl in 91.That made me think of him.

Don't get me wrong, as a Twins fan this is a historic game. Probably the best game since the franchise arrived in Minnesota in 1961.

However, the Twins and Morris could have lost that game had Lonnie Smith not made a baserunning mistake.

Morris was a bulldog, but wasn't really dominating.

That being said, thanks Jack!

JRR300

I liked Jack Morris when he pitched....see a lot of the same fight in Verlander and Sherzer in our current day game. But for my money in a game seven, he wouldn't get the nod from me. Sorry.

BillJones

In the early 1960s, Whitey Ford. He broke Babe Ruth's World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings. For a while in the early 1960s, you could hardly score on him. Casey Stengel probably lost his job after the 1960 World Series for not starting him in the first game of the World Series.

JoeBanzai

@BillJones said:
In the early 1960s, Whitey Ford. He broke Babe Ruth's World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings. For a while in the early 1960s, you could hardly score on him. Casey Stengel probably lost his job after the 1960 World Series for not starting him in the first game of the World Series.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Art Ditmar was as good or better than Ford in 1959 and 1960. Ford also had some arm problems in 1960.

The Yankees also made a bad defensive play early in BOTH games Art started, costing runs.

Casey gambled. He lost BIG TIME! Stengle did that kind of stupid(?) stuff all the time, but his team was so good, it didn't matter.

dallasactuary

I'll pick Babe Ruth. Awesome pitcher, especially in the WS, and he can win it with his bat if he has to.

orioles93

Pedro Martinez

JoeBanzai

@orioles93 said:
Pedro Martinez

Thought you might say Jim Palmer!

orioles93

@JoeBanzai said:

@orioles93 said:
Pedro Martinez

Thought you might say Jim Palmer!

Palmer would be a solid choice as well. I don’t remember to many pitchers that were as dominating as Pedro though. The guy was unhittable during a time when offense dominated the game.

1951WheatiesPremium

@orioles93 said:

@JoeBanzai said:

@orioles93 said:
Pedro Martinez

Thought you might say Jim Palmer!

Palmer would be a solid choice as well. I don’t remember to many pitchers that were as dominating as Pedro though. The guy was unhittable during a time when offense dominated the game.

I agree. However, he didn’t get to the postseason in many of his best seasons and didn’t perform great when he did get there.

JoeBanzai

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@orioles93 said:

@JoeBanzai said:

@orioles93 said:
Pedro Martinez

Thought you might say Jim Palmer!

Palmer would be a solid choice as well. I don’t remember to many pitchers that were as dominating as Pedro though. The guy was unhittable during a time when offense dominated the game.

I agree. However, he didn’t get to the postseason in many of his best seasons and didn’t perform great when he did get there.

That's true. I mostly remember how good he was when he pitched against my Minnesota Twins. He stopped us in the playoffs 2 years straight and I don't think we beat him once from 1971-75.

Pedro's postseason record is up and down as well.

JRR300

are we surprised that there isn't a single mention of Nolan Ryan?

JoeBanzai

@JRR300 said:
are we surprised that there isn't a single mention of Nolan Ryan?

If I was picking a modern age pitcher, he might be my choice. Bob Feller might be my first if looking for a guy from the 1940's.

1951WheatiesPremium

@JRR300 said:
are we surprised that there isn't a single mention of Nolan Ryan?

Not entirely. He’s was obviously a strikeout machine and a great pitcher and while he improved as he aged he never really had consistency. Don’t get me wrong here - compared to the average pitcher he’s a total beast, a Hall of Famer. But for every two times he lead the league in strikeouts, he lead the league in walks. The 1.24 career WHIP is indicative of a great strikeout pitcher who let too many men on base. He never won a Cy Young; not a huge deal but says something .

Obviously there’s 7 days we’d all have taken him. I get that. But compared to some of the best of all time I think there are better choices than Nolan Ryan.

I would not fault someone for mentioning him or selecting him. Just offering an explanation as to why he wasn’t named.

JoeBanzai

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@JRR300 said:
are we surprised that there isn't a single mention of Nolan Ryan?

Not entirely. He’s was obviously a strikeout machine and a great pitcher and while he improved as he aged he never really had consistency. Don’t get me wrong here - compared to the average pitcher he’s a total beast, a Hall of Famer. But for every two times he lead the league in strikeouts, he lead the league in walks. The 1.24 career WHIP is indicative of a great strikeout pitcher who let too many men on base. He never won a Cy Young; not a huge deal but says something .

Obviously there’s 7 days we’d all have taken him. I get that. But compared to some of the best of all time I think there are better choices than Nolan Ryan.

I would not fault someone for mentioning him or selecting him. Just offering an explanation as to why he wasn’t named.

If you're looking for a right hander to win one game, he would be a fine choice.

Former Major League umpire Ron Luciano in his book "The Umpire Strikes Back" said that when Ryan had both his curve and fastball going, he was basically unhittable.

JRR300

I'm just thinking that guys like Schilling and Morris are mentioned, and not a one person brought up his name. I gave two selections and he wasn't one of mine, but I thought he'd at least merit consideration.....enough so that someone may have mentioned him. That's all.

JoeBanzai

Morris doesn't impress me. even with him pitching a great game 7 in 1991.

All these guys were tough competitors.

swish513

Madison Bumgarner, no hesitation. 36 WS innings, only 1 run given up. I'll take my chances with him in Game 7.