Actual Pitch Counts for Sandy Koufax

A year-by-year breakdown, using data provided by Retrosheet

By Tangotiger

The following table presents the actual pitch counts for Sandy Koufax, year by year, using data provided by Retrosheet.

Only games started included.

 

Year	Starts	PA/Start	Pitches/Start
1955	5	28	101
1956	10	22	83
1957	13	25	95
1958	26	23	89
1959	23	26	99
1960	26	27	105
1961	35	29	114
1962	26	28	110
1963	40	30	111
1964	28	31	112

Why does Koufax have such high number of innings? Well, in the 60s, the league OBA was extremely low, meaning that you needed fewer batters to go through to get to the end of an inning. In terms of pitches thrown, Koufax threw as many as today's starters.

Koufax pitched two additional years (1965, 1966). My estimates show that he probably threw 3 or 4 more pitches per game in those years, compared to his established actual rates.