When I should have been studying for my genetics exam, but I couldn't believe how far ahead in most statistics he was at that point. It got me thinking, are his numbers untouchable in today's game? I think the strikeouts at least will never be matched.


Side note: the MLB classic games on the at bat app are pretty awesome. It's pretty cool to see how the game has changed over the years.

Other than K's (and BB's) what stats are your referring to that he's so far ahead of the field?

The ability to pitch at a high level for a long time (20+ seasons) is going to be obviously tough to match, but MLB hitters are striking out at considerably higher rate than ever before, so I don't think its impossible to match by the right talent. Obviously will be tough to do though.

Wasn't the 4 man rotation still industry standard for a good chunk of Nolan's career?

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Wasn't the 4 man rotation still industry standard for a good chunk of Nolan's career?

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Certainly during the Angels part of his career this is true.

another thing to give Nolan a great amount of credit for...his no-hitters did not come against tomato cans. He no-hit championship-level teams.

the 1981 Dodgers won the world series. The 1990 A's played in the world series. And the 1991 Blue Jays reached the ALCS

There's probably only one pitcher that has a snowball's chance and that's Verlander...Nolan pitched at a time, rumor has it, he threw 240 pitches in a 13 inning game (19 Ks and 10 BBs); then took his next return in the rotation. Even at 42 he threw 164 pitches during a game.

Due to the pitch count movement...Nolan's K record won't be touched.

Nolan pitched nearly 5400 innings. That's just incredible and the biggest obstacle to someone chasing the K record. Verlander was in the bigs at a reasonably young age, has been an absolute workhorse that led the league in innings 3-4 times, and at 31 years old at the start of next season, he only has 1/3 the number of innings Ryan pitched.

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 2/13/2014 9:45a).]

coaching mentality has changed as well;

1) Starter goes at least 5 but no more than 7
2) Set up man enters in 8th
3) Closer enters in 9th
4) Long reliever enters in 5th if starter is struggling

Another obstacle to Nolan's K record is that training techniques have normalized across baseball. His velocity was astounding, when compared to the rest of the league. Pitchers today are closer to maximizing the potential of the human body with regards to the overhand throwing motion. Finding data to supplement my point is hard due to the fact that radar observation was not as prevalent as it is today, but I found that only four other pitchers were clocked at over 100 mph between when Nolan became the first to do so in 1974 and his retirement in 1993. Three of them did it in the last few years of his career and the other guy barely made the club. 47 pitchers have accomplished this feat in the 20 years since he retired. The point of all this is that it would be much harder for a pitcher today to throw with enough velocity to distinguish himself from what the batters see on a routine basis.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/fastest-pitcher-in-baseball.shtml

[This message has been edited by hawk1689 (edited 2/16/2014 6:10a).]

[This message has been edited by hawk1689 (edited 2/16/2014 6:12a).]

hawk...nice article!

I agree the Ks record will likely stand forever. Nolan said at one point, he would have kept pitching if his legs would have cooperated. Man.....he was a workhorse.

Sad to see him go from Rangers, but happy for him that it was on his terms. I don't blame him at all for it, or anyone else for that matter.

He has done a ton for baseball in Texas!

GIG 'EM - Class of '93


[This message has been edited by Aggieangler93 (edited 2/21/2014 12:31a).]