Qualifications for the Modern Day Hall of Fame Pitcher

What does it take to become a Hall of Fame pitcher? Does he need a certain amount of wins? Does he need a Cy Young Award on his resume? Is a memorable postseason required?

For the longest time, it seemed there were milestone numbers a player could reach for an automatic trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Offensive players had 3,000 hits, 500 home runs, or living up to the adage “three out of ten make a Hall of Famer” with a .300 career batting average. These are no longer automatic trips to Cooperstown thanks to PED suspicion and general offensive explosions.

Meanwhile pitchers trying to get into the Hall of Fame have a different disadvantage. They no longer pitch as many games or innings as they used to so it’s important to always consider the era when comparing statistics. Cy Young, the all-time leader in wins, had 511 in his career. A modern-day pitcher can easily get into Cooperstown with less than half of that. For instance, Pedro Martinez goes into Cooperstown this summer with 219 wins in his career.

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Asking a pitcher to win 300 games in a career is a very high demand. In spite of the fewer starts we see on a regular basis, we’re pretty lucky to have four pitchers who played throughout the 1990s get to the milestone. Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, and Randy Johnson all won over 300 games.

Johnson was the most recent to reach 300, doing so in 2009. This may be the last time for a while too as nobody is very close at all. The 300-win mark is a good automatic judge for a Hall of Famer, but at the same level as 600 home runs. The only pitcher with 300 or more wins not in the Hall of Fame is Clemens and it has everything to do with PEDs—not baseball skill.

Wins are not everything when it comes to determining a pitcher’s value for Hall of Fame candidacy. As mentioned before, Martinez was elected in 2015 with only 219 of them. His career 2.93 ERA, 3,154 strikeouts, and three Cy Young Awards all helped him become an easy choice. A more realistic number for the modern-day Hall of Fame pitcher to try achieving might be 250 wins.

This total is still far from a guarantee. Players like Tommy John, Jim Kaat, and Mike Mussina all surpassed 250 wins and are without a Hall of Fame plaque. Andy Pettitte also celebrated his 250th career win at one point. Other statistics, like his 3.85 ERA, take away from this accomplishment.

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In terms of strikeouts, reaching 3,000 seems to be milestone most want to reach. Again, though, this is not a guarantee at the Hall of Fame. Curt Schilling finished his career with over 3,000 and hasn’t come very close to Hall of Fame enshrinement. He doesn’t have the cloud of PEDs hanging over his head either. Similar to Pettitte, other numbers Schilling had are holding him back.

Unfortunately, for the Hall of Fame, using a pitcher’s ERA is not a good representation. While a very good number, it doesn’t tell the whole story of a pitcher.

The best example I could find of a modern day Hall of Fame pitcher might be Tim Hudson. Even with him, I’m not sure he belongs in Cooperstown even though he’s one of the best pitchers of this era. More than 200 wins, an ERA below 3.50, and a winning percentage of .633 make him worthy of all of the accolades anyone can earn.

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The modern day Hall of Fame pitcher may not look as elite as he used to with few exceptions. Someone like Hudson, consistent for nearly two decades, is what it takes now for a pitcher to earn his spot in the Hall of Fame.

Felix Hernandez: The Best Pitcher in Seattle Mariners’ History

Felix Hernandez Already the Best Pitcher in Seattle Mariners’ History

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When’s the Next Time a Pitcher Will Reach 300 Strikeouts in a Season?

300 strikeout season: Will we see it again?

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Randy Johnson Should Enter Cooperstown as a Diamondback, Not Mariner

On January 6, 2015 pitcher Randy Johnson was officially voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Selecting him was as automatic as receiving your monthly electric bill or your wife deciding to randomly nag you about something you forgot to do two years ago.

Other than preparing a speech and finding an airline that can provide enough room for his incredibly long legs on his flight to Cooperstown, Johnson has one major decision ahead of him. Johnson will have to decide if he goes into the Hall of Fame wearing a cap of the Seattle Mariners or Arizona Diamondbacks.

Johnson began his career with the Montreal Expos before he was sent to the Mariners with Gene Harris and Brian Holman for Mark Langston and a player to be named later. That player to be named later was Mike Campbell who didn’t come close to making this a fair trade.

His second full season with the Mariners in 1990 was Johnson’s first where he began to truly shine. Johnson finished 14-11 with a 3.65 ERA and was selected to his first All-Star game. By the end of the 1993 season, Johnson had established himself as a star.

