Post by Sha-Le Unique on Oct 14, 2015 15:46:06 GMT -5
The NL used to have 1 pitcher that was way above the rest, but this is no longer the case today, with Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson all dominating NL hitters the way they have.
Historically, the National League has always had great pitching. Early on in HOFFBL history, it was Warren Spahn who was racking up 1 NL Cy Young Award after another. Later on, the lefty Mickey McDermott followed suit and won even more NL Cy Young Awards. But now that age really started catching up to McDermott, there is no longer a very dominant NL pitcher that is head and shoulders above the rest.
That's because there are now 3 NL pitchers that clearly have been the best over the past few seasons. It's hard to really nitpick over which has been better than the other 2 just because their career numbers are very close to each other in quite a few different categories.
Don Drysdale has won 2 Cy Young Awards and is the all-time leader in strikeouts. More hardware could be coming this season.
The first of these 3 pitchers is Pirates ace Don Drysdale. The 2-time NL Cy Young Award winner could be on his way to winning his third award this season with 21 wins, a league-leading 1.54 ERA (which is also a career high) and tied for the league lead with 373 strikeouts. Despite struggling early on his career, the growing pains ended up with Drysdale becoming as dominant as anyone over the past 6 seasons. In that span, Drysdale has been among the NL's top 3 in wins twice, ERA 6 times, strikeouts 6 times and shutouts 3 times. Speaking of strikeouts, Drysdale made history this season becoming not just the HOFFBL all-time strikeout king, but also reaching 3,000 career strikeouts at just 30 years old. The sky really is the limit for Drysdale's career and with a World Series championship last season, he could very well lead the Pirates to the promised land again.
No longer under Mickey McDermott's shadow in LA, Sandy Koufax has emerged as a very reliable leader for the Dodgers.
The second pitcher in this group is Dodgers' ace southpaw Sandy Koufax. For years, he was under McDermott's shadow, but in recent seasons, Koufax has emerged as the clear cut ace for his team. Koufax has won 20+ games in every season of his career so far, except for 1962, which featured a lengthy disabled list stint midway through the season. His ERA has been under 2.50 in every season since 1962. And like Drysdale, Koufax has been one of the most dominant NL pitchers around when it comes to strikeouts. He led the league in 1965 with 371 strikeouts and set a new career high of 373, which tied him with Drysdale this season with the league lead. Koufax's career got off to a later start than Drysdale's, which is the main reason why his career totals are not exactly up to par. Still though, 172 wins and a 2.53 ERA within 8 seasons is no joke. Koufax is well on his way to joining a long list of legendary Dodgers pitchers and with 2 championships already under his belt, more could still be on the way.
Bob Gibson has the best career ERA in HOFFBL history.
Rounding out the trio of elite NL arms is Bob Gibson of the Cardinals. Gibson won an NL Cy Young Award in 1963 when he led the Cardinals to their first NL East division title in team history. He has been among the top 3 in the NL in wins 4 times, ERA 4 times, strikeouts 6 times, and shutouts 5 times in his career. Gibson is now coming off a 25-win and 1.93 ERA this season, but he and the Cardinals missed the playoffs once again. This is hardly Gibson's fault though. He has been a rock for the Cardinals for years. Gibson is currently the HOFFBL career leader in ERA at 2.47 and is 14th in strikeouts as he moves on up that ranking. He is also 8th all-time with 43 shutouts. All in all, Gibson has had a fantastic career so far and is pretty much just missing a World Series ring on what should become a Hall of Fame resume.
The National League has never seen a trio of pitchers this dominant at very similar ages and time will tell whether another such trio ever comes around in the future.
