The right stuff

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 | Feedback | Print Entry

Roy Oswalt pitches the biggest game of his career tonight for the Astros, and while he may or may not win, there is no question that Houston will be well-armed for this game. Oswalt's remarkable performance in Game 2 of this series spurred some chat with scouts and other writers and broadcasters who are following the series about which starting pitchers have the best pure stuff in the majors -- a great combination of pitches that simply overpowers hitters.

Pedro Martinez is still among the greatest pitchers, for the way he mixes and matches and attacks hitters, but his strength is his guile, rather than his pure stuff.

Here are the informal results, in a loose ranking:  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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