Studying the list of inductions, one has to wonder about the order in which some pitchers received their recognition. Join our linker program. He would have been part of the best pitching staffs in historyPappas was still pitching great in '71 and '72. 2) Luis Tiant (1964-1982) (229-172; 3.30 ERA; ERA+ 114; 49 SHO; 3,486 IP/ 3,075 H/ 7.9 H/9; 2416 K/ 1104 BB/ 2.19 ratio; 1.199 WHIP). He came back from a torn ACL at age 42 to put up a typical Rivera season, and then he retired when there was plenty of reason to believe he had many years left. Perhaps the resistance against the Latin American players carried over into Tiants HOF candidacy? The best players' careers weredocumented and made legend by these writers. Several players careers have been overlooked instead of championed. It was 0.32 in the ALDS, 0.92 in the ALCS, and 0.99 in the World Series. (I cant imagine that happening todayleaving the potential ace of your staff in the minors for 50-plus decisions after he had shown his form had returned?). So 2009 was perhaps Ichiro's best year, in terms of bonding with his teammates. Babe Adams was a great pitcher who was overlooked by the veterans committee. Gomez career was cut short because he blew out his arm, losing the zip on an exceptional fastball. Despite being the top pitcher in the league at least three times, Walters has been overlooked for the HOF. The Arkansas Hummingbird pitched for the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals throughout his career. 4 Rick Reuschel 4.0 Jim McCormick was the first Scottish born major league player. Most impressively, he did all this without possessing a strong fastball, instead relying on one of the best changeups ever. But his rookie year really came in 09 for Pirates at age 27. Data Provided By He has the requisite 200 wins, over 40 shutouts, and his 2,832 Ks are still third among left-handed pitchers all-time. He pitched for the Boston Red Sox in the early teens but injury caused him to establish less than 1,500 career innings. During the '76 season he was traded to Texas, where he joined a strong staff and put in some outstanding work. Brett Favre threw the most interceptions and the late Kobe Bryant missed the most shots. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. He had one shutout. Note that only Among the 65 pitchers with the longest careers, his 2.80 K/BB ranks fifth. While he walked his share of batters during the regular season, in postseason play, he walked only nine batters in 46 innings, while striking out 27 batters. 2 Johan Santana 5.1 He was as automatic as youll ever find for a closer. For anyone who cares, heres a more detailed breakdown of the votes each pitcher received for each ranking. One hundred years have passed since Shoeless Joes last big league season, and his talent and numbers (a ridiculous .356 career average and 170 career OPS+) may still make him the best choice for this spot 100 years from now. Drysdale, Ferguson Jenkins, and Early Wynn are the other pitchers with 49 shutouts, and all are in the HOF. Were there a clear consensus, someone would be closer to 1 here. Only players who are known primarily as relief pitchers or closers. Cooper may be the best pitcher in Pirates history. Important: This chart does not include side-by-side comparisons for Hall of Fame pitchers who spent their entire career in the Negro Leagues (Baseball Almanac does not have the data from the Negro League).Those truly elite twirlers are: Ray Brown, Andy Cooper, Leon Day, Martin Dihigo, Bill Foster, Jose Mendez, Bullet Rogan, Hilton Smith and Joe Williams. Honorable mentions: McGwire, Don Mattingly, Todd Helton (Pujols not yet eligible). overall HOF average hitters are added to that position's average until More about data coverage. Four of them (Harold Baines, Edgar Martinez, David Ortiz and Frank Thomas) are already in the Hall following Big Papis election in 2022, while Nelson Cruz remains active. Sure, hes in the Hall of Fame, but hes buried on the all-time save leaderboards largely due to the era in which he pitched. His career records match up well with Catfish Hunter and Don Drysdale. 1. Stats: 422 saves, 2.31 ERA, 0.998 WHIP, 3.99 K:BB, 187ERA+. Pitching for the Cubs, Reulbach teamed up with Mordecai Brown to make one of the great pitching tandems in baseball history. