For regular readers of the Freakonomics blog – and you know who you are – this might be old news. Nevertheless, it’s still interesting.
Anyway, a new study using some sort of science I don’t understand (which is pretty much every type of science) rated every single outcome from 1954 to 2008 and came up with the best players… in a cold, clinical way. Wired mag calls it the baseball version "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon," though performance-enhancing drugs, illness, technology, lucky hits, stadium effects and everything else was simply collateral.
As a result, the top three hitters since 1954 turned out to be Barry Bonds, Todd Helton, and Mickey Mantle. No Phillie made it into the top 10 of the list (which can be seen here and here), however, pitching is a different story.
According to the formula, Billy Wagner is the second-best reliever since 1954, Curt Schilling is the fourth-best starter and Pedro Martinez…
Numero uno.
It’s also worth mentioning that Roy Halladay was rated as the third-best pitcher of the ultra-modern era that ranks Bert Blyleven ahead of Hall of Famers Steve Carlton, Phil Niekro and Don Sutton.
Again, check out the Wired story for the finer details of the rankings system that puts Armando Benitez in the top 10 of relief pitchers since 1954…
But if Benitez was so good how come he couldn’t get Pat Burrell out?
As far as Pedro goes, check out this little graph CSN's Rob Kuestner came up with:
| Pitcher A | Pitcher B | |
| 129 | Wins | 111 |
| 47 | Losses | 33 |
| .732 | Win Pct. | .771 |
| 2.19 | ERA | 2.00 |
| 3 | Cy Youngs | 3 |
Pitcher A is Sandy Koufax from 1961 to 1966.
Pitcher B is Pedro Martinez from 1997 to 2003.