Goose Gossage only person elected to HOF this year

[The Wolf]

I wouldn't have put any of them in except Gossage and Blyleven myself.

And who voted for Shawon Dunston? Why? Was he drunk when he did it?

[Anisoptera]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

I'm sure this has happened before, but what would happen if a guy retired, spent a couple years on the ballot and returned to the pros and played? Would his time start over, or what would happen?

If it starts over, the Twins should sign Blyleven to a deal, let him make an apperance as a DH or something and start his 15 years over. This is getting ridiculous.

He'd be more likely to get inducted in his lifetime if it just goes to the Veteran's Committee. I'll be rooting for him either way, but it's ridiculous he has to wait so long and the writers really shouldn't pass on him. I'm sure many say it's not, but not getting in by the writers tells a guy he probably doesn't really belong in the Hall when Bly really does. And like Gossage said today, he would have really liked for his mom to see him get inducted. Who is it for Bly who is going to miss his induction because writers want to play games? If a voter is going to vote a guy in he should do it in the guy's 1st, or 2nd if you must, year not let him in with a sympathy vote like Rice will get next year.

And another thing: anybody who votes for Rice and not Blyleven should automatically get their voting privileges revoked.

The low vote total for Raines is what really got me this year, however. You compare him to any batters on the ballot, with the exception of McGwire depending on how you feel about that, and Raines should be the first and maybe only batter you vote for and yet he only gets 24 or so percent. What a crock. I wonder what the lowest % a player got who was eventualy elected into the Hall. Anybody know?

[BaseballMan]

are the voters mostly the same each year. i wonder if they should have like a
3 year limit and then a voter has to sit out a year and get in line for the next vacant voter spot the next year. just so you have voters looking at players with a fresh perspective.

[Jason Moyer]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

And who voted for Shawon Dunston? Why? Was he drunk when he did it?

He deserves a vote merely for parlaying one skill (throwing) into an 1800 game career.

[KurtBevacqua]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

I'm sure this has happened before, but what would happen if a guy retired, spent a couple years on the ballot and returned to the pros and played? Would his time start over, or what would happen?

If it starts over, the Twins should sign Blyleven to a deal, let him make an apperance as a DH or something and start his 15 years over. This is getting ridiculous.

This happened with Ryne Sandberg, and yes, the clock restarted. What was interesting in his case is I think he was a shoo-in candidate after his first retirement, but his comeback actually caused his support to diminish. He really should have stayed retired.

[ctorg]

I would have put Blyleven and Raines in. I'm baffled by the lack of support for Raines, but I guess it has to do with that odd idea that guys who have lots more years of eligibility left can wait. I could probably be convinced that Gossage belongs in there, but his good years were slightly before my time as a fan and I'm not quite sure what was so HOF-worthy about him. I mean, he was obviously very good, but he was a relief pitcher, which means to me that you have to be super-extremely good to get in.

[The Professor]

Originally Posted by ctorg

I would have put Blyleven and Raines in. I'm baffled by the lack of support for Raines, but I guess it has to do with that odd idea that guys who have lots more years of eligibility left can wait. I could probably be convinced that Gossage belongs in there, but his good years were slightly before my time as a fan and I'm not quite sure what was so HOF-worthy about him. I mean, he was obviously very good, but he was a relief pitcher, which means to me that you have to be super-extremely good to get in.

Yeah. He was super-extremely good. IMO, top three all-time (Wilhelm and Mariano).

Raines is a ridiculous exclusion, as remains Blyleven. But Gossage is a worthy Hall of Famer.

I've got a soft spot for Trammell and might be stupid and give Murphy a throw-away "great guy, far borderline candidate" vote, but my core ballot would have been Goose, Rock and The Dutchman.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by The Professor

Yeah. He was super-extremely good. IMO, top three all-time (Wilhelm and Mariano).

Raines is a ridiculous exclusion, as remains Blyleven. But Gossage is a worthy Hall of Famer.

I've got a soft spot for Trammell and might be stupid and give Murphy a throw-away "great guy, far borderline candidate" vote, but my core ballot would have been Goose, Rock and The Dutchman.

Like I said, I could probably be convinced without too much difficulty. I just have a hard time judging relief pitchers. I saw Eckersley, so I had that to go on and felt like he deserved it. I didn't really see Gossage until the later years of his career (I started really following baseball fully in 1988). He certainly looks more impressive than Bruce Sutter, I'd say.

[The Professor]

Originally Posted by ctorg

Like I said, I could probably be convinced without too much difficulty. I just have a hard time judging relief pitchers. I saw Eckersley, so I had that to go on and felt like he deserved it. I didn't really see Gossage until the later years of his career (I started really following baseball fully in 1988). He certainly looks more impressive than Bruce Sutter, I'd say.

Gossage had a longer, better, peak than Sutter.

Given his usage pattern, leverage, what have you, any way you slice it, Gossage's 1975,1977-1985 is about as dominating a tenure as a reliever can have.

And he stuck around for another decade as a middle-reliever. And he wasn't awful. He still had the heat, could put together a productive run of games, even if he wasn't anywhere near the old standard. Not many guys stick around that long who aren't lefty specialists.

If Eckersley hadn't had a decent career as a starter, I don't think he'd have sniffed Cooperstown - or he would make the selection of Sutter seem enlightened. Eck was an overrated closer once you get past his two or three seasons of mind-boggling white-hot domination.

[KurtBevacqua]

Originally Posted by The Professor

Yeah. He was super-extremely good. IMO, top three all-time (Wilhelm and Mariano).

Raines is a ridiculous exclusion, as remains Blyleven. But Gossage is a worthy Hall of Famer.

I've got a soft spot for Trammell and might be stupid and give Murphy a throw-away "great guy, far borderline candidate" vote, but my core ballot would have been Goose, Rock and The Dutchman.

"

I saw him pitch in the mid to late 70's and situations you'd never see Gagne or Eck or Hoffman dream of pitching in. I recall once on Monday Night Baseball (a national event in those days) seeing him with Pittsburgh come into the 7th inning with bases loaded and nobody out strike out the side and pitch a perfect three innings to preserve the win. Now that's a save, and he did that kind of thing routinely. Look up his numbers for the 77 season. His save total seems slim compared to today's watered down numbers, but look at the innings, hits allowed and strikeouts. He was silly good when he was in his prime.

[Operation Shutdown]

Originally Posted by Anisoptera

The low vote total for Raines is what really got me this year, however. You compare him to any batters on the ballot, with the exception of McGwire depending on how you feel about that, and Raines should be the first and maybe only batter you vote for and yet he only gets 24 or so percent. What a crock. I wonder what the lowest % a player got who was eventualy elected into the Hall. Anybody know?

Per Jay Jaffe of BP:
As for the question at hand, confining ourselves to the post 1965 annual balloting era, Duke Snider (17.0%), Don Derysdale (21.0%), Billy Williams (23.4%) and Bruce Sutter (23.9%) started out in bigger holes than Raines.