Who do you believe was a greater pitcher, Nolan Ryan or Greg Maddux?

By the proverbial country mile it would be Maddux.

Ryan won 324 games, but lost 292. Maddux, 347-214.

Maddux was the best in the league 4x.

Ryan was top 10 in Cy Young voting 8x in 27 years.

Maddux was 9x in 22 years.

Maddux with the ERA+ is 134, Ryan is 111

Nolan Ryan has one of the best hit/IP ratio in history.

So.... WHIP. Ryan 1.247, Maddux 1.141.

That's significant in Maddux's favour.

K/BB for Maddux is 3.38, Ryan is 2.04

Maddux's season high for walks is 82, he has 14 consecutive seasons of walking less than 50 batters.

Ryan had 18 seasons of walking more than Maddux's career high.

Not to mention 11 seasons of 100 or more and 2 seasons with 200 or more

Ryan is flash, he is a thrower. Maddux is a master strategist and a pitcher.

Maddux has 7 seasons with the following ERA+, 166, 171, 271, 262, 162, 189, 187

Outside of 1981 Strike shortened season where Ryan had a 194 ERA+, his career high is 142

This isn't even close. Maddux is head and shoulders above Ryan.

IF you take fanship out of the equation and look at the numbers, Nolan Ryan was essentially a .500 pitcher. While he did strikeout a ton of people, he also is baseball's all-time walk leader.

Maddux has more Cy Youngs and more gold gloves, along with postseason hardware that always alluded Ryan.

His ERA is also WAY lower, as is his WHIP.

Ryan is a fan favorite because on certain nights he was unhittable and because he pitched well into his 40s. As a pitcher, however, Maddux is FAR superior.

Maddux.

Career adjusted ERA (higher is better)

Express: 111

Maddog: 134

Five best full season adjusted ERAs

Express: 194*, 142, 141, 139, 128*.

Maddog: 271*, 262*, 189, 187, 171.

* Strike-shortened season, but a qualifying ERA nonetheless.

Career WHIP

Express: 1.247

Maddog: 1.141

Five best full season WHIPs

Express: 1.006, 1.034, 1.086, 1.121, 1.129

Maddog: 0.811, 0.896, 0.946, 0.980, 1.011

Career K:BB ratio

Express: 5714:2795 == 2.044

Maddog: 3273:969 == 3.378

These are the stats over which the pitcher has the most control, whereas W-L is heavily dependent upon one's teammates, and Cy Young Award voting is an opinion poll and not real, on-field performance. Nevertheless, Maddux would take those, and other, categories as well.

Ryan was a very good pitcher blessed with unreal longevity (while remaining effective), was utterly great at some aspects of his game, and was electric to watch when he took the mound. He is totally, unquestionably worthy of his Hall plaque. I want this to be clear.

But, and this is important, Ryan's career comes with that huge, ugly total of walks, mainly a product of his youthful wildness. They don't go away; that was the sort of pitcher he was, and that's what he delivered on the diamond.

Maddux trumps Ryan everywhere except sheer pitching power -- and given his results to date, Maddux clearly is not suffering for this.

Greg Maddux by a long shot. Other than strikeouts, Nolan Ryan loses to Maddux in all other pitching categories (except no-hitters too of course!).

Look at Maddux string of 15- and 13-win seasons, a major-league record. All his Cy Youngs, years leading the NL in E.R.A., playoff appearances; the list goes on and on.

While Ryan played mostly for mediocre teams, and Maddux played for better teams, could it be that Maddux made the teams he played for better, while Ryan couldn't raise the level of play of his teammates?

Both are Hall of Famers, unique in their ways, the likes of whom we will not see again, but I think Maddux has the edge.

The key word is pitcher. Maddux is better - in terms of pure pitching, There has NEVER been anyone better than Maddux. He can throw it where he wants to 99% of the time. Nolan Ryan was the most fun of any player I ever watched pitch because he had the potential to throw a no-hitter every time out - I saw it when he broke sandy Koufax;s' mark when he got his fifth.

But for pure pitching, it's Maddux.

Statistically it looks like this

Ryan - 5386 IP, 324 W, 222 CG, 61 SHO, 1911 ER, 3.19 ERA, 5714 K

Maddux - 4814 IP, 347 W, 109 CG, 35 SHO, 1665 ER, 3.11 ERA, 3273 K

Ryan - 8 Time All Star, 0 Cy Young Awards, 3 Gold Gloves

Maddux - 8 Time All Star, 4 Consecutive Cy Young Awards, 17 Gold Gloves

I'd say that Ryan was a more overpowering pitcher, but Maddux is definately the best. I guess accuracy beats out power when it comes to pitching.

Maddux........People are blinded by Ryan's Strikeouts but if you look past that he was a average pitcher. Maddux isnt even done pitching yet and his career record is much better then Ryan's. It all comes down to wins and loses and Maddux crushes him.

Ryan 324-292

Maddux 333-204

I will take Nolan Ryan over the whole career. Strike Outs, No Hitters, ERA etc. 300 game winner while playing on teams below .500.

Will take Maddux if you are only talking about specific years, his early 1990's with Cy-Young awards, and ERA's below 2.00 were amazing, but the last 4 or 5 years he has been below average at best.

Clearly Maddux. He was simply more successful.

Ryan was more athletically impressive. But for most of his career he simply could not throw strikes often enough to be truly great. He deserves to be in the HOF just because of his strikeouts, but strikeouts alone does not make a great pitcher.

Ryan-5000 strikeouts and 7 no hitters-Do I need more reason then that? 5000 times he sent guys back to the dugout because they could'nt even touch the ball. If you look at the era's they are about the same, so if you put Ryan on that great Braves team that won all those division titles, you would see a Ryan record similar to Maddux.