[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BobC

Good, maybe we can cease the other crap and actually get some agreement. To me, the different Eras really makes it impossible to truly compare pitchers. This way you're looking at pitchers from similar times in a much more consistent context. The Koufax paradox is still there because of his fairly short time at his peak, and pretty early retirement. Personally, it is just too short for me to give him more credit. Especially when he retired and gave his health as a primary reason for reting early. Because of that, you wonder how bad he felt and if he had continued pitching would he have possibly been hit with injuries going forward, including possibly a career ending one.

I know it isn't statistically relevant or necessarily makes sense, but had he simply retired for no good reason, I wouldn't have counted the early retirement against him so much. He was at the height of his career when he stopped so, if I thought he could still be able to play at a high level otherwise, I would tend to subconciously see him continuing to perform well. Kind of like you may subconsciously think Spahn would have been doing had he not lost those 3 years to the service. But because he retired due to health, I think of him as being done at the point, with further enhancement to his career or stats not happening. Just the way it comes across to me, and doubt anyone else may think about it in that manner.

He essentially did have a career ending injury. His elbow was gone and his long-time physician told him he couldn't get him through another season.