Summary[]
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan discuss the Hall of Fame results, including why (and whether) the Hall matters, Mariano Rivera’s unanimous election, the greatness of Mike Mussina, the stagnation of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, the perplexing case of Omar Vizquel, and other topics, then banter about the spread of multi-position players, the Braves bringing back Nick Markakis, the Mariners signing Ichiro Suzuki (sort of), improvements in player development, the Reds’ path to contention in the NL Central, Scott Boras’s role in the slow offseason, the worst seasons by Hall of Famers, and more, plus a Stat Blast about Rivera’s greatness and a parting word from Ben’s mom.
Topics[]
- Hall of Fame results
- The unanimous hall of Famer decision going forward
- Guys that were not elected
- Why only 10
- Omar Vizquel
Banter[]
- Bens Twitter avatar
- Willians Astudillo the mercenary
- Articles v Books for Ben
- Flexibility in players
- Nick Markakis
- Mariners signed Ichiro to a contract
- The Japan Series
- The Reds
- Scott Boras role in slow offseasons
- Worst season by hall of Famers
StatBlast[]
- Mariano Rivera had an ERA - of 44 since 2002 the best ever, which was 25 points better than his FIP-, 4th best ever.
- Since 1995 Mariano Rivera had a BABIP of .265, 2nd lowest among all pitchers with 1,000 innings in that time.
- In the same timeframe and players, Mariano also had the lowest isolated power.
- Ray Durham went hitless against Rivera but only struck out 3 times.
- The Yankees have a bullpen WPA of 126.3, 2nd place is the Angels with 75.7, from 1996 - 2013.
Notes[]
- There were 3 voters that did not turn in their ballot.
- “It’s so hard to care about resigning Nick Markakis” - Jeff
- Ben, on steroid-tainted candidates: "Their support is very high among first-time voters, and I will be a first-time voter soon, voting for those guys." Editor's note: He didn't vote for those guys.
- “Maybe we should do a live podcast for the Japan seri………” -Ben “NO!” - Jeff
Link[]
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/effectively-wild-episode-1326-hall-of-flames/s
Link to Hall of Fame voting results
Link to the Hall of Baines
Link to Ben’s article about multi-position players
Link to Jeff’s post about the Reds
Link to worst seasons by Hall of Fame hitters
Link to worst seasons by Hall of Fame pitchers
Link to preorder The MVP Machine