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From: petec@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Eastern Supremacy
Message-ID: <8012@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jul-84 21:48:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.8012
Posted: Tue Jul 24 21:48:42 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 20:52:49 EDT
References: <402@tesla.UUCP> <201@hou2e.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 27

I don't want to get involved in the comparison between Gooden and Ryan, because
I live and root in an American League area, and haven't seen Gooden enough
(although the All-Star game was quite an introduction). But I will say some
things in defense of Ryan.

>>Nolan Ryan was an awful pitcher
>>for the Mets, not primarily because the Mets were unable to give him runs but
>>he was very wild -- walked quite a lot of batters and lost more games than he
>>won.  In 1973 (I think) the year he was traded to California, he was a 20-game
>>winner and struck out the famous 383 batters.  Now, he's back in the NL and
>>isn't winning 20 games, neither is his ERA particularly good.  

Ryan really wasn't so good in his early years with the Mets, but I think 
part of that is a youngster facing major league hitting and learning the
difference between being a thrower and being a pitcher. He isn't winning
20 games, but he has had 3 of his best 4 years for winning percentage
(excluding 6-3, .667 record in 1969 as a part-timer) in his 4 years
in Houston, and I would take his Houston ERAs of 3.35, 1.69, 3.16, 
and 2.98 any day. That comes to about a 2.91 average, which is below
his career average of 3.10 . Also, Ryan hasn't had to win 20 games; the
Astros have often had other talented pitchers, and it wasn't necessary
to have Ryan pitch 300+ innings a year.
-- 
Call-Me:   Pete Cottrell, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Dept.
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