Best lefty off all time? My vote is Koufax!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Snowman

He might be, but we wouldn't have enough data to say that with confidence. We'd probably want something like 600-800 innings worth of work for variance to even out. And even then, someone could still have gotten lucky over that sample size, it's just significantly less likely.

So if in my hypothetical the guy puts together two more similar seasons, then quits or dies, you would say he's the greatest ever?

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

So if in my hypothetical the guy puts together two more similar seasons, then quits or dies, you would say he's the greatest ever?

If someone strings together the 4 greatest years in history then dies in a plane crash, then I think they're at least worth considering. It depends on how much better they were than everyone else though too. If some kid shows up next year and throws 225 innings with a 0.71 ERA, a 0.51 WHIP with 16 K/9, all while maintaining a league average BABIP, and then repeats it for 2 more years before hanging up the cleats to join the Navy Seals, then I'd have no problem saying he is the best pitcher of all time, despite only giving us 675 innings of greatness.

[G1911]

I very much admire the Socratic, and generally adopt the view that I might think a lot but don't really know a whole lot. One thing I know is that Sandy Koufax absolutely did not string together the best 4 pitching years in history.

No prominent baseball statistician has reached this conclusion, and the cumulative advanced metrics do not support it either. By the appeal to authority, prominent baseball statisticians outrank anyone else for baseball stats. Via the appeal to authority, this argument for Koufax thus fails.

See why these kinds of arguments are not good ones to make?