Congratulations to Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio. They are this year\u2019s inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Craig Biggio<\/a> 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 \u2013 Houston \u2013 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.<\/p>\n John Smoltz<\/a>\u2019s career was in some respects similar to that of another Hall of Famer \u2013 Dennis Eckersley. He was an accomplished pitcher both as a starter and reliever, and has a fair claim (though not one I\u2019d support) as the best postseason pitcher since Koufax.\u00a0 Kudos.<\/p>\n Pedro Martinez<\/a>\u2019s career wasn\u2019t terribly lengthy by HOF standards due to health issues; that\u2019s 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 \u2013 from 1997-2003 \u2013 he was truly exceptional. And his full career was exceptional as well, even if somewhat short by today\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Randy Johnson<\/a> was likewise exceptional \u2013 one can argue he was the best left-handed pitcher of all time, Koufax included<\/em>. (Indeed, Johnson’s career can be described as what Koufax\u2019s career might have been had Koufax remained healthy.) Two things IMO best describe Johnson\u2019s career:<\/p>\n\n