Originally posted by Matthew C.
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I am not arguing that WAR is not accurate in Koufax's case. I am arguing that we are not sure that Koufax could have duplicated his peak in another ballpark.
Look at Todd Helton. Regardless of what WAR says, many people are still not sure he wasn't a product of Coors field. When players such as Koufax and Helton have such great disparities in their home/road splits, it leaves a lot of questions in peoples' minds.
When Helton becomes eligible for the HoF, he will probably lose some votes because he played his whole career at Coors, and voters are unsure of exactly how much that helped him.
Similarly with Koufax, I am not disputing his WAR totals. What I do question or wonder is if he could duplicate his 10.8 pitching WAR the next season if he was traded to another team, and did not have the benefit of Dodger stadium.
If he gets traded to another team, and doesn't come up with anything close to the peak he had at Dodger stadium, then what would that say? It doesn't mean that WAR was wrong, it means that he was a product of pitcher friendly Dodger stadium, or of course, he could have just tailed off.
If he gets traded to another team and pretty much duplicates what he accomplished at Dodger stadium by putting up similar WAR seasons as his peak, then I know for sure that Koufax wasn't a product of Dodger stadium.
I don't have any evidence, but I think that good pitchers are helped more by pitcher friendly parks than average to poor ones.
I just wish that Koufax had the opportunity to show that he could have achieved 10+ WAR without the help of Dodger stadium. Some people are convinced that he would have, but me not so much.
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