I heard about this story today on Episode 234 of the "Baseball by the Book" podcast (approx. 16 minutes in). The teller, Jane Leavy, is a former acclaimed sportswriter, who penned several Baseball related books including Koufax's biography "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy".
Great podcast all around with many lovely stories therein. Especially adored the information about Koufax's notably large hands: "Why was Koufax so great? Shake his hands and then come back to me!"
By that I mean a position player with excellent stats and a relatively short career who retired at the peak of his powers. Has any such player existed in MLB?
Koufax:
1st inning vs Mets, June 30th 1962
5th inning vs Colt .45s, April 19th 1963
3rd inning vs Reds, April 18th 1964
Sale:
7th inning vs Orioles, May 8th 2019
8th inning vs Royals, June 5th 2019
3rd inning vs Twins, August 26th 2021
Hi guys, I've been dying to get a Sandy Koufax jersey but can't seem to find one anywhere. Does anyone know where I can get one that's legit?
Thank you!
Santana likely would have been a HOF lock if his career hadn't been cut short so early. From his breakout year in 2004 to his first year with the Mets, Santana had 25.1 WAA and 35.7 WAR in just 5 years. That's an insanely good peak, one of the best in modern history.
For comparison, Sandy Koufax had a 23.4 WAA and 36.2 WAR in his age 25-29 seasons.
If you want to add their age 30 seasons where Santana was post prime, Koufax has 3.4 more WAA. I think that's a lot closer than what most people would have expected. During those 6 years, Koufax had a 156 ERA+ compared to 154 for Santana.
If you look at 7 year peak like JAWS does, Koufax is at 46.0 WAR and Santana is at 45.0. Again, much closer than what most would expect I think. Santana actually has a slightly higher JAWS too.
So his 1966 season would be his first and 1955 be his last.
He starts his career being the most dominant pitcher the game has seen but quickly flames out after his fifth year.
