2006 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot Results
Sutter in, barely. I don’t understand why he’s considered a better pitcher than Gossage, who was just as dominant, if not more so, and pitched far longer. The Blyleven push seems not to have worked.
Murph stays on the ballot, but makes no real progress, going from 54 votes/10.5 percent to 56/10.8. He passed Willie McGee, whose vote collapsed and fell off the ballot. There were two other ex-Braves on the ballot, neither of whom had a chance. Ozzie Guillen got five votes, four of which are probably for managing. Walt Weiss got one vote. The top new performer was Hershiser with 11.2 percent; he and Belle (7.7) are the only new players to stay on and probably aren’t long for the ballot.
Next year is a very rugged group — Ripken and Gwynn should make it easily, while the steroids rumors will at most delay McGwire’s induction. After that, though, there are a few more weak classes with no shoo-ins. Well, Tim Raines should be in 2008 but probably will have to scratch just to survive the cut. And Rickey Henderson is supposed to come up in 2009 but that depends upon him not convincing someone to give him another shot in the majors.
Hey, I like Walt Weiss as much as the next guy, but who voted for him for the Hall of Fame? The only possible rationale is as a joke, and if that’s the case, the voter should have his voting privileges revoked.
I am getting extremely jaded by the whole thing. With each passing year I could care less about the HOF. It is such a sham. Jim frickin Rice can’t get in because he was such a poo poo head to journalists. Please!!! It’s hillarious!!!
A protest vote of some sort? Or maybe he didn’t realize he wasn’t allowed to turn in a blank ballot and voted for someone with no chance. I don’t think it’s as ridiculous as the guy who voted for Terry Puhl in 1997. Someone voted for Terry Kennedy that year, too. Maybe it was the same guy and he always votes for guys named “Terry”.
From Baseball-Reference’s HOF predictors for Sutter:
Black Ink: Pitching – 15 (138) (Average HOFer ~ 40)
Gray Ink: Pitching – 30 (750) (Average HOFer ~ 185)
HOF Standards: Pitching – 17.0 (381) (Average HOFer ~ 50)
HOF Monitor: Pitching – 91.0 (114) (Likely HOFer > 100)
Overall Rank in parentheses.
Y’know, as good and innovative as Sutter was, he didn’t have that many great seasons. By my count, it was 8, which is fine–but as we know, the rest were injury-riddled years that found him wearing a blue hat & a white A (the brief & brutal Brad Komminsk Era.)
If you’re gonna pick a reliever, I agree that Gossage is probably an overall better candidate.
Maybe Sutter gets into the HoF the same reason Candy Cummings gets in: By succeeding with the split-finger, he “contributed something” to the fabric of the game.
The HOF trackers don’t really work for relievers, though. I think relief pitching is so ingrained as part of the game now that you have to put some in. I don’t think Sutter was the right choice; Gossage and Smith seem much better candidates. At the same time, he’s not manifestly unqualified compared to the only other pure reliever in the Hall (Fingers).
Based on Sutter’s induction, you might as well open the floodgates for the relievers – Tom Henke, Lee Smith, Jeff “the Bandito” Reardon, Rich Gossage, Dan Quisenberry, Rob Nen, Troy Percival, Jeff Montgomery, Eric Plunk, . . . well not that last one. All had similar if not better careers than Sutter.
Sadly, my greatest memory of Sutter is watching a game on TBS with my brother during his last season with the team. Sutter was in the bullpen, leaning back in a card chair, and appeared to be relieving himself from what must have been a ‘rather uncomfortable itch’. This went on long enough that both my brother and I – both under 12 at the time were on the floor laughing and thinking “how long are they going to keep the camera on this guy.”
In those days, I’m sure a good televised crotch scratch from a millionaire reliever was more entertaining than whatever was happening on the field.
Ken Oberkfell anyone?
You know, I was going to look and see if anyone voted for Oberkfell when he came up, but he never appeared on the ballot. Not that he belonged, but was he really a worse player than a lot of the guys who did appear? They’re supposed to put on everyone who played ten or more seasons and was mostly a regular… Also, if you Google “Oberkfell” you get this ad:
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Thanks, we already had our share…
Taking time out from my newfound hobby of sending e-mails to lousy journalists in the futile hope of having a positive effect on their drivel-oriented columns (yes, I’m a nattering nabob of negativity today, or maybe a lot ;-), I have to say the HOF ballot was pretty weak this year. Gossage probably should have gotten in. I’m not as sure about Blyleven, and Dawson and Rice are probably never going to make it. There’s always next year, though!
