Monday, January 12, 2009

Henderson, Rice get into HOF

Great to see Rice finally get in...

I'm not sure why he kept gaining votes year after year but whatever, he's now where he belongs. Maybe the steroid era has made people re-think his power numbers and what they meant to his era.

Henderson was a no-brainer. I just want to know who the 5% of voters are who didn't put him on their ballot. I still don't understand why some members of the BBWAA have to stick with this "nobody should ever be a unanimous selection" crap. I've said it before and I'll say it again: just because some baseball writers were to stupid/stubborn/biased to put Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson or Christy Mathewson on their ballots way-back-when doesn't mean members of the BBWAA have to uphold that stupidity in the modern day.

Hard to believe we have such "simple thinkers" in the year 2008.

Sorry to see the other three guys on my faux ballot (I don't have a real one) didn't make it:

http://thebaseballgods.blogspot.com/2008/12/hof-2009-heres-who-id-vote-for.html

Andre Dawson (65.9%), Jack Morris (42.9%) and Alan Trammell (18.2%) did live to fight another day. Looks like The Hawk might have a chance but Morris and Trammell appear to be just about out of luck.

KW

Note: I'll start up with my pre-season MLB power rankings later tonight w/ a shapshot look at my preseason #30...
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2009 at 9:07 PM

    I notice that you don't mention Bert Blyleven as Hall worthy, but you would vote for Morris.

    Why do you think that Jack Morris belongs in the HOF, but not Blyleven?

    -Mike

    ReplyDelete
  2. WheelsJanuary 15, 2009 at 1:41 PM

    Good question Mike...

    I wouldn't have a problem with Blyleven getting into the HOF but tell me, was there ever a 10-12 year stretch where Blyleven was the best pitcher in the game?

    From 1979-1992 Morris was the best in game. Workhorse, winner, etc. His W-L totals are almost the same as Bob Gibson's.

    Plus Morris had great post-season success w/ three different teams.

    Thanks for the post...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2009 at 2:24 PM

    Morris' W-L totals may be similar to Gibson's, but Morris was not all that good at keeping runs off the board, at least compared with other HOFers:

    ERA+ (100 is an average pitcher)
    Marichal 123
    Drysdale 121
    Blyleven 118
    Spahn 118
    Glavine 118
    Perry 117
    Carlton 115
    ....
    Morris 105

    Gibson is a 127. To me, it looks like Morris got the benefit of pitching for good teams that scored him lots of runs.

    And no question, Morris had 2 amazing World Series. If something like that pushes him over the top in your mind, I can see your point.

    Blyleven's postseason line - 5-1 2.47 ERA
    Morris' postseason line - 7-4 3.80 ERA

    Blyleven was a pretty big-time October pitcher himself, though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. WheelsJanuary 16, 2009 at 2:46 PM

    One tiebreaker to me - Morris made 5 All-Star appearances where Blyleven made just 2 (and only 1 of those came during the period from 1977-1992 when they were contemporaries).

    It's a good debate - I'd put both in myself, I just see tiebreakers swinging toward Morris.

    JM per 162 games: 16-11, 3.90, 241.3 IP
    BB per 162 games: 14-12, 3.31, 245.3 IP

    Pretty equal - I'll concede that I should have included Bert as a guy I'd put in.

    Thanks for checking in again, I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete

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