Sorry, No

Baseball Hall of Fame inductees were announced yesterday evening. And the winners are:

Mariano Rivera

Edgar Martinez

Mike Mussina

Roy Halladay

So here's the easy part. Rivera and Halladay (RIP) absolute HOFers! But the other 2...

Mike Mussina was a really good pitcher for both the Orioles and Yankees. Played 18 seasons. Won 270 games. Really was the model of consistency. And a fan could argue he's a no doubt HOFer. But when he was playing, did you ever think to yourself "this guy is a surefire HOFer!". I'd say no. So while he's not exactly a compiler, he's on the road to rock. He played on decent teams (make no mistake, the Orioles in the 90's was a pretty good team) and benefits from that as well. He doesn't make my ballot, sorry.

Edgar M. the big DH for the Seattle Mariners also played 18 years. All for the M's, which is an anomaly in today's game. Career BA of .312 which is big time. But he had 309 HRs, 2246 hits, and 1261 RBIs. All short of the automatic magical numbers you hear. So what's the deal? He waited a long while to be voted in...a lot of that due to his basically being a DH. The Designated Hitter has been a legitimate "position" since 1973, so the BBWAA need to get over that idiosyncrasy that some seem to have. Yes, EM was a good hitter, probably more in the vein of Tony Gwynn than what is thought of as a conventional DH. But for me, he's not a HOFer. Now, with the election of Harold Baines, I guess you could make an argument with me. That signals the Baseball HOF is like the Football HOF, where seemingly all players get in.

On the flip-side we have one Larry Walker. Played for Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cards. In his 9th year of eligibility, he amassed 54.6% of vote, which was a big jump from previous two years. Here's his simple line:

.313 Career BA

383 Career HR

2160 Career Hits

1311 Career RBI

So how does Edgar Martinez get in, but Larry Walker only places on a little more than half of ballots? In a career that spanned one less season, he has higher numbers in 3 out of 4 categories. He played fulltime in the OF. And he played on some spectacularly bad teams. So the case can be made that he played in Colorado and benefited from the climate. If you throw in OBP and SLG, Edgar wins on base (.418 vs .400!) but LW wins slugging (.565 vs .515). These two players head to head show you exactly what is wrong with Hall of Fame Voting.