Who's on the Mt. Rushmore of Pitching? A Breakdown by PitchingNinja & Codify of All Time Greats. 

I'm a Maddux fan through and through. That 2 seam is without a doubt my favorite pitch of all time.

the #1 best Rookey season... Henry Rowengartner toping 103 in his pre-teen years once he found his command, he was elite

Johan Santana deserves more credit pre injuries . He deserved the Cy Young Batrolo got too

Pedro Martinez was the complete package!! I'm huge supporter of the pitchers of the past, but in the steroid era what Pedro did was truly remarkable. Edit: Pedro Martinez had long fingers like Michael Jordan fingers in basketball.

I am someone who watches a fair amount of my team but I'm not like a life long baseball fan. This video helped me understand the history of pitchers better than anything I've seen before. Great stuff guys!

Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Warren Spahn, Satchel Paige, Lefty Grove, Burleigh Grimes, Mordecai Brown, Chief Bender, Pete Alexander ... while it is difficult to compare eras, these men set the standard at a time when striking out a batter was a true accomplishment - discussion begins with them. Feller, Ryan, Gibson, Carlton, Koufax, Maddux, Jenkins, Niekro, Palmer, Perry, Seaver, and Martinez would be part of the roundtable chatter ...

If I got to live out the career of any great pitcher, I'd have to pick Nolan Ryan. You get so many more years to play and enjoy the game with his career than basically anyone since integration.

I'm a Blue Jays fan and my personal favorite was Doc Halladay. But the best was Pedro. I think if Greg Maddux just played for 1 team he would be regaurded higher. But Pedro, "WOW"

When I saw the title of this video my initial thoughts were: Pedro and Maddox.

love this video! kerry wood had *superb* stuff that day. he was just never a guy who had great command. but that day, he even had *relatively* great command. and it wasn’t a “good” hitting team he faced. it was the best hitting team in all of baseball at the time.

This video should be longer only because I’m selfish and wanted to hear about more guys. Johan was so dominant with the twins, but people easily forget about him because of the short career. Mad Max is another guy that comes to mind as well, I think he finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting for like 7 years straight and won 3 in that span. Verlander I feel, should have gotten a nod as well. You guys talking about the longevity of Seaver was making me think of Verlander. I know he had a bit of a hiccup in the middle of his career but he’s been lights out since then.

Maddux is the master. My favorite pitcher to watch without a doubt.

Usually when I watch my Red Sox, I tend to watch them bat but for Pedro starter games I skipped watching the Sox bat. That’s how much I enjoyed watching Pedro pitch cause its like you expect a strike out every at bat and a majority of them he made the batter look foolish at the plate. Maddux is also my favorite because he doesn’t have to throw hard to beat you. I think thats another quality of Maddux that I don’t need to blow you away all them I can use off speed or get the batter to hit a soft grounder to beat you.

On Pedro, I was screaming at the screen when they were talking about why they think his pitches were so dominant...they mentioned his arm angle...but not HIS FINGERS! He always talked (and showed) how he had abnormally long and curved fingers. I'm sure it helped with the spin rate tremendously.

One of my favorite Maddux stories details that in August and September, he would study the standings and remaining schedules of postseason contenders...try to determine who would qualify and alter his routines, "out" pitches and approaches to his likely opponents' hitters. In those days, he could be relatively certain that the Braves would be playing in October so he'd start setting up hitters for at-bats that were two months away. Nobody outsmarted Greg Maddux. Funny thing is, he was never really dominant in the postseason.

The way I see it, I completely agree with the Maddux/Martinez/Johnson top 3, but I think there is better than Seaver out there. I'm honestly surprised Roy Halladay wasn't mentioned on this. You talked about 10 year peaks, and Seaver at his best had a 144 ERA+ over a 10 year span, but Halladay comes in with a 148 ERA+. If we are going to not put Clemens on that Mt Rushmore (even though he more than deserves it), I think there's an argument for Roy Halladay, especially with his 4 year stretch from 2008 to 2011 where it felt like any given day he could've gone out and throw a no-hitter for 4 straight years. I know I'm biased when saying this as he's my 2nd favorite pitcher of all time, only behind Scott Kazmir, and especially since Kershaw almost certainly has a better 10 year average with a ridiculous 165 ERA+, but a discussion about the best pitchers of all time without him, I feel is incomplete.

GregMaddux, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens.....

Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Sandy Koufax, Clayton Kershaw.

There was no “LEGAL” pitcher that was as dominant for as long as Maddox.

