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Posted By: Jay Miller

Lifetime stats are one measure of greatness but unless there is consistent performance throughout the player's career I think they are very misleading. Granted, it took Koufax a while to hone his pitching skills, but once he did for a solid five years he was as great as anyone ever. If not for physical problems he probably could have kept this up for a while. Lifetime stats are why people think of Aaron as a great HR hitter when he never hit 50 HRs in a season. Lifetime stats are why Yaz is in the HOF when for the second half of his career he was nothing special. And Jay don't forget your guy Kirby Puckett when you are talking about marginal to shouldn't be there at all HOFers.
As for most overrated vintage pitcher I will nominate Famous Amos Rusie. He pitched for ten years and had a winning record in only five of those. Doesn't sound like an all time great to me.