Billy Pierce or Catfish Hunter?

[Ytown Tribe fan]

One's in the Hall of Fame, one isn't.

Who was the better pitcher of the two?

[pwdennis]

I picked Pierce - I think that both of these guys are borderline HOF with probably both belonging outside looking in.

Superficially it looks like Hunter had the greater peak value because of the flashy W-L records Hunter achieved while playing with the great A's teams of the early 1970s, but Pierce had better *ERA+ in seasons where he simply got little run support

[nyy26wc]

Pierce, by an overwhelming landslide.

RCAA: Pierce 224, Hunter 56
ERA vs. league average: Pierce +0.68, Hunter +0.29

Hunter was 60th in the majors in RSAA during the timespan of his career. Pierce ranked 4th. When Hunter debuted in 1965, there were 20 teams in the majors. So, there were enough pitchers ahead of him in RSAA over the course of his career to give every one of those teams 3 of them, except for one that only had to settle for 2. Compare that to Pierce, who had only 3 pitchers ahead of him in the entire majors, with one of them (Robin Roberts) doing it by a margin of just 1 RSAA. Pierce was closer to the #1 spot over the course of his career than Hunter was to getting into the top dozen.

[Wolf Hopper]

FWIW, Pierce had 8 seasons with RSAA >= 10 & IP >= 162. Hunter had 5.

Pierce had 4 seasons of 29+ RSAA. Hunter had 2 - and came close to a 3rd.

Career or peak, Pierce wins, IMHO.

[sweaver]

Pierce was the better pitcher. But I choose Catfish for peak, because he had some big years, and his World Series performance should count for something.

[Skip]

Catfish is on my personal list of all-time overblown players. Any chance to vote against him is something I relish.

Not that he's 'bad' mind you, just overblown, overrated, over-the-top.

[KCBOOMER]

Despite Catfish coming up with the KC A's I have to go with Pierce. he was simply better as Lee illustrates above. Only Catfish's WS championship appearances lifted him so high in the public and the BBWAA's mind. To me neither should be in the HoF but if only one could it should have been Pierce.

[gyb13]

But I choose Catfish for peak, because he had some big years, and his World Series performance should count for something.so peak performance is performing in big games???

pierce is my answer

[sweaver]

so peak performance is performing in big games???

To a certain extent. At least I interpreted it so in this case.