Hear me out, Rob.... Expansion. I have never thought steroids had *nothing* to do with what we see, but I think expansion is the larger explanation. We see some of the best hitting AND the best pitching peak at the exact same time. The game couldn't supply enough talent yet and you get an influx of would-be AAA talent filling out rosters. This weakens the tails and the shoulders of the talent distribution and it makes already all-time-great talents at the peak of the distribution stand out much, much higher.

Randy Johnson and David cone always come to mine when, talking about sliders.

Clemens, Maddux, Johnson, and Martinez. We can't let the hall of fame voters dictate our personal list but I do respect people who leave out Clemens from their lists.

My personal Ruchmore would be Ryan, P.Martinez, Maddux, and Rivera. Edit... If we need all 4 to be starters, take out Mariano, and put in Dwight Gooden. He was my favorite hurler when I was a kid

As a Yankees fan, I always hated Pedro pitching to them, but I confess that was just because how f'ing good he was. THAT change up 💀

As a 60 year old Mets fan, I got to enjoy seeing Mets starting pitchers: Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Doc Gooden and Jabob deGrom. To me, the best ERA pitcher(other than Walter Johnson) is Clayton Kershaw.

Nolan Ryan, Warren Spahn, Sandy Cofax, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Doc Gooden, Smokey Joe, No particular order

Finally people talking about GTS and just how great he really was. He was the best professional starting pitcher ever. He was simply never bad. Every single start was quality. Some days he didn’t have his stuff and would still win.

I grew up in an era watching 3 channels so i watched a lot of Chicago games Atlanta and Athletics i got to give to the professor Greg Maddux year after year just getting it done along with all the gold gloves #1

Clemens should be there. SEVEN Cy Young Awards. SEVEN 20 win seasons. 350 career wins. 4,000 Ks.

1. Roger Clemens 2. Pedro Martinez 3. Randy Johnson 4. Walter Johnson

It's Pedro for me, the guy right now who I think could get there is Shane Mclanahan, one day I think he'll be up here and this is coming from a Jays fan

Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Warren Spahn, and Greg Maddux

Pedro Martinez Randy Johnson Bob Gibson Greg Maddux

Such a tough question. Pedro, Randy, Maddux, Seaver, Gibson, Kershaw, Koufax?

Maddux was a huge part of my childhood and he's my favorite player. But give me pedro.

Randy Johnson, Greg Maddox, and Pedro Martinez are always going to kinda be like the baseball pitchers holy trinity. If you don't count steroids Clemens is in the same group. That's Rushmore. But since teams usually have five starting pitchers, I would definitely pick deGrom to round out my rotation. Undoubtedly the most dominating pitching performance ever was Kerry Woods 20k game. Had he not gotten hurt so much and was able to basically maintain his Rookie year stuff, he would have been one of the best ever. If you go strictly by the numbers though, Nolan Ryan holds by far the most records. But the walks and never winning the Cy Young doesn't help his cause. His "Stuff" was definitely some of the best ever though. One pitcher who gets left out of the discussion because of steroids is Eric Gagne. During his run of 84 consecutive saves and his Cy Young, that was definitely one of the most impressive stretches for a pitcher ever. I remember thinking that Gagne had the best "Stuff" I'd ever seen. He repertoire was actually very similar to Pedro with a vicious slow 12-6 curve and screwball change, to offset their power fastballs. Gagne threw a bit harder, but Pedro's fastball had more arm-side movement. As far as the best pure stuff is concerned, I would have to add Jordan Hicks to the mix. I mean I've never seen someone throw a 105mph sinking fastball with that much movement accompanied by a wicked slider. Both Joyce and Chapman can/could throw 105mph, but their fastballs don't have a lot of movement. Assuming we're considering all these players in their primes, here's how I stock my 14-man limit pitching staff to begin the season and eventually go on to win the World Series: Starting 5 - Randy Johnson Greg Maddox Pedro Martinez Roger Clemens Jacob deGrom Bullpen - Kerry Wood Nolan Ryan Chris Sale Justin Verlander Clayton Kershaw Curt Shilling John Smoltz Set-up man - Mariano Rivera Closer - Eric Gagne

Tom Seaver, Greg Maddox, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson. That’s who I’ve got but it certainly is a debatable subject.

What I look for is long term consistency , and the two pitchers in the modern era with the most wins are Greg Maddox and Warren Spahn. Spahn 363-245 3.09 Maddox 355-227 3.16 Some pitchers may have been great for 5 or 10 years, if they were lucky, but Maddox and Spahn were consistently great for 20 years.

