The Sommer Frieze

Chad Jennings gives his take on the LoHud blog, here is mine:

An X symbolizes who I would vote for if I had a vote. I believe voters can vote for up to 10. I choose seven.

The full list of candidates
Roberto Alomar X
Kevin Appier
Harold Baines
Bert Blyleven X
Ellis Burks
Andre Dawson X
Andres Galarraga
Pat Hentgen
Mike Jackson
Eric Karros
Ray Lankford
Barry Larkin X
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff X
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Dave Parker
Tim Raines X
Shane Reynolds
David Segui
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell X
Robin Ventura
Todd Zeile

Some are close calls. Parker, Murphy, Morris, Smith are to me, all close but no cigar. Others will disagree. Baines and Edgar are tough calls because of the DH. You would like to recognize their obvious offensive talents, but do you also detract because of the fact that their stats were padded because of the DH? Gallaraga good, but voters may (and count myself) take Colorado into account. McGwire in my mind, still needs to be “penalized.” Maybe one day the steroid era will be taken into account and something done about it. Until then the only way to get your point across is to keep them out of the HOF or make them wait until the very last ballot.

As for Donnie Baseball, you really wish you could vote for him. But the two distinctly separate careers hurt him. Awesome 1984-1989. Good 1990-1995. He needed more of those awesome years.

Some guys have better numbers than you’d think. Did you know that Ellis Burks hit .291 with 352 HR? Compare him to say Parker (.290, 339 HR) or Murphy (.265, 398 HR).

So, my magnificent seven:

Alomar. One of, if not THE, best second basemen I’ve ever seen. (Figure 1967 on). Right up there with Morgan at his peak. A five-tool player.  .300, 210 HR, 474 SB and 10 GG. Five top-six MVP finishes. A leader and star on three different playoff teams (Blue Jays, Orioles and Indians). To me, he—more than anyone—symbolized those 1991-1993 Toronto teams that won 3 division titles and 2 WS. 2724 hits. It’s still inexplicable to me his dropoff from 2001 to 2002 when he seemed to still have three or four more great years left. Only 33 in his last great year. The 1992 ALCS MVP.

Blyleven. I wish Kaat and John were on the ballot. All three are thisclose. Long careers. 280+ wins. Years of dominance, many years of very good. Tough calls on all three. Blyleven was only once a 20-game winner but wound up with 287 wins, a 118 ERA+ and 3701 K’s. On the 1979 Pirate and 1987 Twins WS Championship teams. 3.31 ERA (Kaat 283 wins, 1982 Cards at the end of his career, 3.45 ERA, 107 ERA+ Higher ERA and ERA+ 3x 20-game winner; John 288 wins, 3.34, 110 ERA+; Blyleven slightly better ERA+ than Kaat and John. 3x 20-game winner). All three are close. Kaat and John aren’t on the ballot however, and Bert is. The ERA+ for Bert is better. I feel he (3.31, 287 wins 118 ERA+) is much more deserving (despite one 20 win season) than Morris (3.90 ERA, 105 ERA+ but 3x 20-game winner).

Dawson. Knees ravaged from the turf in Montreal. But still 8 GG. “Only” .279 but over 2770 hits, 438 HR. Over 300 SB. 1987 MVP. Runnerup in 1981 and 1983. ROY 1977. He has his detractors, and his limited postseason play saw poor numbers.   

Larkin. I truly believe that you have to hold middle infielders to a different standard. You can’t compare Larkin and Trammell to a Parker, Murphy or McGwire. SS to OF/1B/DH are like apples to oranges, especially defensively. The 1995 MVP finished his career with a superb (for a SS) .295 BA and stole 379 SB. A 12X All-Star. HIt .338 in 17 postseason games.

Trammell. I jump to him to keep the SS together. Larkin had 2340 hits and a 162 g. average of .295-15-71-28 SB. Trammell was slightly below, .285 with 2365 hits. His 162 g. average was .285-13-71 with 17 SB. OPS+ numbers? Trammell 110, Larkin 116. Edge Larkin, but Trammell isn’t that far behind. Runnerup for the 1987 MVP in a close vote, and winner of the 1984 WS MVP. Once again, his postseason numbers are similar to Larkin—.333 in 13 games.

McGriff. Ok, he might be “borderline.” But his 493 HR (same as Gehrig) look more impressive when you compare him to the steroid boys. The Crime Dog had a .284 BA and an excellent 134 OPS+. His acquisition by Atlanta in 1993 enabled the Braves to catch SF in a truly remarkable pennant race for the NL West (the Braves moved to the NL East in 1994 when the two divisions became three and the wild-card [not needed with the 1994 strike] came into being). Never hit 40 but was remarkably consistent. 34-36-35-31-35-37-34 (strike year)-from 1988-1994. Six top-10 MVP finishes. Quiet and did his job. … and one of the worst trades the Yankees ever made when the Yanks traded the then-minor leaguer after the 1982 season. Hit .303 in the postseason with 10 HR.

Raines. I got into an argument with people several years ago and still defend Raines, who was one of the greatest leadoff hitters ever—only to be overshadowed by his contemporary, Rickey Henderson. Just look at last year, when Rickey made the HOF. Raines didn’t steal 1406 bases like Rickey, but 808 surely isn’t shabby, not to mention .294 and over 2600 hits.  

Those are my picks. If given a ballot, who would you vote for?

Interesting though….with McGriff, Alomar, Raines and Dawson on my list, it would be Canada’s (Toronto and Montreal) year.