Warren Spahn - Why No Hobby Love?

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

I think there are many factors that come to play, though I'm not a big believer in the NY factor. There aren't exactly a ton of huge value pitchers from NY either.

Spahn had an extremely impressive career and a more impressive life, but he isn't the profile of a pitcher who becomes highly collected. While he did league the league in K's for 4 of his 21 seasons, he never K'd 200 in a season and his career total is not 2583, which is nice but not crazy. His K/9 for his career is 4.4, which is extremely low.

Additionally, while he was often a very good pitcher, he was only rarely an elite pitcher. His ERA+ was consistently in the 115-125 range, which is solid but not special. He had 2 seasons (1947 and 1953) when he was absolutely elite. He won just 1 Cy Young award (in 1957 which ironically was one of his solid, but not great seasons) and much of his value is in the sheer number of innings he pitcherd. His 162 game avg BWAR is 4.4 which reflects a very solid, but not remarkable pitcher.

Spahn's consistency and longevity resulted in some incredible career numbers, but his 119 ERA+ is the same as Red Faber, Ron Guidry, Bobby Shantz and Bob Lemon, some very good pitchers, but not all-time greats.

The pitchers who get collected are those who put up elite, elite numbers and are 'must watch' baseball. Spahn was boringly very good for a very very long time.

Hi Jeff,
Although I agree with some of your analysis, I believe there are several noteworthy omissions that apply to Warren Spahn:

13 seasons with 20 or more wins
8 seasons leading the league in wins
363 wins is fifth All-Time in MLB
63 shutouts is #6 All-Time" in MLB
Two no-hitters thrown AFTER age 39
Lifetime ERA was a solid 3.09
Cy Young in 1957
Sporting News Pitcher of the Year 4 times 1953, 1957, 1958, 1961
.995 Fielding Average (One of best ever in the MLB)
14 x All-Star- He appeared in 7 of them
World Series Champion 1957