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. The oldest and wisest twin. He was a great situation pitcher, and knew how to get out of a jam with his guile and assortment of breaking pitches. He will be gone soon enough, but for now, it isn't hard to find. Free shipping for many products! In 34 he out-dueled Dizzy Dean to win 3-1. "With pick #132, @Brian59044 selects the first real relief pitcher of the draft, Phoenix Sanders. And Muhammad Ali lost five fights. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. His name is best known for the elbow surgery named after him that, not only prolonged his career, but many after him. In the 1970s, the closer was the pitcher that would enter the game with the bases loaded in the sixth inning and try to work out of a jam and then sometimes finish the game. Free shipping for many products! Perhaps his strongest career stat is his 43 shutouts, more than Hunter, Jim Bunning, Lemon, Newhowser, and Sandy Koufax. Q1 Rank the following pitchers, ranging from 1 for most-deserving of Hall of Fame induction to 10 for least-deserving, [From a survey of 425 respondents, fielded via Qualtrics]. 6 Tim Hudson 3.8 He was never comfortable in Cincinnati, often being booed even though the trade was not his fault. Relief Pitcher - Don McMahon (22.4 WAR) McMahon may be the best reliever most modern baseball fans have never heard mentioned. But he was also just as accomplished a two-way catcher as the Yankees captain -- and just as revered a leader for the Tigers, too. I gave a list of 10 players at each position, based primarily on who I thought voters would expect to be in the poll. Curiously enough, Eckersley didnt win the Cy Young award in his best year but then won the award along with the league MVP two seasons later in 1992 when he went 7-1 with a 1.91 ERA and 51 saves, then the second-best single-season total of all-time. His stamina and effectiveness began to wane in the early '80s. Theres no one since Randy Johnson who puts fear into batters like Aroldis Chapman does. The other difference is that last year, Hoffman picked up 74 percent of the Hall of Fame vote, which put him just barely on the wrong side of immortality. He led the league in shutouts in '36 and games started in '37. Although posting a fine season in '67, he was never accepted by the Reds faithful, and was sent to Atlanta during the '68 season. Players said they could hear the ball spinning as it approached and went by. Stats: 310 saves, 3.01 ERA, 1.232 WHIP, 2.05 K:BB, 126 ERA+, Accolades: 9 All-Star appearances, 1 World Series ring, Baseball Hall of Fame. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. The pitchers on this list are every bit as skilled as their contemporaries already voted in. Particularly blighted were the pitchers in Pittsburgh. Pierce got his chance to test his grit in postseason action in 62 for the Giants. Big Ed broke in with the Chicago Cubs during their heyday in 1905, going 18-14 with a 1.42 ERA. One of the top relievers of the decade, Lyle was acquired from the Red Sox in March 1972 and recorded a 2.41 ERA (148 ERA+) in New York, tallying 141 saves and finishing 348 games. Four pitchers in the HOF fall into this categoryDizzy Dean, Lefty Gomez, Sandy Koufax, and Addie Joss. However, after a year and a half out of military service, the Tigers were impatient for him to regain his form. Incredibly, the Pirate management left him there until the end of the 18 season. But he might not be on this list much longer. Bold - Indicates Player is not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame or was First. Warnekes career was cut short because he left to defend our country. Wagner is sixth on the all-time list with 422 saves (a number that could have been much higher if he didnt retire after arguably his best year). He pitched a one hit shutout in the '06 series, and on Sept, 26, 1908 he pitched back to back shutouts on the same day. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Arguably Fingers most impressive statistic is his percentage of career saves that were clean saves Fingers is at 15 percent, the lowest of any Hall of Fame closer. One time, Wilhelm entered a tie game in the eighth inning and pitched through the 18th, allowing just two hits and no runs. His 187 career ERA+ is second among retired relief pitchers to only Mariano Rivera. Being the second best ever to Mariano Rivera is a pretty strong accomplishment, and Goose Gossage did it the hard way. 