Nolan Ryan may well be the greatest pitcher ever, given the poor teams that he played with!

Amazing to think how hard he was still throwing at 46. All of the no-hitters and strikeouts speak for himself. He did lose a lot of games, and while he did play for some bad clubs, forgetting his relatively minor role with The Mets of '69 , he also played for some good ones that won divisions and made playoffs- the '79 Angels,the Astros in the 80's- however,that's more than counterbalanced by his longevity, his pair of 20 win seasons for a pretty bad Angels club, his awesome single season strikeout marks, and his 300 plus wins. Hall of Famer, obviously. Ryan is the last pitcher on this list that I'll rate, because the guys ahead of him are all 5 star no- brainers, and for me, it's more interesting to rate the good or great but flawed, and less easy to say something about the truly, truly great ones.

7 no hitters. 5714 strikeouts. 27 seasons. Incredible durability throughout his career and always a guy you could count on to get a great start in.

Rollin with Nolan was an absolutely dominant pitcher when he was in the zone (which was quite often). His 7 no-hitters is a record that win NEVER be beat (the last one coming at the age of 42 years old!), his strike out totals of 5700 is over 1200 more than second place and his career ERA was only 3.19. He racked up 324 career wins in 27 major league seasons- this guy was literally throwing 95 MPH at the age of 45 years old- just absolutely amazing. The only detraction was the fact that he posted almost 300 career loses to got along with his 324 career wins. Much of that can be attibuted to the teams he played for at times. And to think the Mets traded him for Jim Fergosi- only the Mets, only the Mets :-(

By far the hardest throwing right hander of all time. Has a group of no hitters and strikeouts. One of the very best and a great gentleman.

Quite possibly the greatest of them all. No one is even close in strikeouts, no-hit games or one-hit games (19: truly amazing). Won over 300 games with a series of lackluster teams. Had a lifetime ERA in the low 3.00 range, which is remarkable when one considers how many batters he walked. Was still effective well in his 40s, and no one ever through harder, for longer and with more consistency than this guy. As great a pitcher Roger Clemens is, he'd have to pitch at an optimum level for another five years to reach the same kind of numbers Ryan had in most categories. Thus, Rich Davis doesn't know what he's talking about.

One of the four hardest throwers in history, but not in the top 10 greats. Drop him down the list.

Nolan Ryan is the best pitcher in the history of the game by far.