Tom Brennan - HOW GREAT WOULD SANDY KOUFAX HAVE BEEN PITCHING FOR THE EARLY 1960’S METS?

Sometimes, it helps to be both great and well-connected.  

Playing on the early 1960s Mets was the antithesis of "well-connected.

Fellow Mack’s Macks writer John From Albany, in his great Daily Clips postings, made recent mention of Larry Jackson as a 1960s Mets killer who beat them 18 straight times.  

Hardly remembering Jackson (maybe as a Mets fan, I suppressed the memories of domestic baseball abuse), I was surprised I could so easily all-but-forget Larry Jackson, given that he had recorded 194 career wins.

Turns out he was 39-8, 2.20 in his career against the expansion Mets and Astros, but 20 games below .500 for everyone else, with an ERA more than a run and a half higher. 

Remarkable how two horrendous teams could inflate an opposing pitcher’s career win-loss record.

So, my thoughts redirected to a hurler from that era, the great Sandy Koufax.  

Yes, he was the best pitcher from 1962-1966, hands down.  

Great.

In those 5 seasons, backed by a strong LA Dodger team, he was 107-34 (.759) with a 1.95 ERA.  

Without the Mets and Houston, he was 76-30 (.716) 2.04, yep, still great. 

Against the Mets and Astros from 1962 to 1966, though, he was a stunning 31-4 (.886), 1.68 ERA, with a WHIP of 0.865, including that no hitter against the Mets in June 1962.

So, he was great even against non-expansion teams.  But far more lethal against those patsies.

But the Dodgers were elite even besides Koufax. Aside from one down season at 80-82, the other 4 seasons the Dodgers averaged 98 wins.  

The Dodgers, excluding their ace’s wins and losses, were still an average of 10 games over .500 in those 5 seasons.

So, it led to my next scattered thought:

What might Koufax have been in those 5 seasons if he had instead started for the abysmal Mets?

Worse, obviously.  

Instead of facing a pushover Mets team, for one thing, he would have faced the comparably much tougher Dodgers, backed by an anemic Mets offense and defense.

In fact, in those 5 seasons, the Mets averaged 108 less runs scored per season, and 33 more unearned runs, than LAD.  

Pitching against the Dodgers, and instead for the awful Mets, even Koufax would have often been an underdog.

Lastly, just to drive the point home, I'll pick two lesser but decent Mets early 1960s starters...what were their career records, both with the Mets, and when pitching for other teams?

ROGER CRAIG:

AS A MET: 15-46, 4.14

PITCHING FOR OTHER TEAMS: 59-54, 3.73

AL JACKSON:

AS A MET: 43-80, 4.26

PITCHING FOR OTHER TEAMS: 24-19, 3.31

So, those two dudes were 58-126 as Mets, but 83-73 for other teams, a truly drastic difference that showed how greatly a pitcher's record could be impacted pitching for a team that won hundreds of fewer games than it lost in its early seasons.

Leading to my conclusion:

My guess, given the above, on Koufax’s record if he had been a Met from 1962-1966?

75-66, 2.15.  32 less wins, 32 more losses over those 5 seasons.  

And that might be generous, given how horrendous the Mets were.

75-66?  In other words, the Jake deGrom of his day.

And, if Sandy were 75-66, 2.15 in those 5 years, he would have ended up just 133-119, 2.90. What might that have done to perceptions?

Highly regarded for what he accomplished pitching for the crappy Mets, but not considered in the Pantheon of Greats, perhaps.

Perhaps he wouldn’t even have made the Hall of Fame. 

133-119 pitchers back then, no matter how good, when 250-300 wins was the normal HOF standard, might have turned off a lot of voters.

Greatness has elements of luck when determining the level of one's greatness. 

Jake deGrom no doubt has come to realize that.

No doubt, many times would like to scream or trash the clubhouse, but he is a pro's pro. 

If Jake had been pitching for the superior Dodgers the whole time, would he be a 90-31 pitcher right now, instead of 70-51? 

Probably.  And that would be incredible.

Koufax was lucky to have played for a very fine team with good defense, with lots of starts against 2 expansion teams to boot, to make his greatness completely obvious to all. 

It made his greatness shine all the greater.

Thank heavens the kid from Brooklyn didn't play for the Mets.

And, with a Steve Cohen-turbocharged Mets team, maybe we'll finally see Jake deGrom pitching for Mets teams as relatively superior as those early 1960s teams, so wins for him become much more frequent.

P.S. Of course, he wasn't lucky in one respect...his career salary totaled less than $1 million.  About what Gerritt Cole makes for a single game (I know, I know, inflation LOL)