Oh, I decided to address your obnoxious nonsense about Palmer and Spahn. Palmer missed an entire season at age 22, that’s true, and that’s sufficient for an example of a pitcher who was under-used early in his career, but he also pitched only 49 innings the season before. Or are you going to come back now and sneer that 49 innings in a season is a heavy workload. “Oh, I didn’t know that 49 innings counts as as a light pitching load. Oh, I’ve been schooled! Oh, it’s terrible!!” Like that?
ANd WTF difference does it make that Spahn was not established as a MLB pitcher before being serving in combat in WWII for three years as a young man? The point is it’s hard to strain your pitching arm when you don’t throw a fucking pitch for three years–is that so hard for you to understand?
I don’t understand what you people think is evidence. Feller was able, as a 17-year-old high school student to strike out eight of the nine batters in an exhibition game with a MLB team. Before the age of 18 he was able to equal the major league record of 17 strikeouts in a game.
So you compare this to a bunch of guys who weren’t good enough the do anything similar until they were years older and assume that Feller would have faltered without his WWII holiday. Why? What do his achievements have to do with the limits on the talents of other people?
Because he’s human, and the patterns of other humans are relevant to the discussion. He has far more in common with other MLB pitchers than with any other group, even though he’s a outlier in many ways with other MLB pitchers.
I don’t assume he would have faltered without taking a 3 1/2 year break–but he might have, because extended rest due to injury and military service have played a part in other pitchers’ durability. What I DO reject is the categorical statement that WWII cost him numerous victories–in the long run, maybe they gained him some victories. His record is what it is, not what it coulda woulda shoulda been.