Best lefty off all time? My vote is Koufax!

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Every argument for Koufax seems to depend on cherry picking his five best years. Years he happened to be pitching in a VERY favorable park. I am no sabermetrics scholar but when I look at 1956 through 1960 or even 1961 when both were pitching, Spahn sure looks like the much better pitcher. Do we just excise that out of the analysis?

You keep hammering this point about Koufax benefitting from pitching in Dodger Stadium for his final 5 years (but you ignore the fact that he was in two of the worst pitcher's parks in MLB history for his first 7 years). I've granted you that point and have mentioned multiple times that it should be accounted for and would definitely adjust his peak year numbers down. However, you continue to overlook or ignore the fact that Warren Spahn played in an even MORE favorable park than Koufax did. Are you aware that County Stadium was the friendliest pitcher's park in MLB history prior to Petco Park opening up in 2004? Per Baseball Reference's Park Factor stats, Warren Spahn threw in the #1 friendliest pitchers' park, not just of his era, but of any era prior to the 2000s, and in what still to this day remains as the 2nd friendliest pitcher's park of all time, just a fraction of a hair behind Petco Park in the mid to late 2000s.

So if you want to start making adjustments for Koufax's park, then you have to make them for Spahn and Randy as well. And given his tenure in County Stadium and other extremely friendly pitchers' parks, there is literally no other pitcher in history whose numbers would take a bigger park factor hit than Warren Spahn. His overall numbers would literally take the largest hit of every single major league pitcher who ever threw from the mound by adjusting for park factors. Don't believe me? Go look it up yourself.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/t...L/attend.shtml

Meanwhile, Randy Johnson pitched in one of the worst pitchers' parks in MLB history when he won his 4 consecutive CYAs in Arizona. I can't even imagine wanting or needing to IMPROVE his numbers from those 4 years, but the data tells us that we should. Pretty insane, if you ask me.