Sabes vs. Sandy

This post can be considered an addendum to this and this.

Just an observation regarding the careers of Sandy Koufax and Bret Saberhagen:

This table shows Koufax's WAR for each of his twelve seasons (through his final, age 30 season) and Saberhagen's WAR for his first twelve seasons (through his age 31 season):

Koufax	Saberhagen
10.7	9.7
10.3	8.0
8.1	7.3
7.4	5.5
5.7	5.1
4.4	3.8
2.1	3.6
1.5	2.7
1.3	2.2
1.1	2.0
0.9	1.5
-0.3	1.5

As you can see, Koufax wins out for each of the top six seasons. However, Saberhagen is best for each of the bottom six. Overall, thus, Koufax totals 53.2 WAR and 30.7 WAA in 2324 1/3 IP; Saberhagen totals 52.6 WAR and 33.6 WAA in 2227 2/3 IP.

For their careers, Koufax went 165-87 with 53.2 WAR in 2324 1/3 IP, while Saberhagen went 167-117 with 59.1 WAR in 2562 2/3 IP. These totals are not terribly different. Nonetheless, Koufax received 86.9% of the Hall of Fame vote in 1972 and was inducted on the first ballot; Saberhagen received just 1.3% (7 votes) in 2007.