Bob Gibson overrated?

[26 to 6]

A lot of people consider Bob Gibson to be one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball. I even had him in my top 10-15. But in thread on another board I post on I came across this.

He had only two seasons with at least a 150 ERA+ (the same number as Jack Pfiester, the same number as Tim Wakefield, the same number as Dutch Leonard (no, not even that Dutch Leonard), one fewer than Russ Ford, half what Joe Wood had, and a solid 28% of Matty's (Christy Matthewson) total. He only finished higher than 4th in WHIP once. He never led his league in K rate.

Gibson's numbers look great, because he played in a pitcher's era. He had his best years in Busch, a pitcher's park. Very, very good pitcher. Good enough to lick Mathewson's shoes? No thank you.

Note, this is not posted by me, it is a post by somebody else. But when you look at the numbers this is a great post.

(BTW: this was a thread about Christy Matthewson and where he ranks among the best pitchers in the history of the game)

[YankeeDoodle]

Would one have to be pretty good in order for the rules to be changed? Not to mention Gibson was fantastic, including in '64 when he and the Cards beat the Yankees. This doesn't address the numbers and statistics you stated, but that's not really my thing.

Overrated is a subjective standard, but considering that his childhood was filled with health problems, it's all the more amazing.