Jump to content

Baseball Hall of Fame


augolf1716

Recommended Posts

Weak group but good not great  players I do feel if Tim and Jeff had been on better teams the number and fame would have been higher

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/77374/bagwell-raines-rodriguez-get-hall-of-fame-call-bonds-clemens-gain

 

Congratulations to Jeff Bagwell, Ivan Rodriguez and Tim Raines, the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Both selections were long overdue.

Bagwell, pride of the University of Hartford, is the second-greatest first baseman since World War II, behind only Albert Pujols. He hit for power, hit for average, played above-average defense and was one of the best baserunners of his generation. My favorite Bagwell stat: He scored 152 runs in 2000, still the most in a season since Lou Gehrig in 1936.

Raines became just the fifth player elected in his final year of eligibility, joining Red Ruffing, Joe Medwick, Ralph Kiner and Jim Rice. He had a terrific peak in the 1980s when he was one of the best all-around players in the game, an on-base machine who is fifth all time in stolen bases. My favorite Raines stat: Rickey Henderson would need to steal 448 bases without being caught to pass Raines’ lifetime stolen base percentage of 84.7 percent.

Rodriguez becomes just the second catcher elected on the first ballot, joining some guy named Johnny Bench. One of the greatest defensive catchers of all time and winner of 13 Gold Gloves and the 1999 AL MVP Award, allegations of steroid use weren’t enough to keep him out. My favorite Rodriguez stat: He caught 5,860 more innings than Bench.

Here’s what else we learned with Wednesday’s results:

  • Trevor Hoffman (74 percent) fell just short of the 75 percent needed. He’ll clearly get in, probably next year. Only Jim Bunning received at least 70 percent of the vote before his final year on the ballot and was never elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (he eventually made it via the Veterans Committee).

  • Vladimir Guerrero (71.7 percent) did well for a first-ballot candidate. I think he gets in next year, although Craig Biggio debuted at 68.2 percent and it took two more ballots before he was elected.

  • The most important gains were made by Edgar Martinez, as he’s up to 58.6 percent after sitting at just 27 percent two years ago. He’s been helped by some clearing of the logjam of candidates: Three players elected in 2014, four in 2015, two in 2016 and three more this year. It would have helped his case even more if Hoffman and Guerrero had made it, as with just two years remaining on the ballot his time is running out.

  • Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens continue to see increased support, climbing above 50 percent in their fifth time on the ballot. Since Bunning in the early ‘90s, the only candidates to top 50 percent in the BBWAA and NOT eventually get elected are Jack Morris and Lee Smith (who fell short this year in his final time on the ballot). Of course, Bonds and Clemens aren’t your average candidates, but the momentum seems to be moving full-speed ahead.

  • Manny Ramirez received just 23.8 percent in his first year. Two things: He wasn’t as good as Bonds and Clemens -- hey, that’s not an insult, nobody was as good as those two -- and he twice tested positive outside the Wild West era. He’s going to be treated differently.

  • Mike Mussina received a nice bump and climbed above 50 percent for the first time. Curt Schilling, an equally strong candidate, didn’t receive the same boost. With Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddux all inducted in recent years, the only competition they’ll face from starting pitchers in upcoming years are Roy Halladay and Andy Pettitte (both join the ballot in 2019), and those two aren’t obviously better candidates.

  • Jeff Kent continues to struggle to gain momentum at 16.7 percent. Like Martinez, he would have been helped by getting more candidates elected. The 10-player limit has clearly hurt him, as many voters would like to vote for him, but he’s often the 12th-best player on their list.

  • New to the ballot in 2018: Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Scott Rolen, Andruw Jones, Omar Vizquel, Johan Santana, Johnny Damon and 269-game winner Jamie Moyer (!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites





I don't follow MLB as much as I once did, but every time I saw a game with Ivan Rodriguez catching I stopped to watch. The guy was a maestro behind the plate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New era of baseball...harder to identify the superstars and HOF players...even the best get traded from team to team ...chasing the money I guess, but fan loyalty diminishes.   And of course...... a guy like Bagwell spends a career with a mostly mediocre team in a non-media city so only dedicated baseball fans know who he is or what he accomplished. 

As Mikey noted, Pudge was always worth watching.....and Raines?  ...another of many players who is only known to die hard baseball fans I guess.  Played where he was mostly on local TV ..but I'm OK with his selection...a solid and long career which I guess is the criteria these days. 

But Trevor Hoffman getting that close.? ...getting to the time of some pretty obscure players making HOF....which I takes some of the shine off the honor ...JMO.

Somehow none of those guys make you think of Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron or Ted Williams......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, AU64 said:

But Trevor Hoffman getting that close.? ...getting to the time of some pretty obscure players making HOF....which I takes some of the shine off the honor ...JMO.

There's nothing obscure about Hoff. He has the second most saves in MLB history. Closers only go about an inning but they are very important to a team's success so the top tier guys at the position should get in eventually.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, ellitor said:

There's nothing obscure about Hoff. He has the second most saves in MLB history. Closers only go about an inning but they are very important to a team's success so the top tier guys at the position should get in eventually.

Not saying he was not important to his team...but 61-75 W-L and 2.87 ERA and just over 1000 SOs and he did get all star recognition of course.  

But,  If we need a reliever in the HOF let's wait until Mariano Rivera is ready for the call.  JMO but he was in a class by himself when it came to nailing down a game.  Trevor?  .one of a lot of good closers from that era but I don't see him as HOF?  JMO. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Not saying he was not important to his team...but 61-75 W-L and 2.87 ERA and just over 1000 SOs and he did get all star recognition of course.  

But,  If we need a reliever in the HOF let's wait until Mariano Rivera is ready for the call.  JMO but he was in a class by himself when it came to nailing down a game.  Trevor?  .one of a lot of good closers from that era but I don't see him as HOF?  JMO. 

 

I think Eckersly in his Prime was in Rivera's league. He didn't become a closer til later in his career.

And win loss record means nothing to me for a closer. It's all about # of saves & save % ratio to me. I couldn't find a save % ratio stat though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

I think Eckersly in his Prime was in Rivera's league. He didn't become a closer til later in his career.

And win loss record means nothing to me for a closer. It's all about # of saves & save % ratio to me. I couldn't find a save % ratio stat though.

For closers, wins does not mean much though losses are more damaging since the guy usually comes in tied or in the lead....and ERA can be misleading too ....depends on how many runs a pitcher allows that get charged to the guy that got pulled.  But peer recognition is important of course....and Trev had that. 

And yes, Eckersly was solid too....just that I have a better memory of MR since he was on TV a lot by pitching for the Yankees....and i just had the feeling when he came in to hold a lead that the game was pretty much over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, AU64 said:

i just had the feeling when he came in to hold a lead that the game was pretty much over.

Eck was the same way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...