Top 4 Greatest Living (Retired) Ballplayers

I don't see how you can look at those numbers and think Koufax's 5-year run was better.

 

When you adjust ERA for the era, it doesn't look close to me.

 

I thought we'd gotten past the supposed lesser value of a great starting pitcher who "only" contributes once every five days. When you consider what his contribution is with one game, he's directly involved in a lot more overall plays in just one game than any hitter or fielder (even a catcher) is in five games.

 

And it also doesn't include 1997, which was probably Pedro's third-best year.

Koufax threw A LOT more innings, which counts for something. But he had many advantages — including mound height and ballpark — that Pedro did not.

Even without making any adjustments, Pedro's K/BB ratio and K/9 IP rates for that period are far better.

Koufax also never had a decline phase, so his career looks better based on that.

 

Whoa -- where did you pull that one from? I went to middle school for a short time with his kid (who also lived in my dorm suite at Michigan St. baseball camp when we were 11 and who was kind of an asshole but in an oddly likeable way). I only remember Behney (or his kid for that matter, though I can't remember his first name for the life of me) because he was the first ex-major leaguer I'd ever met -- I was wearing a Reds cap for some reason when he dropped his kid off the first day of camp and said he used to play for them. His kid also made it sound like his dad had a lengthy career -- he claimed he used to hang out with Pete Rose Jr. (who was always on TV in the dugout wearing a Reds uniform when he was a kid) at Reds games. But I looked up his dad years later and it turns out his entire career consisted of 5 appearances in 1970. I was born in 1970 and his kid was the same age as me.

If you came up with Mel Behney as an answer to anything, you'd have to either be a huge Reds fan with an encyclopedic knowledge or know him personally.

 

Bench being on there is so wrong; great catcher no doubt but IMHO nowhere near Bonds, Frank Robinson, Maddux, Randy J, Carlton. I'd say Mays, Aaron, Bonds, Randy Johnson. RJ over Koufax is very tough but RJ was great for a very long time, so dominant and we'll look back at his record and think about how dominant he was and for how long. Maddux was great during the reg season and I'd love to say him but for all the games I saw him pitch in the the post-season, cannot remember one memorable start.

 

That's tremendous!

 

My bad: Garret Anderson, no; Mike Trout, YES!!

 

If you took PED out of it : Bonds, Mays, A Rod, Aaron