Quote:
Originally posted by Hammer755
Why is a player a HOF'er one year and not another? Will Sandberg's numbers change one iota between now and next year, or five years down the road. The HOF qualifications should be the same now, or 10 years from now.
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I agree with this point except in the case of Lee Smith and relief pitchers. As you can see above, for Smith I said maybe down the line he goes in, but not first ballot. I think the measure of closers has not fully been established although I think it is getting clearer. Manager tendencies in regard to relievers has become pretty streamlined these days. When Thigpen set the saves record, at that point it was unclear what the benchmark should be for truly great relievers. Would 400 saves be something that any decent closer would get? At the time some thought so. Long gone are the (somewhat recent) days of Bruce Sutter leading the league with 28 saves. At the same time, we are not going to see every good reliever hit 400 saves. Hoffman should do it. Nen could. After that, who knows? Guys like Beck and Wetteland were just rolling along, grabbing 40 saves per year until they burned out (injury or otherwise).
As for Sandberg, I left him off my list because I have never felt he was that much better than Whitaker. Sandberg had the MVP, but Whitaker has a World Series ring. Outside of that, they are very, very similar players, both offense and defense. Whitaker is no Hall of Famer, why would Sandberg be one?