From the Archives: Educating Twitter, Insulting the Cardinals

As our vacation continues, here’s another archives edition. Since today is the anniversary of Luis Aparicio being released by the Red Sox in 1974, ending his career, I’ve pulled forward this edition from December, 2023, that mentions Aparicio prominently in a comparison to Ozzie Smith.

---

A couple of days ago, Cardinals fans got very upset with Major League Baseball. Given their collective reaction on Twitter, you’d think some monumental injustice had been visited upon the Redbirds of St. Louis.

Was an announcement made about some sort of infraction and punishment? No.

Was the draft lottery rigged against them? Also no.

Will they be required to play without a shortstop, or have their pitchers throw from center field? Nope, it was nothing as mundane as that. MLB’s sin was far more egregious.

The MLB Network Twitter account posted a list of the best nine starting pitchers since 1947…and Bob Gibson wasn’t included.

And, as night follows day, Cardinal fans expressed their view that Major League Baseball is biased against the St. Louis Cardinals, their fans, and Bob Gibson. This is an actual, undoctored screen shot of the first five comments under that post…

Blasphemy, right? The nerve. The unmitigated gall to omit The Great Gibby from this list. Why even stay affiliated with MLB after such an insult? The entire franchise should be relocated to Japan and join the Nippon Professional Baseball League, where greatness is properly appreciated.

In all seriousness, Cardinal Outrage is a very real thing. As you can see, leaving their favorite player off a meaningless list brought them out in droves to label the entire exercise a “joke” or “ridiculous.” They noted a “pattern” of insulting Cardinal players, apparently because a similar list of shortstops omitted Ozzie Smith. The same list included Luis Aparicio, which doesn’t make very much sense if you compare them.

So yeah, I understand why they barked at that one. But that’s the entire point of these lists. It’s to generate clicks and comments and even outrage. And boy, if you want some outrage, just do something Cardinals fans would consider an insult. It’s as reliable as the sun rising in the east. Disrespect a Cardinal legend and you can rely on your social media engagement count shooting through the roof. They lose all sense of reality.

For example, where was this “pattern” of overlooking the Cardinals when three different Cardinals made the list of the top-nine first basemen? Or when three Cardinal relievers made that list? MLB Network posted ten of these lists. That’s ninety players. A fair distribution of those players across thirty major league teams would be three per team. Yes, that number increases when you consider players played for multiple teams that can claim them, but it’s a fair baseline to start with. St. Louis had nine players on the lists, ten percent of the total and three times as many as an average team could expect. That’s pretty good to most fan bases, but not in St. Louis.

---

---

At the risk of enraging them further, allow me to make two different arguments. One will be the pro-Gibson argument that spells out why Bob Gibson was clearly one of the top-nine starting pitchers since 1947. The other argument will be why he wasn’t.

Pro

• Among pitchers who threw at least 2,000 innings since 1947, Bob Gibson’s 2.91 ERA is ninth overall, and of the eight pitchers in front of him, only Jim Palmer and Tom Seaver pitched more innings than Gibson’s 3,884.1.

• His ERA+ mark of 127 is tied with Seaver, and the only pitchers ahead of him who pitched more innings are Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Greg Maddux.

• Gibson’s Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) mark of 2.89 is third during this time period, trailing only Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw.

• His 56 career shutouts are the sixth-most during this time period, trailing only Seaver, Warren Spahn, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, and Don Sutton.

• His 3,117 strikeouts are fifteenth in this era, but eleven of the fourteen pitchers ahead of him needed more innings to compile their totals. Only Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Pedro Martinez took fewer innings to post more strikeouts than Gibson.

• Among pitchers with at least 400 decisions, his .591 winning percentage is eleventh, but only six of the pitchers with a better mark had more decisions than Gibson had - Clemens, Johnson, Maddux, and Seaver, plus Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine.

• Gibson was an excellent fielder, winning nine Gold Gloves, third-most ever among pitchers behind only Maddux and Jim Kaat.

