National Baseball Hall of Fame – Hall of Fame Election Results for 2005
Not that Wade Boggs got in, as he deserved. Ryne Sandberg also made it, though I’m not sure why he didn’t on his first try.
There had been some speculation that Dale Murphy would fall off the ballot, but he survived with 10.5 percent of the vote, slightly increasing his share. Otis Nixon suffered the indignity of receiving no votes. The only newcomer who will stay on the ballot will be Willie McGee, who received the bare minimum of five percent — actually, 5.03 percent, so even one fewer vote would have kicked him.
Next year’s ballot is spectacularly weak — the top candidates are probably Orel Hershiser and Will Clark — so Bruce Sutter (who is still being paid by the Braves), the top guy below the 75 percent threshold, will probably get in. I don’t know why he’s ahead of Goose Gossage, but whatever.
I would vote for Gossage over Sutter myself. But I think I see the rationale of the voters. 1) Sutter’s 1984 season was better than anything Gossage did, both in terms of saves and ERA and matched Goose’s best IP as a reliever. 2) Sutter saved many more games per appearance and had a better ERA, so on a quick view he appears more dominant. 3) Gossage hung on for ever while Sutter flamed out fairly quickly; by doing so it left the image of Sutter with the Cubs and Cards when he was excellent while Goose was the hanger on in Chicago, Oakland, Texas, Seattle …
What I wonder is whether the blogger ground swell of support for Blyleven will continue to move him forward, particularly in a weak ’06 class.
It won’t be enough to put him in, I’m afraid. He’s now only at 40 percent, and he suffers from ballot-splitting because Tommy John is also there. I think both men should go in, and I’m not sure that John isn’t the better candidate.
Both are running out of time. And the 2007 group, while most notable for three sure-thing hitters — and several other guys who are better than a lot of guys already in — has Saberhagen, who will probably draw some support.
Congrats to Wade and Ryne.
Jason Stark wrote a very good article on the election results:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=1958227
I sure would like to vote for Goose and Sutter. Maybe even Jack Morris. However, someone I’d like to take a few moments to mention is Bert Blyleven and his case for the hall of fame. Here are some of his career highlights:
22 seasons pitched.
287-250 career record (53.45% win pct)
3.31 ERA or a 118 ERA+ score for his career. (18% better than league average)
Strikeout total of 3,701 ranks him 5th all-time.
Had an ERA of 3.03 or lower his first NINE seasons.
Struck out 200 or more batters 6 consecutive seasons over that period.
4970 innings pitched
60 shutouts and 242 complete games.
685 career starts
1.20 career WHIP
However, what kills him is he never really had a “career” year. In 1973 he recorded 20 wins along with 9 shutouts and 25 complete games, but managed to lose 17 games that season as well. 19 wins in 1984, along with a bunch of 17 win seasons scattered all over, too. Lost 17 games three seasons in a row and four times during his career. Gave up 46 homeruns in 1987 (but so did everyone else that year) but FIFTY the year before in 1986. It’s too bad, for every strength he has there’s an equal weakness that makes his case very unsubstantiated.