Those first folders, binders, and stickers kids had with Johnson on them included him wearing a Mariners’ jersey. An appearance in the film ‘Little Big League’ was just one more image that helped us associate him as a Mariner forever.

In July of 1998, the Mariners did the unthinkable and traded Johnson to the Houston Astros. Johnson was 34-years-old at the time and a free agent at the end of the season. At the time it may have been a reasonable decision. Most men at that age are already slowing down and asking their doctors questions they would have been too embarrassed to normally do. The way it turned out may have them still regretting it.

Before the 1999 season, Johnson signed a contract with the Diamondbacks. Still a young team with only one season in franchise history, Johnson put them on the map by winning his second career Cy Young Award. Four years earlier he had won the same award in the American League with the Mariners in 1995.

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Johnson continued his dominance in the National League by winning the Cy Young Award each season through 2002. His four consecutive awards are tied with Greg Maddux for the most of any pitcher.

When retirement came, Johnson spent parts of 10 seasons with the Mariners and 8 full seasons with the Diamondbacks. His record as a Mariner was 130-74 along with a 3.42 ERA. As a Diamondback he was 118-62 with a 2.83 ERA. His ERA was inflated due to his poor 2003 season where he pitched in only 18 games and had a 4.26 ERA.

Johnson’s overall numbers better with the Diamondbacks than with the Mariners, there are three other reasons why he should go in as a Diamondback.

The first is that he was a big part of the Diamondbacks winning the 2001 World Series. The second is that it will make him the first Hall of Famer to wear a Diamondbacks’ hat into Cooperstown. If he chose the Mariners this would also be the case, however, this leads into the third reason.

The final reason Johnson should select a cap with a snake on it is because next year the Hall of Fame ballot will include Ken Griffey Jr. Equally as important to the history of the Mariners, the honor of being the first in the team’s history should go to him. He was possibly more electrifying than Johnson was and made the team important around the country. You could not walk into an elementary school in the 1990s without seeing Griffey Jr. somewhere. He’s certainly not going to go in as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.

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Choosing the Diamondbacks over the Mariners should be an easy decision. Griffey Jr. will give fans in Seattle a reason to travel to New York next summer anyway. Plus, the way things are going the team will land its first pitcher in Cooperstown five years after Felix Hernandez retires.

My Awful Hall of Fame Predictions

In early December I published a piece here about ten predictions for the 2015 Hall of Fame voting. Until today, I ignored looking at how accurate I was. Good thing it’s Friday because I may not want to get out of bed tomorrow for how wrong I was.

My first prediction was that Randy Johnson would receive 96.3% of the vote. He actually receive 97.3% of the vote which was not a bad prediction. After this though, my eye for the future was lost.

I also predicted Pedro Martinez would receive 85.9% and John Smoltz would get 77.3%. Martinez actually ended up getting 91.1% and Smoltz had 82.9%. I was about 6% off on each.

Then I made a silly prediction that Craig Biggio would lose votes. He actually ended up receiving only one less vote than Smoltz did. Mike Piazza did gain votes, which I predicted, so this has thus far been the only prediction I was exact on – however, mostly everyone knew this would happen.

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Next I thought Eddie Guardado would get a vote. My logic made sense. Guardado was pretty popular and seemed to be a guy I thought some writer would toss a vote at. He didn’t and instead the only guy to get 1 vote was Darin Erstad. Maybe most shocking of all, Aaron Boone had 2 votes.

Another prediction I got wrong was thinking Mike Mussina would get more votes than he did in 2014. Instead he dropped about 4%. I was right about Larry Walker getting more votes, up nearly 2%.

Continuing with predictions where I was half right, Sammy Sosa did receive fewer votes like I said he would. I thought Mark McGwire might get a few more, but like Sosa, he lost favor with a few voters this last year.

One of the bolder predictions, I thought Nomar Garciaparra would get more votes than Gary Sheffield. I predicted Garciaparra would be around 20% while Sheffield would get 18%. Instead Garciaparra only had 5.5% and Sheffield beat him with 11.7%.

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The last of my serious predictions, I reminded everyone about the evilness of middle school bullies and Barry Bonds. He actually did receive 4 more votes in 2015 than he did in 2014, however, still far from actually getting into Cooperstown.