It’s so funny that you Guys picked Pedro, Maddux and Randy because that’s just the only 3 to start with. That’s my picks. Id say Bob Gibson could compare to Seaver simply because he was a LITERAL game changer. I mean they lowered the mound cause of my Man. But yeah, nobody wanted to face Seaver.

That mountain STARTS with Nolan Ryan.

If it's for one game it for sure is wood

Maybe not on the Rushmore, but Dave Stieb deserves the HOF as much as anyone ever has. He built the Jays on his back.

If you look at ERA+ Clayton Kershaw.....of the top 5 career leaders he is 4 behind Mariano and 2 Negro League pitchers, but also has nearly 2X the number of innings of any of them. DeGrom is 5 but 1/2 the innings. Pedro is 6th with slightly more innings. It is also a 14 year body of work. He has more innings playing in the era of looking for 5 innings out of starters.

I made this exact blog post about 10 years ago before the internet gods obliterated it. Clemens, maddux, unit, and the one true king of kings, pedro martinez for me.

If I had to face a lineup that included Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, Stan Musial, Lou Gherig, Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx and Rogers Hornsby? I think I might take either Pedro Martinez or Sandy Koufax.

Gibson Koufax Martinez Johnson

I'd say Pedro was the best, but we may look back at Alcantra's dominant use of all his pitches in equal mix as a revolutionary practice. Also hat tip Max Scherzer.

If we're only talking about post 1968, raising the mound, it is Pedro. His peak was higher than the other 3 Horsemen (Clemens, Maddux, Johnson.) 154 ERA+ is the highest in history of retired pitchers. Pedro's 2000 season is THE BEST season a pitcher has ever had, and it isn't even close Kershaw is at 157 right now. But Pedro led the league in hits per 9 allowd 5 times, K per 9 5 times, K/BB ratio 4 times, to Kershaw's 3, 2, and 3 respectively. Case closed.

Pedro and Johnson for sure. Maddox I don't know if he's on there. Don't think Seaver is a bad choice. Maybe Ryan and Gibson? Also, does it have to be starters? If not, where's Rivera?

Sandy Koufax Greg Maddux Pedro Martinez Tom Seaver Randy Johnson………

Maddux, VERY Low Walks, Lots of Dps Todays pitchers-2000-2022 are good because hitters only swing for hrs.

One of the things that makes Pedro special in this group is his physical makeup. All of these other guys for the most part are physical specimens, they have size and weight. Pedro had neither of those, yet he spun a few of the most dominant seasons ever. That's why to me, pound for pound, he's the greatest.

Halladay, Pedro, Randy, Rocker

What about Denny McLain's 1968 season

I know your listing starters but if your going to say MT Rushmore should be made up of the pitchers who helped there teams win the most then Mariano Rivera has to be on Mt Rushmore. Mariano carried all of those Yankee championships more than anyone. You take Rivera away and I don’t know if the Yanks dynasty ends up winning even one World Series. His value coming in a few times a week in the hardest of situations and just dominating for nearly 20 years straight ending with the all time saves record is unmatched in my opinion. Then add in the absolute dominance in the post season and he might be the most valuable pitcher to his team of all time. I believe Mo retired with the best numbers of any pitcher in the playoffs. He practically had one pitch that every hitter knew was coming likely several times per at bat and yet remained nearly unhittabble for nearly 20:years. That is absolutely insane when you think about it. Marianos cutter is probably the most unhittable pitch in MLB history... or at least it’s at the very top of the list all time. I doubt we will see anyone like Mariano Rivera with one pitch that unhittable ever again. To me starter or not Mariano Rivera belongs on the Mt Rushmore of pitching because when it mattered most in the toughest of situations Mariano Rivera was as close to automatic as humanely possible for two decades. If my life depended on choosing one all time pitcher to get one of MLBs all time greatest hitters out I would choose Mariano in a heartbeat.

if memory serves, Koufax said about the early Gooden that he'd trade everybody's past for Gooden's future.

Lefty Grove is the most underrated and the best pitcher of all time. NINE, 9 ERA titles says it all. That's as many as Pedro, and Maddux combined. 8 seasons leading the league in FIP, second to Walter Johnson's 9. Lifetime ERA+ of 148, second to Pedro's 154. Led the league in K's 7 straight seasons, which remains unprecedented. 6 seasons of 9+ WAR according to bref, is second to Wlater Johnson's 8. .680 lifetime winning %, is 3rd behind Kershaw, and Whitey Ford. Grove has the most persuasive argument.

