Who Gets Into The Hall
By Fred Owens
My Ballot
A look at this year’s ballot made my choices rather easy. I threw Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens into the corner with eleven others who shouldn’t be on the ballot and began marking.
Pitchers
Trevor Hoffman retired as the all time saves leader with 601, 444 of those for the San Diego Padres. Twice he led the league in saves – 53 in 1988 and 46 in 2006 – and four times finished in the top 10 – sixth in 1999, fifth in 1996 and second in both 1998 and 2006 – for the Cy Young award. His career numbers are an impressive 2.87 ERA, 3.08 FIP, 141 ERA+ and a WHIP of 1.058. While his career 28.4 rWAR, 26.1 and 24.0 JAWS aren’t as impressive as some might like, Hoffman used a change-up to make him a dominant closer who recorded 20 saves in the strike shortened 1994 season and 30 or more from 1995 through 2009.
Lee Smith retired as the all time saves leader in 1997 with 478, a mark that stood until Hoffman took broke the record in 2006. Like many players, Smith stayed a couple of years too long career causing his ERA to rise to 3.03 and his FIP to 2.98. Had he retired in 1995 he would have finished with 471 saves, a 2.71 ERA and 2.85 FIP.
Smith led the league in saves in 1983 with 29 while playing a Cubs team that won on 79 games. He went on to lead the league in saves three more times ; 47 in 1991, 43 in 1992 and 33 in the strike shortened 1994 season. Four times Smith finished as a top ten Cy Young candidate – 1983,91,92 and 94 – and averaged 85 innings and 68 appearances a season, three times pitching over 100 innings and throwing 90 or more innings in the next two seasons. I’ve heard it argued that Smith wasn’t “dominant” during his time and that he picked up “easy” saves. If saves were that easy, why wasn’t everyone doing it?
Mike Mussina was one of the best pitchers no one ever talked about. In his 18 year career he won 270 games – 147 for Baltimore and 123 for the Yankees including 20 in his final season– posting a .368 ERA, 3.57 FIP and a 1.192 WHIP is what was widely known as the most difficult division in baseball. In 139 2/3 innings of post season ball Moose posted a 3.42 ERA and 1.107 WHIP with a 9.3 per 9 K rate and a 2.1 per 9 walk rate. His career 83 rWAR, 82.2 fWAR and 63.8 JAWS rank him 28th all time just behind Curt Schilling.
As annoying as he can be off the field and in the booth, Schilling was one of the best right-handed pitchers of the least 20 years. He’s best known for his tandem with Randy Johnson in Arizona and the famous bloody sock game ironically with the Red Sox. His 216 wins is more of a reflection on some pretty bad teams he represented between 1988 and 2000 than it is to do with his ability on the mound.
After leaving the Phillies at age 33 he recorded 112 of those 216 wins including winning 22 for the D’Backs in 2001 and 21 for the Red Sox ins 2003. He was a horse on the mound throwing 200 or more innings nine times including four such seasons from age 34 to age 39. He finished his career with a 3.46 ERA. 3.23 FIP, 1.137 WHIP, 79.9 rWAR, 78.7 fWAR and that 64.5 JAWS rank making him 27th on the all time list.