His 1968 still ranks as one of the greatest pitching seasons ever, and being only the second pitcher, after Walter Johnson, to hit 3,000 Ks is also a biggie. As ESPN notes, he's ranked No. 31 on Sporting News' Top 100 players, or was at the time of the list.
Sadly, Brock was one of two teammates to put, indirectly, one black mark on his record — the Game 7 loss in 1968. If Brock slides at home against Bill Freehan, he scores and there is no Game 7. And, of course, Curt Flood's misplay.
Lifetime? He's 25th in WAR for pitchers. And 14th on the JAWS ranking. Twelfth on WAA. Also, to me, "A-list" HOFers have a WAA that is more than 50 percent as high as their WAR. Gibby was at the 60 percent mark. He's also one of the few pitchers to win an MVP. And, he recorded two 10-WAR seasons. As part of his luster, he's also one of the few pitchers in baseball to have positive WAR as a career batter.
Tim Kurkjian offers more thoughts.
B-Ref has Jim Palmer as top similarity score, but to me, they're not that close. Bob Feller, with war service asterisk, is more like it.
That then said, with Brock and Gibson now gone, and Red Schoendienst two years ago, Ozzie Smith is Mr. Redbird, right. Thank doorknob Tony La Russa is no longer manager.
The only person to possibly compete with the Wizard for the honor would be Ted Simmons, but, he had enough years away from St. Louis to not quite be a "face," and also, in his post-career life, he just hasn't had that same degree of connectedness.
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