Best lefty off all time? My vote is Koufax!

[HistoricNewspapers]

Originally Posted by CMIZ5290

Randy Johnson versus Sandy Koufax in a one win for all?? Please......KOUFAX

If you are picking that based on Koufax getting to pitch off a higher mound, with a bigger strike zone, with a less lively ball, and vs a lineup with less threats up and down....and Johnson having none of those advantages...then yes, not only do you pick Koufax:

Then you also pick all these guys from 1968 over Johnson too:
Bobby Bolin 1.99
Bob Veale 2.05
Stan Bahnsen 2.05
Steve Blass 2.12
Ray Washburn 2.26
Jim Nash 2.28
Joe Horlen 2.37
Etc..Etc...Etc..

"The regular changing of mound height was eventually prohibited. In 1950, teams settled on a height of 15 inches for the mound. Despite this regulation, some teams were accused of using a higher than regulation height mound; Dodger Stadium was particularly notorious for having a high mound. Following the incredibly low scoring in 1968, the rules were changed to reduce the mound to the contemporary 10 inch height. Some accusations of gamesmanship with mounds continue, usually with visiting teams complaining that the mounds in the visitor's bullpen don't match the mound of the field, so that relievers entering the game aren't properly adapted to the game mound." -Baseball reference.

I think everyone knows the advantage a higher mound gives a pitcher.

It is the same advantage, that nobody in their right mind is going to pass up on a pitcher(Johnson) who is ten inches taller, throws harder, has greater command...and also is superior in all the other pitching tools and mental capacities. Nobody takes the inferior(Koufax)pitcher there....unless a person is fooled because that inferior pitcher is being judged on extreme advantages that give him the ILLUSION of superior effectiveness.

No Brainer.

If that is anyone's rationale, great, your choice...but then:

Would you also be willing to partake in a home run hitting contest against me if I got to use the live ball from last season, and you had to use a ball from 1965...and I got to hit in Coors field and you had to hit in Dodger Stadium? Also, the pitcher you are facing is six foot ten inches tall and throwing 85MPH, and the pitcher I am facing is five foot eight and throwing 75MPH.

I'm willing to bet that people would immediately change their tune on the context once it was applied to them directly


PS If Aaron Judge is on this board, I'm changing the context in our home run contest, that I get to hit in the field they play the Little League World Series on, and you have to hit in Old(DiMaggio) Yankee Stadium.

Then I can walk around saying I am a better home run hitter than Aaron Judge...just like the people saying that Koufax is better than Randy Johnson.