“who voted for Weiss?”
probably the same moron that voted him Rookie of the Year.
Sorry, I typed this in a previous thread not realizing this was the most recent one. But… Dale Murphy got 56 votes??! That’s absurd, ridiculous, and offensive.
What the hell are they thinking? How could Steve Garvey get two and a half times the votes of Dale Murphy? It’s not like Los Angeles gives a shit about their baseball.
I really want to punch a member or two of the BBWAA right now.
I’m happy Smoltz isn’t going to be in the WBC, though. I don’t want him pitching a single unnecessary inning this year.
I know this has no statistical or logical base, but I don’t believe there was ever a time that a GM would have considered trading Andre Dawson or Jim Rice for Bruce Sutter. Except for Murph’s peak years, I’m not sure he would have been enough alone to get Sutter in a trade. Like I said, it doesn’t mean anything, my mind works strangely sometimes.
One day Murph will get in, it has to happen, right?
Salty has been invited to the major league Braves spring training along with Jonathan Schuerholz and among other guys. I guess JS must be retiring soon, and I am sure we will see his son wearing Atlanta uniform by September the latest.
Hey, Travis Smith is back!!!
http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/0111braves.html
Since there no longer seems to be a topic..The Tom Seaver signing story has been told often, but I don’t recall the Braves drafting Randy Johnson in the 4th round in 1982. I wonder what dollar figure was holding up the deal? Endless hours roaming the pages of baseball-reference.com.
McGriff will be inducted before Murphy. It’s just the lack of cumulative stats. I hate that McGriff went out the way he did…in my mind he was still in good playing shape and could’ve easily cracked 500 HR…but I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles. One thing that should facilitate McGriff’s campaign is something that up until a few years ago was a non-issue: integrity. While playing in the age of McGwire, Sosa, Sheffield and Bonds…this guy was the real deal.
Sutter in, barely. I don’t understand why he’s considered a better pitcher than Gossage, who was just as dominant, if not more so, and pitched far longer.
Goose’s problem, as I see it, is perspective. He had so many workman like, but unspectacular seasons with the Cubs, Rangers, A’s … basically every year after he and Ray Kroc (McDonald’s billionaire and Padres owner at the time) fought and Gossage claimed Kroc was poisoning the world … as a set up man in the more modern bullpen. They were good seasons, but they weren’t HoF material. By the time he retired, his brilliance was dimmed by the passage of time.
A second problem is his one year as a starter. He had one of the ten best years as a closer in ’75, perhaps THE best in ’77 and was almost as good in ’78 and ’80. But smack dab in the middle of that dominance, he had a forgettable year as a starter in ’76 when Paul Richards, a wonderful manager in the 1950s, ignored the changed game and tried to relive his youth. From ’75 to ’84, ignoring his year as a starter, Gossage average a TWO ERA in over 95 innings per year. ’76, sticks out as a sore thumb.
One more problem for Goose is that possibly his best year was 1981. He had a 0.77 ERA that year and was on pace for a career high in saves. But the strike ate out a third of the season.
It all adds up to a perspective problem.
I understand the skepticism here about Sutter because most people on this blog are probably too young to remember him in his prime. For few years, he was as deadly as Mariano Rivera. Opponents dreaded seeing him come in the game. I’m not saying that necessarily makes him deserving over Gossage (who was also feared), but Sutter’s split finger really changed the game. I think that had a lot to do with him getting in.
I have to second the comments of marc S. and show Mark Grogan that he’s 100% wrong. A GM did trade for him over anybody else: Whitey Herzog.
Whitey says in his books that in ’82 Sutter was his bullpen. As integral to that championship, maybe its’ most important part. At least that’s how his teammates voted him. Remember, Whitey traded a reliever to make room for Sutter. Whitey always felt the edge that the Yankees held over his Royals teams was the dominant reliever, be he Gossage or Sparky Lyle.
And of course the pitcher he traded to make room for Sutter was Rollie Fingers. Older, sure, but pitching good enough to help Milwaukee get into the World Series.
The comparison to Mariano is very apt. I saw three straight All-Star games where the fans hit the streets when Sutter came in to pitch. One manager even came out to ask Sutter if he’d mind letting another pitcher get the last out. Sutter gave way and the television crew said, “wait a minute, we may have some action yet!”
So, 20 years before anybody flashed it on a scoreboard over Eric Gagne, Sutter’s appearance meant GAME OVER.