ESPN.com – MLB – Eck, Molitor highlight baseball Hall of Fame ballot
Probably on the first ballot… Ex-Braves on the ballot are Bruce Sutter (the leading returning votegetter) and Dale Murphy, plus first-time candidates Terry Pendleton and Dennis Martinez. Martinez might get some support, but Bert Blyleven, Tommy John, and Jack Morris are already on the ballot and their credentials are similar but superior. TP probably won’t make the five percent cut; he’s not Hall of Fame quality of course. If he’d hit his entire career like he did in Atlanta, he’d make it easily once his defense is taken into account, but he only had one year in St. Louis of remotely similar quality.
Jim Eisenreich?
Blyleven is going to get robbed again this year, I can just feel it…
Molitor will likely make it, though I could see a situation where some voters want to make a point on his being a DH for almost half of his career games played.
I figure Eck gets in, but part of me can’t help but think he’s overrated. Much of his rep is built on is relief career, but of those 12 years he had 7 good and 5 utterly mediocre. But then, among the 7 good, he had four that were utterly dominant. Overall for his career as a fulltime closer he had an ERA of 2.95 (2.96 if you include his 1987 as an almost full-time reliever but not a full-time closer) – good, but not much better than, say, Kerry Ligtenberg, and not as good as, say, Trevor Hoffman.
Now, we also have to consider his starter career. As a fulltime starter from 1975 to 1986 he went 151-128, 3.67 ERA. Again, good, but on the whole not great. I see only two, maybe three HoF caliber seasons within his starter career.
So I’m not convinced Eck is a HoFer. From 1988 to 1992 there was none better in his role, but as we see with dale Murphy, a stretch of dominance does not a HoFer make – and Eck’s stretch of dominance represents only 359 innings of a 3285 inning career.
I’d like to see Blyleven get in as well, and also Molitor. After those two, nothing else really excites me.