Clemente or Koufax?

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by rats60

He put together the greatest 5 year run in MLB history while being less than 100% most of the time and missing big parts of two of the seasons.

No disrespect intended towards Koufax, who was a phenomenal pitcher, but Pedro Martinez' seven year peak blows Koufax's five out of the water.

Koufax 1962-1966:
111 W-34 L (.766 PCT), 1.95 ERA, per 162 G average: 34 starts, 289 K, 63 BB. 0.926 WHIP, 2.00 FIP, 167 ERA+, 6.3 H, 0.6 HR, 9.4 K and 2.1 BB/9 IP, 4.57 K:BB.

Martinez 1997-2003:
118 W-36 L (.766 PCT), 2.20 ERA, per 162 G average: 34 starts, 300 K, 54 BB. 0.940 WHIP, 2.26 FIP, 213 ERA+, 6.4 H, 0.6 HR, 11.3 K and 2.0 BB/9 IP, 5.59 K:BB.

Koufax won three Cy Youngs and finished 3rd another season.
Martinez won three Cy Youngs, finished 2nd two other times, and 3rd another.

Koufax' year by year ERA+: 143, 159, 186, 160, 190
Martinez' year by year ERA+: 219, 163, 243, 291, 188, 202, 211

Between 1962-1966, the average OPS in the National League was .691.
Between 1997 and 2003, the average OPS In the American League was .771.

The two pitchers had virtually identical home runs, walks and hits allowed per 9 innings. They had comparable WHIP (Koufax 0.926, Martinez 0.940) and FIP (2.00 Koufax, 2.26 Martinez). Martinez struck out 2 more batters per 9 innings.

The difference is that while putting up highly comparable numbers, Martinez did it playing in an era where offense was clearly at a premium.