Hall of Fame Mock Ballots

In my opinion, the trend IS caused by the desire for efficiency, fewer runs allowed for the game, and fewer big HRs. The mechanism forcing this most recent drop in complete games was the swing-angle change trend that began 10 years ago or so with players like Justin Turner turning their careers around. Hitters started swinging for power with every swing, and with the decline of PED use, home-run hitting and strikeouts increased again.

The overall trend since almost the beginning of major league baseball that starters have gone from complete games in almost every start, to maybe 10 or 20 complete games, total, in a season in each league, accelerated. Even in the 1990's, league leaders in complete games regularly pitched 10-15 complete games in a season. The hitting explosion due to PED use knocked those leaders in the 5-9 range in the 2000s, but PEDs were taken out of the game, and the swing-angle change put the power back in. Pitchers and pitching coaches found a game-wrecking HR could now occur on any at bat. Their counter-move was to train pitchers to throw as hard as they could for as long as they could and increase spin and movement on breaking pitches and fastballs, to prevent the barreling contact that created the big home runs. This put significantly more strain on the pitching arm. Aside from causing the avalanche in arm injuries, (because pitching arms, even well-trained ones, weren't meant to the throw that hard on every fastball), because of the constant threat of the big HR, most pitchers couldn't afford to save some stuff for a pinch and most terms agreed with this strategic adjustment. Pitchers with naturally elite stuff, like Verlander could afford to pitch that was, but most starters couldn't. Cole learned to save top fastball velocity for critical spots from Verlander, and has tried to teach it to Rondon this year with some success. But unlike decades long past, saving stuff for the key situations is for getting through the 6th and the 7th, and not the 8th and 9th, as Christy Mathewson described in some detail in his book on pitching, Pitching in a Pinch.

In order to squeeze 13 pitchers (including 8 relievers) onto a pitching staff, teams have chosen to go to rosters with multiple players who can play multiple positions rather than a fixed lineup and 5-6 bench players with specific roles. This gives them enough relievers to have a chance of soaking up the extra innings from an average start of 5.2 innings.  (That's 5.2, not 5 2/3 innings.) Each pitch has become that much more important, and that requires pitchers to throw harder, with sharper breaking stuff, and also to try to learn to throw and command 5, 6, 7, and 8 pitches instead of 3 or 4, as they used to when we were younger. Back then, a 5-pitch assortment was thought to be too big a variety; pitchers didn't wat to get beat on their 4th- or 5th-best, much less a 7th- or 8th-best. So a lot of starters aren't trained to face a batting order a 3rd time with sufficiently good stuff to not get clobbered and knocked out. And if 7 innings is considered a "deep start" nowadays, and needs usually 2 relievers to close it out, then it follows that complete games are a near-impossibility. And so they are, the last 5 years or so. 1 or 2 complete games have becomes the yearly league-leading total, and the only place left to go to is absolute zero.

Occasionally, the motion may not feel unnatural. My oldest brother left the Service when I was 13. Our first ever time playing catch, he said, “Who taught you a screwball?” My knowledgeable reply was “What’s a screwball?” He told me my ball was moving down and to his left. I was just throwing naturally. Maybe it was akin to a two-seamer or sinker, in to righties and away from lefties. It felt effortless to me.

That seems likely, bomberhojoe; Nettles "metrics" such as they were, in the early 70's, pretty much prove he was the best in the AL in that era. He might well have deserved every, or nearly every, AL Gold Glove at 3rd from 1971 through 1978. But Brooks' unbelievable performance in the 1970 World Series cemented his reputation as the greatest defensive 3rd baseman ever, and without metrics to challenge that reputation, got Brooks the Gold from 1971 through 1975.

Yep, Nettles was excellent. Buddy Bell was a good fielder too. So was Aurelio Rodríguez. In my opinion, Aurelio Rodríguez had the best arm of any 3Bman that I can remember.