You know it’s been an interesting Hall of Fame season when Curt Schilling (yes, that Curt Schilling) starts making sense.
Enter Jerry Green from The Detroit News.
According to Green, he’s been a BBWAA voter for 44(!) years and he’s made some mistakes with his voting in the past. Consider this, 30 years ago, he writes, he left Nellie Fox off his ballot and, as history would tell us, Fox fell two votes short of being enshrined in Cooperstown. Green feels responsible, naturally, and has seemingly tried to make up for Fox’s shortcoming every year since.
Sure, Fox ended up getting in in 1997, but, hey…I get it and that’s why Green is bound and determined not to screw up again.
“My [2015 ballot] consisted of 10 ballplayers I deemed worthy,” Green writes. “Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Gary Sheffield and Alan Trammell.”
At first blush…it’s an interesting, but not a terrible ballot. I mean, it’s got Biggio, Johnson, both Martinezes, Raines AND Trammell.
But, wait, hold on. Where is Barry Bonds? I mean, if you’ve got Clemens and, especially, McGwire you’ve got to have Bonds, right?
Let’s let Green explain his criteria before we judge why he omitted Bonds but kept some of the others before we judge.
“Statistics do matter,” Green explains. “The numbers 3,000 and 300 are critical, regarded as traditional stats. No joke, I remain a traditionalist. To me, for a batter, 3,000 hits make a Hall of Famer. For a pitcher, 300 victories.”
Ugh.
3000 hits is critical…sure. Bonds ended up with 2935. So, basically, baseball’s home run king fell short of Green’s magic number by 65 base knocks. Perhaps the 762 home runs blurred the writer’s vision.
Let’s move on.
Also not making the cut (and let’s not kid ourselves, by limiting the vote to ten, there are going to be some omissions) is John Smoltz. And if you follow the fabled Ballot Collecting Gizmo, dude is a shoe-in. So what is Green’s beef?
“It must be noted that I did not vote for John Smoltz, who is likely to make it,” Green begins. “Smoltz won 213 games, mostly as a starting pitcher, and saved 154 as a reliever for the Braves. Great stats. Jack Morris had greater stats with 254 victories, mostly for the Tigers. He was a dominant pitcher in his World Series and playoffs starts. He pitched for four World Series winners.”
Oh. Jerry Green is one of those.
First, it needs to be pointed out that Morris’ dominance in the playoffs amounted to a 7-4 record and a 3.8 in 13 starts. Second, he was only pitched for four World Series winners. He was a turd in 1993 for the Toronto Blue Jays and an injury left him off the postseason roster.
Outside of one World Series game (which Green does mention), comparing the postseasons of Morris and Smoltz is like comparing apples to anvils.
Smoltz was for more dominant in the postseason than Morris could have even dreamed of being. The righty was 15-4 with a 2.67 ERA in 41 games. Oh, but dude was a closer as well, you say. That’ll lower his overall ERA, you add. Poppycock. As a starter in the postseason, Smoltz had a 2.55 ERA. As a reliever…3.74.
Screw it. Enough. I retract what I said earlier.
This ballot sucks.
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