Posted By:
Bob"a look at Gooden's career. You essentially have Koufax in reverse"
I took a look at Gooden vs. Koufax at www.baseball-reference.com. This site allows you to look a appearences by a player in leader boards amoung their contemporaries. I'm not seeing that Gooden's beginning career say from 84-88 is anywhere near as dominant as Koufax's end, say from from 61-66.
Gooden led the league in wins, and era once, K's twice. Won 1 NL Cy Young award.
Koufax led the league in era 5 times, wins 3 times, K's 4 times. 3 ML Cy Young awards. 1 MVP.
I understand Koufax did not have the career numbers of a Johnson and perhaps he is a little over rated by people who assume that without injury he would of continued at his 61-66 pace forever. However his greatness over a six year period has been approached by very few.