The Bill James Pitcher Ranking provides a way to look at how much a particular pitcher dominated during his tenure in the majors. The following table show most days in first place during a career since 1940* during the competitive part of the year, April through October:

If Cole produces another dominant season in 2024, with 180 days in first place, he moves up to fourth on the list.

Note that many of the pitchers on the list are rather modern. Two reasons come to mind on this front:

1. Baseball became better over time at preventing injuries, especially serious shoulder injuries. Even with all the elbow blow outs, many good pitcher returns from TJ and pitch well.
2. It may be easier to be dominant during a high offensive era, as most pitchers get knocked around. See the long term domination of Clemens, Maddux, Martinez, and Johnson during and just after the PED era.

That makes Koufax’s domination even more impressive. A major injury shortened his career, and he pitched in a relatively low offensive era.

Keep your eye on Cole. He may wind up very close to the top of this list.