Linkmeister

The only important election next year (!)

Here's the 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot:

Rick Aguilera, Albert Belle, Bert Blyleven, Will Clark, Dave Concepcion, Andre Dawson, Gary DiSarcina, Alex Fernandez, Gary Gaetti, Steve Garvey, Dwight Gooden, Rich Gossage, Ozzie Guillen, Orel Hershiser, Gregg Jefferies, Tommy John, Doug Jones, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Hal Morris, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, Alan Trammell, Walt Weiss, John Wetteland.

Who deserves to get in? I strike Aguilera, Clark, DiSarcina, Fernandez, Gaetti, Garvey, Guillen, Jefferies, Jones, Mattingly, McGee, Hal Morris, Jack Morris, Weiss and Wetteland off immediately.

That leaves Belle, Blyleven, Gooden, Gossage, Hershiser, John, Murphy, Parker, Rice, Smith and Sutter.

Ok, Belle: 12-year career, lifetime BA .295, 381 HR, 1239 RBI. Pretty good, but not spectacular. Nope.

Blyleven: 22-year career, 287-250 W-L, 3.31 ERA, 3701 K. He played mostly on bad teams, which is why his losses are so high. Plus, 60 shutouts, 9th all time. Yup.

Gooden: 16-year career, 194-112 W-L, 3.51 ERA, 2293 K. Six excellent years to start his career, average after that. Nope.

Gossage: 22-year career, 124-107 W-L, 3.01 ERA, 1502 K, 310 SV. One of the first of the closers, in a time when the relief pitcher was routinely used for 2 and even 3 innings. Yup.

Hershiser: 18-year career, 204-150 W-L, 3.48 ERA, 2014 K. A very good career, but he's riding the one incredible year (1988) when he set the record for consecutive scoreless innings. Nope, not this year.

John: 26-year career, 288-231 W-L, 3.34 ERA, 2245 K. In a way it's too bad he was the first baseball player to have the arm-changing surgery which bears his name; it takes away from his baseball achievements. He had 46 shutouts, too. Yup.

Murphy: 18-year career, lifetime BA .265, 398 HR, 1266 RBI. A good career, but he only hit .300 twice in all that time. Nope.

Parker: 19-year career, lifetime BA .290, 339 HR, 1493 RBI. One of the most feared hitters of his day, he hit over .300 six times. Yup.

Rice: 16-year career, lifetime BA .298, 382 HR, 1451 RBI. A scary hitter, he hit over .300 seven times. Yup.

Smith: 18-year career, 71-92 W-L, 3.03 ERA, 1251 K, 478 SV. He led his league in saves 4 times and was in the top five 12 times. He's the career leader in that category. Absolutely yes.

Sutter: 12-year career, 68-71 W-L, 2.83 ERA, 861 K, 300 SV. Like Gossage, one of the first closers. He introduced the split-finger pitch. Top five in saves 8 times, first 5. Yes.

Charles Kuffner votes here.

Update: Somehow I neglected André Dawson: 21-year career, lifetime BA .279, 438 HR, 1591 RBI. He hit over .300 five times. If I'm gonna vote for Dave Parker, I gotta vote for the Hawk too. Yup.

Posted by Linkmeister at November 30, 2005 09:35 AM | TrackBack