Career WAT Data, 1961-1972

Another small group of pitchers to consider using the Neft/Cohen period breakdowns:



In The Politics of Glory, Bill James discussed the similar W-L records of Drysdale and Pappas. As you can see, Drysdale had two more losses and pitched for teams with a W% 25 points higher. Of course, as always, there are other factors at play, and I don’t think there are many people who consider Pappas superior to Drysdale, and rightfully so. Another interesting pair that James discussed is Hunter and Tiant. Tiant had five more wins but six more losses pitched for teams ten points worse. He comes out with a three win advantage through the Oliver thinking, which is what James used, but they are essentially even in the Deane methodology. How do they turn out with the Wood approach?



Tiant and Hunter come out as equal in percentage, but Tiant’s extra decisions allow him to rank a slight advantage in the value categories. Still, the two are very evenly matched. Marichal’s W%, viewed in context, is remarkable. Among 200 NW pitchers that we’ve seen so far, only Grove, Ford, Young, Johnson, Alexander, and Mathewson rank ahead of the Dominican Dandy. Marichal’s gap in NW% over Gibson is bigger then Koufax’s lead over Marichal, and Koufax had 133 less decisions then Marichal.