| Player | bWAR/IP | bWAR | IP | From | To | Age | SO | ERA | FIP | ERA+ | BB/9 | SO/9 | SO/BB |
| Lefty Gomez | .0199 (20th) | 40.5 (13th) | 2036.2 (24th) | 1930 | 1938 | 21-29 | 1235 (27th) | 3.22 (66th) | 3.77 (126th) | 131 (11th) | 3.62 (149th) | 5.46 (76th) | 1.51 (115) |
Rankings above are with respect to left-handers who threw at least 1,000 innings before their age-thirty season. This will hold true for the rest of this post.
Lefty Gomez is an interesting case. He doesn’t fair too strongly in categories like raw run prevention or strikeouts to walks; however, we must consider that Gomez played in a strong offensive environment. Just look at this chart.
Graph depicting the changes in offensive averages across baseball per Ross Benes of Deadspin pic.twitter.com/03UvzfoGGD
— Cole Witaszek (@ColesFwitter) July 10, 2018
The mid to late 1930’s had more runs scored on average than any era until about 2000. The league average SO/9 in the 1930’s was also in the low to mid threes. His 131 ERA+ and three strikeout titles show that he was just as dominant relative to his competition as almost anyone on this list.
His 40.5 bWAR is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but the table above doesn’t display his most impressive accomplishments. Gomez made six All-Star appearances, was a member of four World Series-winning teams and won two pitching triple crowns before his 30th birthday.
When talking about the most accomplished southpaws the game has seen, Lefty Gomez must be in the discussion.