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Greatest Left Handed Pitcher In History

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Ilmago, Oct 14, 2010.

  1. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    Building on my earlier theory, Spahn threw 380 complete games. Grover had 298. Carlton threw 254. Randy Johnson threw 100. Heck, even Koufax had more complete games than Johnson, who doesn't deserve to be in the debate for this reason. By the way, Carlton had 30 complete games in 1972. That's quite a few. My pick was Koufax, but I might desire to switch that to Spahn.
     
  2. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    Who's the greatest? I can't pick one, but I'll tell you this: Koufax (who attended the Univ of Cincinnati) was at a UC game a few years ago for an oh-so rare public appearance. I was in heaven. Got to say hello, shake his hand. I was expecting him to be stand-offish, as you would expect a famed recluse to be. He wasn't. I left my little five-minute howdy-do with a quote or two for a story but also with the feeling that I had just brushed up against a baseball deity.

    I don't get starstruck easily — hey, I think we all know athletes are just as f*cked up as the rest of us — but he did it. Only other time that's happened was with Larry Bird, which says something for Larry Legend since I was a die-hard Laker fan during the Showtime years.
     
  3. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Jimmy Key. [/jaysfanboylooser] :)

    Seriously, it's either Spahn or Koufax. They can be 1a and 1b, and the order doesn't matter.
     
  4. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    I usually stop reading these things as soon as someone reaches for whoever the greatest recent incarnation of whatever they are discussing happened to be.

    And:

    "Is there anyone out there who will seriously claim that Randy Johnson is not the greatest lefty of all time?"

    That was quick, Jim Caple.
     
  5. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    I was going to throw Sidd Finch into the mix then I realized he was a righty.

    Dude could bring the heat though.
     
  6. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Zane Smith or this guy...

    [​IMG]

    I think he played in Houston.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  7. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    Bobby Douglass
     
  8. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Hurst or Clemens the rest are lemons.
     
  9. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    I'm not going to say Johnson deserves equal consideration but it isn't fair to use complete games as a barometer with starters over the past 25-30 years. They aren't used the same way through no fault of their own — the evolution of the bullpen and the five-man rotation are reasons why.
     
  10. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    It's true that they aren't used the same way. But I don't think you can deny that Johnson would have had a much higher ERA if he had to go deeper into games. And I imagine Spahn would have had a higher ERA if he had been able to leave the game in the seventh inning. It would be interesting to take a look at Spahn's games to see when he allowed the most runs. My guess is that he allowed twice as many runs in the final three innings as in the first six.
     
  11. secretariat

    secretariat Active Member

    And you'd be wrong.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=spahnwa01&year=Career&t=p#innng

    By Inning
    SHARESHARE [X] · CSV · PRE · LINK · Direct Link
    I Split G IP ER ERA
    I 1st inning 509 505.2 179 3.19
    I 2nd inning 504 497.1 160 2.90
    I 3rd inning 490 481.0 149 2.79
    I 4th inning 478 474.0 156 2.96
    I 5th inning 467 457.2 161 3.17
    I 6th inning 449 436.1 175 3.61
    I 7th inning 418 400.0 131 2.95
    I 8th inning 386 373.1 133 3.21
    I 9th inning 344 324.1 118 3.27
    I Ext inning 35 69.2 25 3.23
    I Innings 1-3 509 1484.0 488 2.96
    I Innings 4-6 485 1368.0 492 3.24
    I Innings 7-9 460 1097.2 382 3.13

    And Sandy Koufax is not the best pitcher of all-time. He's a guy with five great years and a sixth good one.
     
  12. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    That's like saying Bobby Orr wasn't the greatest hockey player who ever lived because he only played nine full seasons, not even a third of the length of Gordie Howe's career.
     
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