High and Tight.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Congratulations Andre Dawson

You're now one of the worst outfielders in the Hall of Fame.

Was it the lifetime .279 BA or the .323 OBP that had writers swooning (Dawson is now, by the way, the outfielder with the lowest career OBP of any outfielder ever inducted into the Hall).

Dawson's 119 OPS+ for his career speaks to a good player, but not an all-time great.

Most of the defense of Dawson comes from contemporaries who say he was "scary to play against" or a "gamer" or a "hard worker."

Someone enshrine Brett Gardner immediately.

I really don't get it. Usually you can look to RBI for a reason BBWAA members overrate a guy, but Dawson only drove in 100 runs 4 times in a 20-year career.

This isn't to say he didn't deserve some All-Star appearances in his career, but Hall of Famer?

Robbie Alomar of course was one of the best second basemen, both offensively and defensively, of all time. He didn't make the cut.

Tim Raines deserves to be in, far ahead of Dawson. Besides the steals (and more importantly one of the best stolen base percentages of all-time) he has higher career BA (.294), OBP (.385), and OPS+ (123). Yet Rock didn't even come close.

The BBWAA has gotten better in recent years in letting folks like Rob Neyer and Keith Law in, but you can tell there are a lot of knuckleheads still with votes.

Labels: andre dawson, bbwaa, hall of fame, keith law, rob neyer, roberto alomar, tim raines, undeserving hall of famers

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 3:03 PM 5 comments

Friday, May 15, 2009

When is Willie Mays Getting Kicked Out Of the HOF?

Just saw a report on ESPN that Willie Mays and Willie Stargell are being investigated for giving out and using amphetamines during their playing days.

Amphetamines are uppers, and thus performance enhancers.

So, Willie Mays is being investigated for taking PEDs.

This shouldn't be news... Jim Bouton spoke about greenies (uppers) in "Ball Four" which came out in the mid-70's.

If they'll keep guys like McGwire and Bonds out of the Hall for suspected PED use, I would assume Mays can start packing his bags out of Cooperstown as well, right?

Doubtful. Voters have a double standard.

Labels: barry bonds, hall of fame, mark mcgwire, steroids, willie mays, willie stargell

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 2:45 PM 3 comments

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

It's Goose's Time

At least it should be. Thankfully, (hopefully) we'll be talking about the Hall of Fame inductees for a few days instead of just steroidsHGHsteroidsPEDs constantly.

Gossage is the most deserving candidate, and it's a shame it's taken this long for voters to realize that "closers" have changed and evolved over the years. You can't compare Gossage to Hoffman or Rivera - they'd never pitch three or four innings for a save. It's long past due for Goose to get his reward, especially since Sutter made it two years ago.

The other names I'd check on my hypothetical ballot?
Raines
Blyleven
McGwire

No to Dawson, Rice, Morris, John. They just aren't Hall-worthy. Lee Smith I'm a bit torn on, and I'd like to see him get some votes next year. I've addressed Mattingly before and while I didn't think he'd played long enough to be in the Hall, voters inducted Puckett on the first ballot, and if a guy is good enough to make it on the first ballot and has nearly identical yet inferior stats to another guy... well, he should probably make it too, don't you think?

Yes I know McGwire most likely used drugs, but it seems it was so rampant back then, how can you choose to just punish one player? I thought perhaps the first year exclusion was enough. The guy was the premeire homerun hitter of his day and finished with nearly 600. You can't keep him out forever.

That people keep comparing Raines to Henderson is ridiculous, but not as much as people believing Vince Coleman was better than him. Raines deserves a spot.

Rice seems to be getting support from Boston area sportswriters (Gammons) who are pressuring their peers to vote in his favor (Gammons). He doesn't deserve it... not even close.

I'd be surprised if Dave Concepcion gets in, but so many writers have falled for Joe Morgan's campaigning in their articles lately. Let me state this clearly - Concepcion had a few years as an average hitter and a full career as an awful one. Concepcion should have to buy a ticket if he ever wants to see the Hall of Fame.

My guess is it winds up with just Gossage, which is an affront to Blyleven, but we'll see. These inductions are voted on by sportswriters, and any regular reader of this blog knows how I feel about their kind.

Labels: bert blyleven, goose gossage, hall of fame, mark mcgwire, tim raines

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 10:09 AM 1 comments