The peak vs. longevity argument is just a matter of opinion. I say Niekro was better than Koufax, but I recognize that most people don't share that opinion.
The simplest statistic I calculate to rank players is something I call "Simlab" on my spreadsheets and is an exponential function of WAR and Games that's calibrated to penalize a player either for having a short career or for hanging around past his prime. Albert Pujols for example dropped from #28 to #38 in the past year. It's better than WAR, and it's also better than WAR7, and I daresay it's an improvement on JAWS (which it's fairly close to conceptually but more elegant than just averaging two numbers).
It gives me:
1) Babe Ruth
2) Walter Johnson
3) Cy Young
4) Barry Bonds
5) Roger Clemens
6) Willie Mays
7) Ty Cobb
8) Rogers Hornsby
9) Ted Williams
10) Kid Nichols
as having had the best MLB statistics and also puts Halladay's rank well ahead of Ryan who is, in turn, well ahead of Pettite.
|