Congratulations to the 2015 Baseball HOF Inductees
Congratulations to Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio. They are this year’s inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Craig Biggio was an excellent catcher and infielder, making the NL All-Star team at both positions, and is fully worthy of HOF membership. He ended his career in the same place it began – Houston – and had 3000+ hits, a .281 batting average, and a career OBP of .363. He came tantalizingly close to HOF election last year, missing election by 2 votes. This year, he gained entry.
John Smoltz’s career was in some respects similar to that of another Hall of Famer – Dennis Eckersley. He was an accomplished pitcher both as a starter and reliever, and has a fair claim (though not one I’d support) as the best postseason pitcher since Koufax. Kudos.
Pedro Martinez’s career wasn’t terribly lengthy by HOF standards due to health issues; that’s reflected in his win-loss and innings pitched totals, which are quite low for the HOF (less than 220 wins and less than 3000 IP). But at his peak – from 1997-2003 – he was truly exceptional. And his full career was exceptional as well, even if somewhat short by today’s standards. Martinez has the highest ERA+ (ERA normalized against league-average and adjusted for ballpark) of any pitcher in the HOF – yes, better than Lefty Grove.
Randy Johnson was likewise exceptional – one can argue he was the best left-handed pitcher of all time, Koufax included. (Indeed, Johnson’s career can be described as what Koufax’s career might have been had Koufax remained healthy.) Two things IMO best describe Johnson’s career:
- Sustained High Performance. From 1993 to 2002 – over a period of 10 seasons – Johnson averaged the following: 18-6 W/L, 2.70 ERA, nearly 293 K, roughly 30 starts, and 219+ IP per year. And this includes two strike-shortened years (1994 and 1995) and one where he spent roughly 2/3 of the season recovering from back surgery (1996). Omit the season mostly lost to back surgery and you’re looking at 9 years averaging roughly 19-6 W/L, 2.70 ERA, 32+ starts per season, 315+K(!), and 236+ IP per year.
- Dominance. Besides being #2 all-time in Ks, Johnson’s ability to dominate hitters was incredible. This is shown by his strikeout rate – the number of strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. To date, there have been 20 seasons in all of MLB history where a pitcher struck out more than 11 batters per 9 IP. Johnson owns 7 of them – and they’re bunched near the top of the list (numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11). No one else has more than 3 seasons with more than 11 K per 9 IP (Kerry Wood). Johnson also owns 10 of the top 30 strikeout-rate seasons in MLB history (numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 24, 29, and 30). That’s as many top-30 strikeout-rate seasons as Pedro Martinez, Kerry Wood, Nolan Ryan, Curt Schilling, Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver, and Justin Verlander have – combined (3, 3, 2, 2, 0, 0, and 0 respectively).
Plus, doves everywhere say they’re just glad they no longer need to worry about seeing Johnson on the mound.
Congratulations, gentlemen. Well-deserved.
Category: Baseball
I agree with three out of four, but Martinez, NO!! When, in Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS, he turned into a elder abusing little punk by grabbing 72 year old Popeye(Don Zimmer) by the head and throwing him to the ground, he showed his true colors. That’s like trying to give your Grandpa a beat down for telling you to get a haircut. Now I’m neither a Red Sox nor a Yankees fan, so just call it holding a grudge. IMHO to elect Martinez to the HOF in my lifetime is bad for baseball.
Well, except for the pesky little fact that Zimmer was the one who charged Martinez during that incident. From my perspective, Martinez had little choice but to defend himself.
I guess he could have sidestepped and nailed Zimmer with a solid punch to the jaw or temple instead of simply putting him on the ground, reasonably gently – with that fall mostly due to Zimmer’s own momentum.
As a coach, Zimmer should have known better than to join the fracas, and especially should have known better than to charge someone (a) half his age, and (b) who wasn’t participating in the fracas anyway. Hell, IMO it’s just as likely that Zimmer was intentionally trying to get Martinez to react so that he’d be suspended – and the ploy backfired.
Yep,Hondo, I know it was Zimmy that provoked it by charging Pedro and probably got what he deserved. But I have to defend Zimmer since he did spend all those years as the Cubs manager and base coach and we Cubbies fans are known for being hotheads at times. I’ve watched a lot of games over the years,but to me Martinez always had a tendency to go head hunting. I know it’s all part of the game,but he always seemed(at least to me) to like throwing a bean ball just a little too much. Just my opinion.
I still think Randy Johnson purposely tanked his season to get traded away from Seattle.
I guess that’s possible, Trent. However, Johnson did seem to be more affected by off-the-field stuff than most (note how his relations with the media in NYC – which went sour early-on – reflected in his pitching when on the NYY). I think he was just affected by walking on pins-and-needles regarding his contract situation in 1998 before the trade.
