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Since Connie Johnson is all over the pitching top ten lists, here's some background. Real life he broke in at age 31. He played for the White Sox 1953 and 1955-56, and the Orioles 1956-58. He had a WAR of 5.3 in 1956 and 6.1 in 1957. He had a good although short career. He looks like yet another guy who prejudice kept out of the majors when he was at his best.
In my game, he was offered in trade after the 1952 season when I was shopping 36 year old catcher Mike Sandlock. He was 29 with no MLB experience. He had a low rating but better potential so, running a team that was 77-83 in 1952 I figured why not.
He was in the Pirates farm system for several years. He got called up briefly in 1955 and after starting 1956 in AAA got called up and stayed.
In 1957, his age 34 season, he was 18-8 with a 2.53 ERA and a NL leading 7.7 WAR and won the Cy Young award. He repeated in 7.7 WAR in 1958, again leading the NL, and won the Cy again.
Johnson was a very good pitcher real life although he had a short career. In OOTP he exceeded his real life performance by a plausible amount. He could just as easily under performed real life by a plausible amount. Ah, the joys of recalc with development on and TCR 100! A great way to play.
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