Masaaki Koyama

Koyama started his career in 1953, so he's not a deadball pitcher. I think that I'd work with Wynn and Roberts, and base my decision on the following factors:

1. 300 wins -- I know Wynn made this mark, and I don't recall that Roberts made it;
2. relatively high strikeout totals -- whichever one did better here gets the edge;
3. relatively low ERA -- I think Roberts has the edge here;
4. If it remains too close to call, I'd go with the most similar winning percentage.

Jim Albright

1. Roberts got to 286 wins with, I thought, generally poor teams.

2. Roberts had 2,357 K in 4,689 IP, Wynn had 2,334 K in 4,564 IP, basically a wash.

3. Roberts has the lower absolute ERA but higher adjusted ERA.

4. Since it's really close, Koyama's win% was 58%, Roberts' was 54%, Wynn's was 55%. That's what you call a slight edge to Wynn!

So maybe we should turn to Bill James' New Historical Baseball Abstract. He says that pitchers can be divided into "families" with similar characteristics. He puts Roberts in the family of many innings per year, exceptional strikeout to walk ratios, lots of home runs allowed, good fastballs, strong commitment to the strike zone, lots of first-pitch outs, working ahead of most hitters, high ratio of fly balls to ground balls, steady seasons with little fluctuation.

He doesn't mention which "family" Wynn is in, but he says in the Wynn section that he was famous for throwing inside. So that should help you guys narrow it down.

Since Roberts and Wynn seem so close, the next thing I looked at was control -- and there's a clear answer here. Koyama walked 978 batters in 4,899 innings. Roberts 902 in 4,689 innings, and Wynn 1,775 in 4,564 innings. Roberts is much closer in this category than Wynn is, and that's who I'd go with.

Jim Albright