Other than W/L and H/9IP, Johnson’s pre-trade numbers weren’t too different than his 1997 or 1999 seasons. His ERA was only about 1/2 run greater at the time of the trade, which is within the range of normal season-to-season variations. He was still on pace to strike out 300 (he had 200+ when traded, with about 1/3 of the season remaining), and had about the same strikeout rate all 3 seasons.
He’d have had zero reason to tank, anyway. Johnson is no fool, and no one in their right mind tanks their “walk year” before free agency.
I’m thinking the stress of not knowing whether he was staying in Seattle or not was causing him – involuntarily – to “miss ever so slightly” with a couple of pitches during each game and yielding the difference vice any conscious effort to tank.
That’s all it would take to give up another 2 hits per game – and maybe an extra run every other game – at the MLB level. His other metrics argue he was giving it his best, but that stress and preoccupation with off-field issues was most likely causing him to miss slightly in location on 2 or 3 pitches per game he normally would have made – resulting in hits.
The reason I say he tanked it was because he was 9-10 before the trade and 10-1 after. With no changes to his mechanics. He wasn’t happy in Seattle and I could never prove it, but there were many of us here in the PNW who thought it.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but I disagree. I think it’s more likely Johnson was stressed over his future, and that was causing very minor changes in a handful of pitches per game – with bad results. However, you’ve raised a point that is a pet peeve of mine. For a pitcher, wins and losses – though exceptionally popular with, well, everybody – are a completely bullsh!t statistic. I only quote them in the article because for some reason everyone seems impressed by them. In reality, they often tell you nothing about the quality of pitching. Wins and losses only show that the pitcher’s team outscored their opponent. They don’t tell you a damn thing about how well a given pitcher pitched. Case in point: it is entirely possible for a pitcher to have a season where he leads his league in ERA and ERA+; leads MLB in Ks, FIP, and strikeout-rate; and pitch 211+ innings – and still end up “losing” 2 out of 3 decisions. Nolan Ryan did exactly that in 1987. That year (1987), Ryan had an ERA of 2.70; an ERA+ of 142 (his park-adjusted ERA was barely 2/3 that of the NL); 270 Ks; a FIP of 2.47, which means he was pitching quite a bit better than his league-leading ERA indicated; pitched 211+ innings; and had a strikeout-rate of 11.5 K per 9 IP (his career best). And Ryan still ended up with a W/L record of 8-16. Ryan was 5th on that years NL Cy Young Award ballot in spite of his W/L record. Many feel he deserved the award, W/L record be damned. In 1998, other than H/9 IP and ERA Johnson was pretty much the same pitcher before and after the trade (and was pretty much the same pitcher as he was in both 1997 and 1999, for that matter). At the MLB level, giving up 2 extra hits per 9 IP (a fair number of which appear to have ended up HRs) will do that – and that would only take a few pitches being slightly “off” per game. My… Read more »
T hell with the doves….No way in hell I want to look at one of the ugliest SOBs ever to pitch releasing that ball just over 50 feet away! Man sure as hell wasn’t purty, but could pitch.
Biggio – one of the game’s true gentlemen and one of the last to spend a career in one club, untainted by rumors of cheating or drugs. Houston damn near worships him.
Biggio grew up and played ball in Smithtown, NY about 15-20 miles from me on Long Island.
What’s better than having a great reputation as one of the best ball players around and also as one of the finer gentlemen in the game.
Kinda why I like Derek Jeter as much as I do.
I’ll bring up the 800-pound gorilla in any discussion about the HoF …
Pete Rose.
Yes, he violated the game’s one “inviolable” rule. Yes, he admitted (finally) that he not only bet on baseball, he bet on the Reds. (The fact that he bet on them to win only does not factor into the discussion.)
BUT …
Rose did all of this as a manager. He may have had the gambling problem as a player, but the only evidence that ever surfaced involved him betting as a manager. For his stats as a player, he should be in the HoF.
What do you all think?
Rule 21 makes no distinction between actions as a player and actions as a manager. Gambling on a game involving your own team yields a lifetime ban.
Ask Joe Jackson’s descendants how that works.
I think we may all be dead and buried by the time Rose gets voted in….if he does.
What a shame, though. Not too many have played a better game of baseball than Pete Rose.
Pete Rose lied, lied lied…then AGREED to the lifetime ban AND SIGNED the document! Then he continued to lie and lie and lie. Then he comes to Jesus and tells the truth (partial… betting on games but not on own?). He was warned as ALL MLB players and manager are EVERY year!
No HOF…he blew it and his lies and “hustle” sure don’t cut it with me.
Hondo – Biggio also played the last three seasons of his career in the outfield (I believe he was a center fielder).
Correct. Don’t believe he was an all-star then, however. That seems to have been when he was on the decline and pretty much hanging around to “chase 3,000”.
