I don't agree with that.  Hershiser was a better pitcher than Valenzuela, probably; certainly if you're looking for a 3-year peak.  I'd take him way ahead of Ryan, too.  But he wasn't the same kind of intimidating or "untouchable."  He wasn't really a power guy, he didn't frighten hitters the same way.  There weren't so many games where the other team basically just knew they were going to lose.  To a lesser extent the same could be said of Maddux, I guess, but he was just SO good, and he did manage to parlay his impressive repertoire and command into some serious strikeout numbers for a few years.  Hershiser never did that - even in his prime, I don't think he ever had a 7 K/9 season.

59 consecutive scoreless tells me he may have been a tad intimidating or "untouchable"


but, true - he wasn't necessarily a "power" pitcher - but I'd have to imagine not too many batters were happy to see Bulldog on the hill

I thought about that.  But I don't think most people would call Zach Greinke particularly intimidating, or name him in the top 2 or 3 pitchers in baseball right now, in spite of his incredible scoreless streak.  And his K/9 is far better than Hershiser's ever was.  I was wrong about that 7 K/9 thing, though - he had 7.1 as a rookie.  Never again, though.

I think about it this way, and maybe you disagree with me.  If you were to go out RIGHT NOW, in the midst of Greinke's scoreless streak, and ask a few hundred fairly serious baseball fans to name their dream rotations for next year, how many do you think would name Greinke?  I think you'd see the same 4 names on most of the responses: Scherzer, Sale, King Felix, and Kershaw.  Given his visibility right now, I'm sure you would get some of Greinke for the fifth spot.  But you'd also see a lot of Keuchel, Wheeler, DeGrom, Gray, Kluber, Shelby Miller, Jose Fernandez, Bumgarner, Archer, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Martinez, Cueto, Arrieta, and Price.  If he's in something close to a 14-way tie for 5th-best starter in baseball, while in the midst of pitching virtually as effectively as anybody possibly could, he's not going to make anybody's list of dominant pitchers for the decade.  Maybe that changes over the next few years.  But I think it makes my point about Hershiser.

You can name that many(14) pitchers better than Hershiser from, let's say, 85-88?

Go......

It was for the full decade, not a 4-year period you arbitrarily define.  And I didn't say better, I said more intimidating, and more popular with the fans.

If you really want a list of guys who were better than Hershiser for the best 4-year period of his career, then Clemens and Gooden are the obvious names.  You could definitely make an argument for Tudor and Mike Scott as well.

yep... Tudor & Scott were the first to come to mind for me, as well

Doc & Clemens for sure. Along with Ryan, I guess that would be the 80's list.

Maybe I'm letting my own memories of the 80's cloud my judgement here, but for a good 5 year stretch, Hershiser was nasty. His name would invariably come up whenever '80's rotations were mentioned.

I still must say, he was as much of an intimidating figure on the hill as any of 'em.

..and I think we are talking about an abbreviated period, because aside from Ryan, nobody had more than a 5 year "dominant" stretch

Clemens' first impact season was '86. Gooden was '84 - as was Hershiser.

Scott, while pitching the entire decade, didn't peak(or learn the splitter) until '85.

Tudor was a hired gun - while filthy, never put together more than back-to-back seasons of filth.

We seem to forget that Mario Soto had some nasty #'s in the beginning of the '80's - but did he "dominate" or "intimidate"?

Fernando, Saberhagen, Morris, Andujar and Stieb too all had marvelous careers in the '80's - but dominant? Intimidating?

Andujar was intimidating in that he was capable of snapping at seemingly any moment.

Morris might not have been dominant, but he was close.  Rock solid for the entire decade of the 80s and then some.


Oh, if we're talking about the first half of the decade, you have to include Ron Guidry on any list.  

Dave Stewart was as menacing as they come, too. He had a 'presence' on the mound.

Yes, but it took him most of the 80s to become Dave Stewart.

Top four living players = Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Ted Williams' head (or Clemens/Maddux)

Johnny Bench isn't in the top 20

Again, if it were best players, I'd agree with you.  But greatest?  Bench revolutionized the way the catcher position was played defensively, and he was at least arguably the best all-around catcher in the history of the game.  So on the greatness list, I think he legitimately ranks pretty highly.