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Valenzuela vs Bench

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
ValenzuelaWinner
87.2

Valenzuela wins: Peak, Statistics

Bench
87.1

Bench wins: Dominance, Honours

Candidates
Locked to Baseball

Shareable URL · /compare/fernando-valenzuela-vs-johnny-bench

Time range

Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇲🇽 Fernando Valenzuela
87.2

Valenzuela leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Won the Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in the same 1981 season.

1. Fernando Valenzuela
87.2
2. Johnny Bench
87.1

Category breakdown

Season form · Home runs per season

Career timeline · Home runs per season

Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.

GOAT pace tracker

Career stage · GOAT pace

Through season 5 · Home runs per season
1. 🇺🇸 Johnny Bench5 seasons played · career day 2,191153 home runs
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇲🇽 Fernando Valenzuela5 seasons played · career day 2,19176 home runs
-50.3% vs Bench at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇲🇽 Valenzuela0001347116
🇺🇸 Bench00015113239

Careers are aligned at debut, so a rookie's first 5 seasons are measured against the same window in a legend's career — Yamal against Messi at the same age-stage, a tour rookie against Tiger Woods in 1996.

MetricValenzuelaRetiredBenchRetired
Cy Young awards1
Rookie of the Year awards1
World Series titles22
All-Star selections614
Career strikeouts2,074
MVP awards2
Gold Gloves10
World Series MVP1
Home runs389
Dominance w25%8286
Peak w20%9690
Longevity w20%8484
Honours w20%8688
Statistics w15%9088

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Valenzuela87.2
Bench87.1
The people
Valenzuela
Bench

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Make your case for Valenzuela vs Bench. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.

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