Chapter Ten: The Pitchers who are in the Hall of Fame

Title: BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famers
Author: Michael Hoban, Ph.D.
Formats: PDF (ebook) | Paperback
Pages: 223

In the previous chapter, I pointed out that there are fifty-two (52) pitchers in the Hall of Fame who played the bulk of their careers during the 20 ^th century.I indicated that I would use the NEWS HOF Gauge to determine which of these pitchers seem to have the numbers to merit their induction into the Hall – and which of them may have questionable HOF credentials.

As with the position players, the question becomes: Where do we set the bar to determine who does and who does not have HOF numbers among the pitchers?As I did for the position players, I will examine a couple of different scenarios and see who is included and who is not – a benchmark of 250 and 235.

Hall of Fame Numbers:NEWS=250

In this first case, we will set the cut-off point for “ HOF numbers” for a starting pitcher to be a NEWS score of 250 or better.

In the previous chapter, I listed the top ten (10) pitchers who are in the Hall of Fame.The last pitcher on that list was Mordecai Brown with a NEWS score of 272.Here are the other pitchers in the Hall with a score of 250 or greater.

As you can see, only twenty 20 ^th century pitchers who are presently in the Hall achieved a NEWS score of 250.All clearly have HOF numbers.

Eleven of these pitchers played the bulk of their careers before 1950 and nine toiled mainly in the second half of the century.This obviously represents a good balance.

It is informative to note that only twenty-three (23) starting pitchers in the 20 ^th century achieved a NEWS score of 250.The twenty above are in the Hall of Fame.That leaves only three others who are not: Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson. When they are admitted, we will have eleven of the top pitchers in the first half of the century and twelve in the second half – still a good balance.

So, if we set the bar for HOF numbers for a pitcher as high as a NEWS score of 250, then only twenty of the fifty-two pitchers in the HOF (38%) might be said to have HOF numbers.Of course, this may be too strict a criterion.

Hall of Fame Numbers:NEWS= 235

What happens if we lower the bar somewhat to include all the pitchers with a NEWS score of 235?The following eight Hall of Fame pitchers have scores between 235 and 249.

Some of the names on this list may not be as recognizable as others.I would imagine that there are many fans who may not be familiar with Eppa Rixey or Ted Lyons or Stan Covaleski.And there may be those who would question their HOF credentials.But, for example, look at Covaleski’s CV of 231.He averaged better than 23 win shares for his ten best seasons.That is very impressive.

It is interesting to note that there are only four other 20 ^th century pitchers who are in this interval (235-249) and who are not in the Hall: Bert Blyleven, Wilbur Cooper, Jack Powell and Carl Mays.

Adding these eight pitchers to the twenty Hall of Fame pitchers previously mentioned would give us a total of twenty-eight of the fifty-two pitchers in the Hall (54%) having legitimate HOF numbers.

It is worth mentioning here that there have been only a total of thirty-five pitchers in the 20 ^th century who have achieved a NEWS score of 235 or better.Of these, as noted above, twenty-eight are in the Hall of Fame, three were still active in 2006 and four are still awaiting induction into the Hall.

300 Win Shares=the new 300 Wins?

If we are inclined to accept a NEWS score of 235 as defining HOF numbers for a pitcher, the question arises: Is there any other measure that can be used to say that a pitcher definitely has the numbers for the Hall?I believe that the answer may be yes.It may be reasonable to suggest that any pitcher with 300 career win shares has earned the right to be inducted.

You will recall that an old “rule of thumb” was that a pitcher who had 300 wins during his career was “guaranteed” to be elected to the Hall.And, in fact, every pitcher who has 300 wins and has been eligible is in the Hall of Fame.I would suggest that perhaps the old adage be amended to read “any pitcher with 300 career win shares should be in the HOF .”

In the 20 ^th century, there have been only twenty-seven (27) pitchers who have earned 300 win shares.Of these, twenty two (22) are in the HOF already and four are still active and presumably headed to Cooperstown (Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine). Only one pitcher with 300 win shares has been eligible and has not yet been inducted – Bert Blyleven .Hopefully, Blyleven will be inducted soon since he is still on the BBWAA HOF ballot and got 48% of the vote in 2007.

Are there any pitchers in the Hall of Fame at present who have 300 career win shares but do not have a NEWS score of 235?Yes, there are three such pitchers.

It is interesting (and perhaps surprising to some) to note that Nolan Ryan did not attain a NEWS score of 235.This is essentially because his CV score was less than 200.You will note that despite the strikeouts and the no-hitters (which made him dominating at times) it would be accurate to say that Nolan Ryan’s career numbers more closely resemble those of Don Sutton than they do any of the truly great pitchers.You can see that in his ten best seasons, Ryan was not as effective a pitcher as, for example, Early Wynnor Juan Marichal or even Bert Blyleven.

And Ryan’s numbers do not come close to a truly dominating pitcher like Bob Gibson.

Dennis Eckersley, of course, was both a starter and a reliever during his career and is generally considered to be a reliever rather than a starter.His 301 career win shares would certainly establish his credentials for the Hall of Fame.

Summary

If we accept the NEWS score of 235 (or 300 CWS) as defining HOF numbers for a pitcher, then we have thirty-one (31) current Hall of Fame pitchers who definitely have HOF numbers.If we were to stop here, then we would say that 60% of the 20 ^th century pitchers in the Hall of Fame (31 of 52) definitely have HOF numbers.

I want to emphasize that I am not sayingthat a pitcher must have met at least one of these standards to be worthy of induction into the HOF .There are a number of pitchers who are in the HOF such as Jim Bunning, Don Drysdale or Whitey Ford who have not met either standard but who may be worthy Hall of Famers (in Ford’s case, perhaps based on his post-season accomplishments).What I am sayingis that ifa pitcher achieved either standard then he deserves to be in the Hall because his numbers justify his being there.