On Sunday, Rickey Henderson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was joined by Jim Rice and Joe Gordon. You can see the video of Rickey Henderson getting inducted into the Hall of Fame at the end of this entry.
Said Henderson in his speech: “My journey as a player is complete. I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time, and at this moment I am very humbled.”
Henderson, now 50 years old, is the holder of many records including runs scored (2,295), steals (1,406), lead-off homers (81) and unintentional walks (2,129). He also holds …read more

While I’m waiting for Puppy Bowl IV to arrive, I thought I’d flip through the STATS 1997 Baseball Scoreboard for inspiration. I’ve already used this source to re-examine Barry Bonds and now I see that there are a few more projections in here.
This time we’re looking at projected career hits. Specifically we’re looking at the players who were judged at that time most likely to reach 3000 hits. Let’s compare projected with actual, shall we?

Career Hits, Projected pre-’97 vs Actual post-’07

Player
Proj
Act
Diff

Cal Ripken Jr.
3166
3184
+18

Tony Gwynn
3139
3141
+2

Wade Boggs
3025
3010
-15

Roberto Alomar
2803
2724
-79

Rafael Palmeiro
2672
3020
+348

Chuck Knoblauch
2509
1839
-670

Frank Thomas
2355
2409
+54

Marquis Grissom
2328
2251
-77

Alex Rodriguez
2151
2250
+99

Points worth noting:

Those projections for Ripken, Gwynn, and Boggs are …read more

Okay, here’s the full vote. My thoughts below the table…

2008 Hall of Fame Vote

Player
Votes
Pct

Courtesy MLB.com.

Rich Gossage
466
85.8%

Jim Rice
392
72.2%

Andre Dawson
358
65.9%

Bert Blyleven
336
61.9%

Lee Smith
235
43.3%

Jack Morris
233
42.9%

Tommy John
158
29.1%

Tim Raines
132
24.3%

Mark McGwire
128
23.6%

Alan Trammell
99
18.2%

Dave Concepcion
88
16.2%

Don Mattingly
86
15.8%

Dave Parker
82
15.1%

Dale Murphy
75
13.8%

Harold Baines
28
5.2%

Rod Beck
2
0.4%

Travis Fryman
2
0.4%

Robb Nen
2
0.4%

Shawon Dunston
1
0.2%

Chuck Finley
1
0.2%

David Justice
1
0.2%

Chuck Knoblauch
1
0.2%

Todd Stottlemyre
1
0.2%

Jose Rijo
0
0%

Brady Anderson
0
0%

As promised, my take:

The voters finally stopped screwing Goose Gossage. This business about Bruce Sutter paving the way for him is absolute garbage. Gossage came first and was a better pitcher.
They completely dropped the ball on Tim Raines. There is no way in Hades that Jim Rice was a better player than Raines. Why folks in charge of this sort of …read more

   Photo by ewen and donabel   some rights reserved
Congratulations to Rich “Goose” Gossage on his election into the baseball Hall of Fame. Gossage received 86% of the votes. He will be the only member of the Class of 2008.

{democracy:32}

No, I don’t think so, but Steve Lombardi makes an interesting comparison between him and Jim Rice over at Stat of the Day that forces me at least to consider the possibility. I’m not sure if it’s possible for a guy who spent his entire career with the Yankees to be underrated, but if it is, Bernie Williams might be the one. Or maybe Roy White.
Williams was unbelievably good from 1995 to 2002, while playing a premium defensive position. His offensive line for that stretch was .321/.406/.531. You know how many guys put up better numbers during that period (minimum …read more

Vegas Watch has compiled a list of reasons voters have offered in support of their selections for the Class of 2008. Some of them are pretty funny if you’re willing to separate yourself from the fact that these folks are entrusted with something that a lot of people hold sacred.
Jeff at Brew Crew Ball goes so far as to claim that he hates the Hall of Fame. That’s a bit strong for my taste, but I totally understand it.
Here’s how I look at the situation. For me, baseball is almost like religion. The ballpark is my church, and Cooperstown is …read more

Michael Knisley and John Shea debate Andre Dawson’s Hall of Fame credentials over at ESPN. Dawson, to my way of thinking, is the very definition of a borderline candidate. Check out his list of Top 10 most similar players according to Baseball-Reference:

Billy Williams (133 OPS+)
Tony Perez (122)
Dave Parker (121)
Al Kaline (134)
Harold Baines (120)
Dwight Evans (127)
Ernie Banks (122)
Dave Winfield (130)
Luis Gonzalez (119)
Vada Pinson (110)

As a point of reference, Dawson’s OPS+ was 119. Anyway, five of these guys have been enshrined in Cooperstown: Williams, Perez, Kaline, Banks, and Winfield. Of those five, three were clearly superior players: Williams, Kaline, and Winfield.
The other …read more

I seem to be on a Hall of Fame kick lately. Maybe it’s because I actually visited the place this summer. Or maybe there’s not much else going on right now (seriously, don’t make me bust out some transaction haiku on the Darin Erstad and Miguel Olivo signings). Whatever the case, that’s where my head is at, so let’s take a look at another worthy candidate, Rich “Goose” Gossage.
On second thought, let’s take a look at someone else taking a look at Gossage. In this case, we’ll check in on a couple of guys with a vote, ESPN’s Phil Rogers …read more

Dan McLaughlin has a nice article up at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) on the Hall of Fame worthiness of Tim Raines. In it, Dan compares Raines to other great “tablesetters” — guys whose skills were best suited to the top of the order — throughout baseball history.
The most important finding is that Raines hangs pretty well with his contemporaries — Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, and Paul Molitor. I didn’t get to see Henderson and Molitor play much until later in their careers, but I watched a lot of Gwynn and Raines. As a huge Gwynn …read more

I’ve been meaning to say something about the Hall of Fame for a while. To help us out, Sean Forman has created nice little reports for batters and pitchers eligible in the current balloting.

{democracy:31}

Of the new guys, Tim Raines absolutely belongs. Not sure? Several respected analysts have developed a web site that presents a compelling case for Raines. His biggest misfortune, of course, was playing opposite Rickey Henderson for most of his career. That and being buried in Montreal.
Of the holdovers, Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage deserve enshrinement (and both are long overdue, IMHO). My guess is that one will …read more