Without yet watching the video the Mt. Rushmore is: Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Roger Clemens, and Greg Maddux. Pedro had the highest peak but fell apart after 33. Clayton Kershaw has the potential to replace Maddux if not already has.

clemens the 4th imo atm.

I gotta have Mo Rivera on the end of the mountain. There is zero dispute by anyone that he was the absolute best at the end of the game every single time he went to the mound.

Ok best thrower of the baseball Nolan Ryan , best pitcher in a baseball season Pedro Martinez

Pedro, Sandy, Maddux, Degrom, Just missed: Randy, Seaver, Kershaw, Gibson

To me, it's either Clemens or randy Johnson

Nolan Ryan Was a Workhorse , But Pedro Martinez is my pick

Nolan Ryan!!

Randy and Pedro

Would you put Kershaw's curve ball in the conversation of best of all time?

Modern baseball.... Pedro, Clemens, Maddux and Randy Johnson. Nolan Ryan rounds out the top 5

Greatest pitcher of all time is Walter Johnson. No question

Listen to the people. Pedro Martinez is the best there ever was. Had the two best seasons in the history of the sport at the height of the steroid era

The Rushmore of pitching is larger than 4 heads. Koufax, Kershaw, Grove, Ryan, Nick Punto

Kershaw is pitching tonight (radar guy takes the night off)

Do a Rushmore for lefties and one for righties.

Since 1960 ..Nolan Ryan ,Sandy Koufax,Greg Maddux,Roger Clemens ,Steve Carlton my top 5 not in order

Don’t be indecisive when you have a title of your video like this , say with confidence so we can follow you

Nolan, Randy, Maddox, Koufax and Clemens…

This is a very difficult question, it really depends on how you ask it : Who is the greatest performer within the league or who is the most skilled pitcher. If you were saying the greatest pitcher of all time, it implies that you're talking about skill alone. The game is constantly evolving and getting harder on both sides, so today's group of players is the most talented ever. So, the best pitcher of all time would be the most skilled pitcher today, which is probably deGrom.

Let’s be real, it’s Martinez, R. Johnson, Maddux and Koufax, and the only other guy you can honestly argue about is W. Johnson.

Pedre pedro on stroids please

Maddox was the greatest none power pitcher of all time

#1 Maddux #2 Sesver #3 R. Johnson #4 Pedro #5doesnt matter because your team is winning at least 100 games and the world series no matter what clump of cells is taking the ball every 5th day.

No relief pitchers? Trevor and Mariano?

Nolan ryan, Randy Johnson, Cy young, old hoss Radbourn

Why no mention of Jim Palmer ?

Koufax. Four no hitters in four consecutive years. ⚾🥇

Don't forget the David Cone perfect game as the model of dominant efficiency

Spahn seaver gibson koufax

Pedro most dominant in the highest offense steroid era. Having an era 2 runs lower then the next lowest who also is a mount Rushmore guy, Clemons, u gotta go Pedro. Plus his all star game K all future HoF level hitters was rediculous to watch

The pitching Mt. Rushmore? Cy Young(they named the award after him for Pete's sake!), Walter Johnson, Candy Cummings(inventor of the curveball) and Harry O'Neill (inventor of the slider).

1. Nolan Ryan Played 27 years throwing 97 at 44. 7 no hitters 300+ wins. 2. Roger Clemens 2 x 20ks, an mvp, and 2 cy young’s all without steroids. (not gonna mention the world series’s and the cy young’s he won on gear. 4. Pedro Martinez 2 of the best seasons ever back to back? Also pitched against guys that were all on steroids and still struck them out frequently. 4. Walter Johnson Godfather of velocity, insane win to loss ratio. 5. Sandy Koufax Best Left handed pitcher ever. Give Kershaw some cy young’s and no hitters and then we can talk.

How was Fergie Jenkins only an All Star three times??

Clemens,Seever.

I'm biased towards longevity, so I will be an awful person and put Roger Clemens over Pedro. And I lack creativity so I still call Walter Johnson the best of all time Post-Integration: Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson Pre-Integration: Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Lefty Grove

You are definitely forgetting Satchel Paige

DeGoat will be for sure

You very disrespectful to Sandy Koufax, he is the left handed Pedro. His peak along with Pedro's is the best ever. Also all the all time greats say he was the best and impossible to hit. Sandy's Ks were high to send NO his curve was the best ever. He had a top 10 fastball ever too that rose as it approached the plate.

Where's Otani?

Greg Maddux overall Superior pitcher

Maddox was the best. Tom Seaver 2nd.

There are just too many good pitchers through out baseball history. If I had to go by stats....it would be by outs. Whether by Ks or put outs.