• He was a very good-hitting pitcher as well. Among pitchers since 1947, only Spahn, Bob Lemon, and Don Newcombe posted more offensive WAR than Gibson, and only Lemon, Spahn, Earl Wilson and Don Drysdale hit more home runs.

• Gibson was also a dominant force in the postseason, winner of two World Series MVP awards. Only Whitey Ford, Madison Bumgarner and Josh Beckett threw more postseason shutouts than Gibson during these years. Among pitchers with at least nine postseason starts, only Curt Schilling, John Smoltz and the immortal Colby Lewis had a better winning percentage. Among pitchers with at least five postseason starts, only Koufax, Ian Anderson, Stephen Strasburg, Mickey Lolich, Ranger Suárez and Scott McGregor had a better ERA.

Add all of this up, and it’s obvious that Gibson was one of the best nine starters since 1947. To claim otherwise is a travesty!

Photo Credit: Walter Iooss Jr., Sports Illustrated

Con

As just noted, the following pitchers were better than Bob Gibson in at least one of those categories:

Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Sandy Koufax, Clayton Kershaw, Warren Spahn, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Don Sutton, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Pedro Martinez, Mike Mussina, Tom Glavine, Jim Kaat, Bob Lemon, Don Newcombe, Earl Wilson, Don Drysdale, Whitey Ford, Madison Bumgarner, Josh Beckett, Curt Shilling, John Smoltz, Colby Lewis, Ian Anderson, Stephen Strasburg, Mickey Lolich, Ranger Suárez, and Scott McGregor.

That’s thirty-two, and I haven’t even mentioned some really, really good pitchers yet, like Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry, Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Jack Morris, Andy Pettitte, Jamie Moyer, Tommy John and C.C. Sabathia, every single one of whom won as many or more games as Bob Gibson. Or Dennis Martinez and Frank Tanana, who both threw more innings than Gibson. Or Juan Marichal who had a better ERA and winning percentage and completed games at a greater percentage. Or Roy Halladay and Johan Santana, who each had a better career ERA+ mark than Gibson.

That’s sixteen more. We’re nearly at fifty starting pitchers who were better than Bob Gibson at something, and while it’s obvious that some of them are nowhere near Gibson’s class simply because they had a single stat that was better than his, it’s just as obvious that a lot of those pitchers were better than Gibson in multiple areas. For instance, fourteen pitchers had more strikeouts than Gibson during these years. Of them, twelve also had more wins, and seven had a better ERA compared to their leagues. In the pitching Triple Crown categories of wins, strikeouts and ERA, Gibson stands tied for 24th, 15th, and 8th. If we change ERA to ERA+ to account for the different scoring environments, he drops from 8th to a tie for 12th. Many pitchers are ahead of him in two or even all three of those categories.

That still makes him a remarkably good pitcher, easily a first-ballot Hall of Famer. There’s a very reasonable argument to make that a pitcher who is in the top-24 or better in all of the Triple Crown categories AND was a great hitter AND was a great fielder AND was a great postseason pitcher was easily one of the top-nine overall starters of the time period. I just made a version of that argument, and it’s a fair one.

But it’s also fair for people to disagree. Gibson’s case is not an obvious, slam dunk case, as shown. I mean, here’s where he stands against just Justin Verlander:

And remember, Verlander did not make that list. Neither did Gibson’s old teammate, Steve Carlton, who had 78 more wins, 1,019 more strikeouts, and 2 more Cy Young Awards than Gibson. Oh, he also used to be a Cardinal, but since his greatness didn’t develop until after he left St. Louis, apparently Cardinal fans don’t find his reputation worthy of defending.

I could go on, but you get the point, which is that there are very reasonable arguments for a couple of dozen pitchers to be on that list. Gibson is one of them, an all-time great, but leaving him off the list isn’t an insult. St. Louis wasn’t targeted in some way.

So just calm the hell down, Cardinal fans. No one is damaging Bob Gibson’s legacy. The only legacy being damaged when you react this way to silly lists is your own.

---