Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote:
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote:
I hated Jack Morris but he should be in the HOF.
There are other guys that should probably be in ahead of him. Jim Kaat, for example. Maybe Tiant.
Kaat was more about longevity.
Morris was probably the best pitcher in the AL for a decade and his postseason games put him over the top.
Agreed, Morris is getting a lot of support, Tom Verducci today makes the best argument for Morris I've read as Verducci puts Morris' career in the context of the changing role of starting pitchers:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/ne ... l-of-fame/Quote:
From 1971 through 1983, 615 pitchers made their first start in the major leagues. None of them have been elected to the Hall of Fame as a starting pitcher. It is baseball's Dark Ages for superb starting pitchers.
It is, by far, the longest and deepest drought in baseball history when it comes to the debut of a Hall of Fame starting pitcher. The previous drought ran only from 1931-35 and involved only 150 starters.
The modern drought technically extends to today, but will end with the election from this ballot of Greg Maddux (debut: 1986), who will be the first starting pitcher elected who debuted since Bert Blyleven (1970). The drought should have ended with Roger Clemens (1984) but his association with performance-enhancing drugs has kept him out. The 13-year starting pitcher drought between Blyleven and Clemens does not include Dennis Eckersley (1975), who established his Cooperstown credentials as a reliever.
The Dark Ages has one last chance: Jack Morris, who gets his 15th and final opportunity on the baseball writers' ballot. The best of the rest of his contemporaries are long gone from the ballot: Dennis Martinez, Frank Tanana, Bob Welch, Rick Reuschel, Dave Stieb and Fernando Valenzuela, all of whom fell off the ballot after one or two years for failing to gain the minimum five percent support.
Morris is the last chance from an era of enormous change in how the game was played. The widespread use of the five-man rotation, the accepted wisdom of using relief specialists and the adoption of the designated hitter in 1973 combined to jump-start a trend that hasn't stopped its course: starting pitchers were asked to throw fewer starts, fewer complete games and fewer innings.
The Dark Ages began with starters completing 28 percent of their starts in 1971. By 1983 the completion rate was down to 18 percent. By the time Morris threw his last pitch, in 1994, it was down to 8 percent. Today it is down to 2.6 percent.
As the game changed -- especially in the DH-infused American League -- no starting pitcher who debuted in that transitional era held up better than Morris. Plenty of pitchers posted better individual years, more than a few posted better peaks and many have Cy Young Awards or boast better run prevention metrics. But none of the 615 starting pitchers who debuted between 1971 and 1983 had the staying power that Morris did.
Among all starting pitchers who debuted between Blyleven and Clemens, Morris won the most games (254) and completed the most games by far (175, or 22 percent more than the next closest pitcher, Tanana) and posted the second best winning percentage (.577, trailing only Bob Welch and his .591 among pitchers with 400 starts) and the second most strikeouts (2,478, second to the 2,773 of Tanana).
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