The data for the Bill James pitcher rank reports keep growing, and it is now back far enough to include the entire career of Sandy Koufax. Koufax reached the number one ranking in May of 1962, and expect for a few days here and there, held onto the slot for the remainder of his career. At some point I will check the data, but he may be the only pitcher to end his career as the number one pitcher in these rankings.

In looking at his log, I have to wonder how much the last month of the 1966 season pushed him over the edge. The Dodgers came into September two games back in the NL in third place. They took first soon after that, but could not build a lead bigger than three games. During the last three weeks of the season, covering 20 games, Koufax made six starts and pitched 53 innings. He went 5-1, giving up eight runs. He knew he was pitching on borrowed time, but that was a huge workload for any era.

Update: My good friend David Aceto points out the J.R. Richard went out on top as well. I suspect all these cases will be due to catastrophic injuries or illnesses.