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When he finished his career, his 1,999 strikeouts were fifth most for a left-handed pitcher. Thisresearch should give us a framework to look within for our best pitchers not in the HOF. But by '35, after being sold to the Phillies and because of his great arm, the manager and coaches pushed him to pitch. His initial surgery came after the 1974 season. Or the Dave Roberts steal in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. King Kelly, McCormick, and others were known to go out and celebrate after games. He led the league in ERA+ and shutouts (nine) in '73, but didnt get the attention he deserved for the Cy Young award. The most-deserving players not in the Hall of Fame: Pitchers Embed from Getty Images see more Roger Clemens, pitcher for the Boston Red Sox prepares to throw a pitch during the Major League Baseball American League East game against the Cleveland Indians on 27 May 1987 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. 9 David Cone 4.3 LF: Barry BondsThis doesnt require much explanation; Bonds is the greatest player many of us have seen in our lifetimes, and he had accrued surefire Hall credentials before his alleged PED use clouded the picture. He went on to tally 324 saves over a 13-year career, good for 20th on the all-time list, putting him squarely in the Hall of Very Good category among relief pitchers. Jack Chesbro (198), Rube Marquard (201), and Lefty Gomez (189) were all pitchers with low career win totals who made the HOF. All rights reserved. Chapmans statistics look mind-boggling, even when you account for the fact that every reliever strikes out a ton of hitters. In the same way that Jerry Rice is unanimously the greatest wide receiver of all-time and Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player and Babe Ruth is the greatest baseball player, Mariano Rivera is far and above any other closer to ever play the game of baseball. Fingers wasnt just a one-inning closer either; he holds the all-time record with 135 multi-inning saves. Fingers won a league MVP, a Cy Young award, played an integral part in baseballs only non-New York Yankees three-peat ever, and even won World Series MVP once. The pitchers of note among them areCharles Buffington, David Cone, Paul Derringer, Orel Hershiser, Larry Jackson, Jim Kaat, Carl Mays, Dave Stieb, Hippo Vaughn, and Doc White. But long before Cooperstown honored him on Sunday, the first black reliever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame was well-known around baseball circles as: Lee Arthur Smith. RF Andre Ethier If you put Gossage in a traditional one inning relief pitcher role, those blown saves assuredly go way down. Mullane was ahead of his time. Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Part of this is probably due to the distraction of the war years. He had winning streaks of 14 and 17 games, and at one point held the NL record consecutive scoreless inning streak with 44. This was a formula we have only recently seen again with the deep bullpens of many championship teams. Most Unique Players by Age by Similarity Scores, Most Games without a World Series Appearance, Most Games without a Postseason Appearance, Highest Career and Single-Season Salaries, Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. there are differing levels of greatness and acclaim. Ahead of: Bob Lemon Red Ruffing Steve Carlton Don Drysdale Fergie Jenkins Dizzy Dean Lefty Gomez Red Faber Waite Hoyt Jim Bunning CC Sabathia* Herb Pennock Lee Smith Hal Newhouser Top 25 Relief Pitchers not in the Hall of Fame Can you name the Best Relief Pitchers not in the MLB Hall of Fame (by Baseball Reference WAR)? He broke in going 123 with an exceptional 1.11 ERA on a staff that included Vic Willis at the end of his career. On a technical level, both Freehan and Munson (along with Gene Tenace, who nearly split his career evenly between catcher and first base) own the highest JAWS totals (Jay Jaffes system that combines career Wins Above Replacement with a players seven best seasons) among eligible backstops on the outside of Cooperstown looking in. Walters spent his developing years struggling in Philadelphias bandbox of a stadium. He regularly hits 100 miles per hour on his fastballs and holds the all-time record by registering 105.1 on a pitch (twice). For the most part, the best pitchers are in the HOF. By '59, Pappas was a mainstay of the Orioles staff. Featuring a slider-heavy arsenal, Lyle twice led the AL in saves and games finished, helping the Yankees to two titles. I had one once, and I lost him.. In 1920, Adams gave up only 18 BB in 263 innings. His dominance was evident with every 100 MPH fastball he threw. 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