Finally I predicted all of my predictions would be exactly correct. Instead of saying I got just about everything wrong, I will say I only got this one incorrect.

Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez vs. Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson

2015 Hall of Fame Pitchers vs. 1936 Hall of Fame Pitchers

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The Very Best of Randy Johnson’s Career

Randy Johnson’s six best seasons in illustrious career

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Thank You, Paul Lo Duca!

A very special thank you to Paul Lo Duca for retweeting a post of mine where he was mentioned.

An even smaller thank you to Randy Johnson who went into the Hall of Fame today which led to someone discovering my post then sending it over to Lo Duca who later retweeted it.

Like I said before, above anything else Lo Duca is clutch!

Five Statistical Facts about Randy Johnson

“The Big Unit” Randy Johnson was one of the most frightening pitchers during his time on a big league roster. Not only was his tall stature able to scare off a few hitters, his slider could too. Johnson put together a Hall of Fame career over 22 seasons with lots of statistics worth knowing. Here are five of them.

League Leader

Here’s a breakdown of some of the statistics Johnson was a league leader in throughout his career:

Wins: 1 time
Winning Percentage: 4 times
ERA: 4 times
Complete Games: 4 times
Innings Pitched: 2 times
Strikeouts: 9 times

More on some of these in a moment.

Strikeouts

When discussing Johnson, strikeouts is a big part of what he did. Ranking second to only Nolan Ryan in career strikeouts, Johnson had several seasons where he put up monster numbers in this category. In 14 of his 22 major league seasons, Johnson reached 200 strikeouts. Far more impressive, Johnson reached 300 strikeouts 5 times.

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Learning about Control

Early on in his career Johnson was a lot wilder than he was during his prime. In 1990, 1991, and 1992 he led the league in walks with 120, 152, and 144. The next year he walked 99 and apparently because of this realized 100 walks in a season was not required. He settled down significantly and was able to find his control.

Cy Young Awards

Five times Johnson was awarded the Cy Young. No that’s not a typo or me reading it wrong. I have double-checked. Johnson won the Cy Young Award in 1995 with the Seattle Mariners then again in four consecutive seasons from 1999-2002 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Johnson also happened to finish second in the voting three additional times. Now, pick up your jaw.

Postseason Pitching

With the exception of the 2001 postseason, pitching in the playoffs was not Johnson’s specialty. In 19 games, 16 starts, he was 7-9 with a 3.50 ERA. In 2001 though, he was 5-1 with a 3.38 ERA in the NLDS, 1.13 ERA in the NLCS, and 1.04 ERA in the World Series. He also had two shutouts.

My 2015 Hall of Fame Ballot

I have about as much chance of earning a Hall of Fame vote as I do receiving one. While my contributions to the Little Lads little league in the 1990s was commendable, I feel I remain ineligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame due to my illegal use of steroids in a nasal spray I took as a child.

However, since I do have a blog and this gives me the right to say whatever I want, I feel it is necessary to at least share publicly what my ballot would look like if given the opportunity to cast a vote.

Each voter is allowed to cast up to 10 votes for players they deem worthy of the Hall of Fame. Before considering everyone available, I don’t see myself using all 10.

Here are the players I would vote into the Hall of Fame in 2015:

Randy Johnson

Pedro Martinez

John Smoltz

Craig Biggio

Lee Smith

Tim Raines

Those six would receive a vote from me while hoping Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker, Curt Schilling, Fred McGriff, and Mike Mussina get enough votes from other players. Those are five players I would LOVE to see in the Hall of Fame, but when looking at the numbers it’s tough to actually give them a vote.

Carlos Delgado is another player I wouldn’t mind seeing enter Cooperstown. The thing about him is if McGriff doesn’t get in then Delgado has no shot.

As for my actual choices, the Johnson/Martinez/Smoltz trio is a pretty obvious one and nearly automatic. I believe that while Biggio was a bit of a compiler 3,000 hits is still a milestone few men ever reach.

Voting for Smith and Raines was a bit more difficult for me as I missed out on the bulk of their careers due to the unfortunate handicap of not yet being alive. Smith’s 478 saves and Raines’ 808 stolen bases along with everything else they both did qualify them, at least in my world, as Hall of Famers. Smith was the best closer of his era and Raines was the best leadoff hitter, second to only Rickey Henderson for a while. Neither has come all that closer to earning enough votes, looking each year like they never will.

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