fhomess wrote:
> Can someone explain to me why Mark Krosser
> always gets more votes than Dave McBean?
> In my book, these guys deserve to go in
> together. McBean was the equal to Krosser
> and people are missing that fact.
I can't speak for other people, but my thoughts are here back in the
Time Warp HOF Ballot 1941.
On the Proffesor, he is in for his peak:
Won Pitcher of the Year Award in 1924
Won Pitcher of the Year Award in 1925
Won Pitcher of the Year Award in 1926
Won Pitcher of the Year Award in 1928
Won Pitcher of the Year Award in 1929
ERA
1924 - 2nd
1925 - 1st
1926 - 3rd
1927 - 5th
1928 - 2nd
1929 - 2nd
WHIP
1924 - 1st
1925 - 1st
1926 - 1st
1927 - 2nd
1928 - 2nd
1929 - 2nd
Wins
1924 - 2nd
1925 - 1st
1926 - 1st
1927 - 7th
1928 - 1st
1929 - 1st
His actually better than his ERA placements reflect as he was hurt by his bandbox home park - 3.04 ERA at home and 2.76 on the road. It actually was typically a bigger split than that as his amazing pitching at home in 1925 makes the numbers "close" when they typically weren't:
1925
Home - 18-0 with an 1.87 ERA
Road - 13-6 with an 3.92 ERA
To cross reference with the ERA+ tossed up for Bowie, Krosser and McBean, here are Nagel's in that six year run:
1925 - 180
1929 - 171
1928 - 168
1924 - 163
1926 - 153
1927 - 135
They're better than McBean's peak. Where Nagel run into "problems" is that the rest of his "good" to "average" season fall off fairly fast:
1923 - 139
1922 - 115
1932 - 111
1918 - 110
1920 - 104
1930 - 102
1919 - 102
McBean had five 119+ seasons in addition to his Top 6, three of those five being 130+. Of course there is the slight problem that McBean missed about 1/3rd of his starts in those three seasons, which does cut into the "value" of those season even if the "quality" was better.
Again, people voted for Nagel for the peak. Five POY in six years. I'll grant that his peak isn't one of the four or so best in TWB - Murph and Smith almost certainly would top him, and I suspect that Presto and Dodge would as well. But it's better than McBean and Krosser, and no worse than even if not better than Bowie's. I think we'd all agree that those three are all-time greats. When you're peak is better than three of the all-time greats, that pretty much is the definition of a HOFer, no?
I like McBean. I certainly could support his Vet Committee candidacy. His lack of even a single ERA title or even a WHIP title troubles me. He's right there "among" the best pitchers in the NL for a good amount of time, but really not the best.
John