I want to know:
Who did NOT vote for Johnson.
Who were the two tools that DID vote for Aaron F. Boone. Thankfully he is off the roster for EVAH!
I believe I read somewhere that there’s an unwritten “rule” among the HoF voters that nobody gets in with 100% of the vote.
The closest to that unattainable vote was Ty Cobb, with 98+%.
Um, no. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan hold that distinction, each receiving 98.8% of votes cast (Seaver’s actual percentage is slightly higher due to his being left off only 4 ballots vs. Ryan’s 5, if I recall correctly; more voters voted when Ryan was elected, but not enough to overcome his being left off one additional ballot). Cobb only received 98.2% of votes cast when he was elected to the HOF in 1936.
Besides Seaver and Ryan, at least one and perhaps 2 others have exceeded Cobb’s HOF vote percentage. Cal Ripken received 98.5% of votes when he was elected to the HOF. George Brett received 98.2%. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the raw vote totals for Cobb and Brett, so I can’t say for sure which of the two had the higher percentage.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof.shtml
Thanks, Hondo. I stand corrected.
De nada.
Not trying to “bust yer balls”, amigo. But the HOF and baseball history is bit of a hobby of mine.
“that there’s an unwritten “rule” among the HoF voters that nobody gets in with 100% of the vote.”
That may be an underlying motivation. But, the main reason is that you only get 10 names to put on a ballot; and if, e.g., Randy Johnson is a lock, you might skip him to put on Normar Garciaparra (who, with 5.5% of the vote, just made the 5% cut-off) or Carlos Delgado (who, at 3.8%, did not) without skewing final in/out result.
Also: In 1997, Biggio was hit by a pitch 34 times and did not ground into a double play. That remains my favorite “little stat” in baseball. He was, however, only a so-so catcher: Even if it’s partly the staff’s fault, 140 SB allowed and a 17% caught stealing rate is … yeesh!
At least one (and I think more than one) of this year’s HOF electors has publicly acknowledged they did not vote for either Johnson or Martinez. Their rationale was (1) both were shoo-ins for 1st ballot election; (2) there were more than 10 candidates they felt were worthy of the HOF, and (3) they were using the two votes for Johnson and Martinez to vote for other deserving candidates.
I don’t agree with that tactic, but I can understand it. The HOF does limit each HOF elector to 10 total “yes” votes. So if you think there are more than 10 deserving candidates, I can see that that voting strategy makes sense – even if I find it repugnant and illogical.
Sorry. Didn’t see your post saying the same thing 🙁
De nada, amigo. I’ve done the same thing myself more times than I care to remember. (smile)
I can look at Rose w/o considering his gambling and lies. When I do, whatever his stats (and they are enviable), I recall his all-out approach to the game. Watching him make headlong slides into 1st base still amazes. I am very sorry for baseball itself that he turned a wonderful legacy into shit.
Same here, 2/17 Air Cav. The same is also true for Joe Jackson and a couple of others caught up in the “Black Sox” scandal – which led to Rule 21’s lifetime ban for gambling on a game involving your own team.
Just a few last comments: I certainly hope none of the PED quadruplets (Bonds,Clemens,McGuire,Sosa) ever come close. Hopefully Bagwell will go in next year. Sad to see that Donny Baseball didn’t make it in and got dropped from the slate. That 1987 year he had was one for the ages,especially the six Grand Slams and the home run streak he went on.
Oops,one last comment. When Dutch Rennert was retired from umpiring in 1992 when it was determined that he couldn’t see out of his left eye (and couldn’t be corrected by eyeglasses)was one of the saddest days of my life. I really,really enjoyed watching the games when he worked home plate and I certainly hope the veterans committee picks him up and gives him the spot in the HOF that he so richly deserves.
DM’s peak years were just to brief (84-89) & had several more solid respectable seasons until retirement in 1995. Compounding things, the Yankees only appeared in playoffs in one season during Donnie’s 14 seasons.
Pitcher Ron Guidry is another iconic Yankee who had a period of greatness, before shoulder/arm problems shortened his career, and finishing w/ 170 wins/.651 win%/ 3.29 ERA. Ron at least won a couple championships, but peak performance years were just to short. His 1978 season was insane.
It says something about the steroid era when the Commissioner of Baseball himself refers to Henry Aaron as the “true” home run king. Selig did just that in a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Aaron’s 715th home run during the 2014 season.
I’ll bet Barry Bonds’ steroid-swelled head spun on all three major axes when that happened.
True story. I’m at a baseball Little League baseball game some years ago and the ump is missing inside strikes on righties and outside strikes on lefties like crazy. Well, it was Little League so I didn’t say anything aloud. I did make a quiet comment to a friend about the ump’s calls, whereupon I was informed that the ump is blind in one eye. You can guess which one.