[Seven]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I like to look at peak performance and Baseball Reference has a good short-hand look at the peak 7 year performances. Seven years is enough to weed out the anomalous streaks but short enough to discount cumulative stats due to longevity:

Grove:
JAWS Starting Pitcher (7th):
106.8 career WAR | 65.6 7yr-peak WAR | 86.2 JAWS | 6.8 WAR/162

Johnson:
JAWS Starting Pitcher (10th):
101.1 career WAR | 61.5 7yr-peak WAR | 81.3 JAWS | 5.6 WAR/162

Koufax:
JAWS Starting Pitcher (90th):
48.9 career WAR | 46.0 7yr-peak WAR | 47.4 JAWS | 4.7 WAR/162

Kershaw:
JAWS Starting Pitcher (34th):
71.9 career WAR | 49.7 7yr-peak WAR | 60.8 JAWS | 6.4 WAR/162

Hubbell:
JAWS Starting Pitcher (40th):
68.5 career WAR | 47.7 7yr-peak WAR | 58.1 JAWS | 4.8 WAR/162

I'm a huge Koufax fan and Kersh is a Dodger too, but Grove was just...better. As for Kersh and Koufax (which is a big debate in True Blue LA), gotta give it to Koufax based on what went into each season (Kersh pitches a lot less) and post-season performances.

I wanted to say that the only downfall to this is (or maybe to the argument for Koufax) that Koufax's peak, was shorter than seven years. He Burned bright, and quickly. Looking at the final four years of his career, in comparison to Grove's best four and Johnson's best four, Grove still edges him out, just barely in terms of WAR. To be quite frank, however I'd really be happy with any of them starting a "do or die" game for me!