HOF 2023 Voting Dec 4 & Jan 24

Although I’m beating the drums for Billy Wagner, maybe it’s time the issue of electing new HOF players should simply be put to bed. It’s really difficult to get excited about most of the names. The playing field through the era was so tilted, and filled with shame…

Not to mention that Baines played a grand total of 36 games in the field after his age 30 season while Mattingly won 7 Gold Gloves (7 more than Baines.)  Nothing against Baines, he was a good -- not great -- hitter (.289/.356/.465 with an OPS+ of 121) and as far as I know a decent guy.  But he played over 60 percent of his games as DH and was NOT an elite hitter.  One of the more puzzling choices of recent years, especially given the supposed greater reliance on analytics, which I don't think help his case at all.  Bobby Abreu would be a much better choice, and I consider him borderline at best (I would not vote for him.)

I compared Dale Murphy with his co-initialist and contemporary Don Mattingly.  I was actually surprised how relatively modest (for HOF purposes) Murphy's stats are -- .265/.346/.469 OPS+ 121.  This compares to Mattingly's .307/.358/.471 OPS+ 127.  I noticed that both of them did most of what they are famous for over a six-year span.  For Murphy this was 1982-1987, his age 26 through 31 seasons, and for Mattingly 1984 through 1989, his age 23 through 28 seasons.

Here are Murphy's prime six-year stats -- 218 HRs, 629 RBIs, .289/.361/.531 OPS+ 145.

For Mattingly -- 160 HRs, 684 RBIs, .327/.372/.530 OPS+ 147.

Both awfully good in my book, with the edge to Mattingly.  They each won 5 GGs over that span, although that was all of Murphy's and Donnie won seven.  The difference of course is that Mattingly's decline is directly traceable to physical problems, while Murphy was more of a long, slow drop-off after his early 30s.  Murphy had the back to back MVPs, which naturally made a huge impression at the time and at least for me contributed to thinking that his career was better than it was, although it was very good any way you slice it.  But Mattingly's peak was more eye-opening -- he was at least arguably the best position player in the game during that run.

Fred McGriff seems to be generating a sympathy backlash for being a clean player in a dirty era that might get him in, if only to thumb the nose at Bonds, McGwire, Palmeiro et al.  He was a model of consistency -- in the seven seasons 1988-1994, he hit between 31 and 37 HRs each year -- you don't get to 493 without PEDs unless you are doing a lot of things right.  He was .284/.377/.509 for an OPS+ of 134.  Those numbers would have been greatly inflated had he been leaning on Mother's Little Helper like so many of his contemporaries.  No problem for me if he gets in.

I get that people, especially Yankee fans, don't like Curt Schilling.  Not the most loveable guy out there and his political views don't align with the wokesters of the BBWAA.  That's the main reason he isn't in there, although he is by no means an absolute lock based on his record, which is certainly good enough -- 216-146, .597 PCT and an ERA+ of 127.  It's his post-season record that puts him over the top for me.  Arguably the best post-season pitcher ever -- certainly in there with Bob Gibson among pitchers who had enough starts to make an informed opinion.  In 19 post-season games, Schilling was 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and a 0.968 WHIP.  His only bad post-season start was when he was clearly injured during the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees and he allowed six runs in three innings.  Take that one out and his record is 11-1 with 1.87 ERA.  During the most important games of the year.  He elevated his game in the post-season more than any pitcher I ever saw -- guys like Koufax and Gibson were great all the time, they just needed to keep doing what they always did.  Schilling transformed from a very good pitcher to a baseball God in October.

Among this group, I would vote for Mattingly, McGriff and Schilling.

Ellsbury is the greatest player to never play...he gets my vote.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff should be voted in...just my 2 cents.

That's hard to do.  They need their own wing, maybe in a nearby town like Richfield Springs.  You have to get at least five percent of the votes to stay on, but need to stay under 75 percent or you're in.  Interesting that other than Adams, they played the bulk their careers from the 50s through the 70s.  I think Munson is the best one on that list -- only the borderline shortness of his career is possibly what keeps him out -- but they are all at least arguable.  But other than Thurman most likely Hall of Very Good IMO.  Maybe Lolich? (without looking anything up, admittedly.)

Vada Pinson had the misfortune of playing his prime years in the shadow of his childhood friend and teammate Frank Robinson, not to mention so many other great OFers in the National League alone -- Aaron, Mays, Clemente -- in those years.  That's probably why he only made the All Star team in two seasons, both at the very start of his career.  He was very good at every aspect of the game -- he hit for a good average for his era (.286, although the OBP of .327 is less impressive, as is the OPS+ of 111.)  He led the league in hits twice and in doubles twice and in triples twice.  He won a Gold Glove and had seven seasons in which he hit at least 20 HRs and stole 20 bases.  He was notable for the slick way he played the tricky terraces at Crosley Field.  In general he was very well-rounded.

The problem was he just never stood out enough to put him over the top.  There are only two players with similarity scores over 900 (and both are low 900s) -- Steve Finley and Johnny Damon, and I think those are good comps, both solid, well-rounded OFers.

Pinson was known for being a shy, quiet fellow.  Bill James tells the story that when Pinson first came up, his manager Jimmy Dykes assumed he was Cuban and tried talking to him in bad Spanish.  He had just never heard Vada speak.

Pinson did have one atypical incident that is probably what you are thinking about with legal issues.  There was a Cincinnati sportswriter who seemed to go out of his way to knock Pinson in the press.  His Reds teammates teased him about it and escalated the issue.  At one point this writer came into the Reds clubhouse and the two of them started getting into it.  Pinson snapped and decked the writer, who promptly called the police and had him arrested.  There was some kind of out of court settlement, and Pinson later felt humiliated by the whole thing.  It was very out of character for him.

Maybe the most amazing thing about Vada Pinson is the alumni list of his high school, McClymonds High in Oakland.  In addition to himself and Frank Robinson, others who graduated from this school include Bill Russell, Curt Flood, MC Hammer, Ruth Pointer, Wendell Hayes, Ernie Lombardi, Paul Silas, Willie Tasby and many more professional athletes and jazz musicians.

I was intrigued by Steve Finley and wanted the Yankees to get him for left field, where they had a revolving door of players in their dynasty years.

He had a kind of Fred Lynn career path -- great years up front, but unable to stay near that level despite having plenty of pretty good seasons later.  Lynn through his age 28 season had a .308/.383/.520 for an OPS+ of 141.  Some people were calling him a left-handed Joe DiMaggio.  Well there aren't many of those out there.  But he was a demon when he came up.  In an outfield flanked by Dwight Evans and Jim Rice, he was better than either of them out of the gate.