Best pitcher of 1968: Lolich, McLain or Gibson?

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Wow, Gibson era was incredible at 1.12
Denny McLain won 31 games
Mickey Lolich won three world series games.

Tigers win the series and Gibson has maybe the greatest season of all time. And no one has won 30 plus games since. You're killing me here!!! lol

I'll have to go with Gibson. A note of interest: McLain served up Mickey Mantle's 535th home run (batting practice pitch) in order to pass Jimmy Foxx as third (at the time) all time. Mickey would hit one more before he retired....Show more

Of course Mickey Lolich was the World Series hero with 3 wins as the Tigers came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Redbirds. Denny McLain became the first hurler to win 30 games in 34 yrs and it hasn't been matched since with a 31-6 record. But Bob Gibson with a 22-9 record and an amazing era of 1.12 was the best pitcher of them all that year. It makes you wonder how did he lose that many games with an era like that....Show more

McLain played 7 more times than Gibson. He started 41 games while Gibson only started 34.

Also if your going to look at Win/loss stats as a reason a pitcher is good...all i have to say is Jason Marquis 12 wins (2 behind leader in MLB) and his ERA is 5.82. I trust era more than win record.


Scored 671 runs, Allowed 492 runs - Tigers all year

Scored 583 runs, Allowed 472 runs - Cardinals all year

Tigers had more run support, while Cardinals had a little more defense.


Mclain - 28 complete games, 6 shutouts
Gibson - 28 complete games, 13 shutouts.

I guess when Gibson was good, he was GREAT. But when he was off he was good....Show more

Tough question, but 1968 was a pitcher's year because MLB had widened the strike zone and this upset the balance of power in the game that year. This is why Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a mere .301 average and only 5 NL players batted over .300 that year. Look at the stats and you'll see that runs and hits were down league wide, so I'd say the low era numbers are overrated.

Lolich was 17 ~ 9 with a 3.19 era and 197K's in 32 starts,
McLain was 31 ~ 6 with with a 1.96 era, 280K's and 6 Shutouts in 41 starts , while Gibson was 22 ~9 with a 1.12 era and 268K's and 13 shutouts in 34 starts.

The question to me is how did Gibson manage to lose NINE games? Other than that, I'd call it pretty even, but I'd lean towards McLain....Show more

I vote for Don Drysdale.

1968, the year of the pitcher !!

McLain had 31 wins, and Gibson had a 1.12 ERA , but DD had a string of 58 2/3 IP without giving up a run, a record he held until 1988 and another Dodger Orel Hershiser.

Pitchers were so dominating (Yaz led the AL in batting w/ a .301 Avg) that MLB lowered the mound for the 1969 season...Show more