Tommy John - Starting Pitcher

 

Cleveland Indians 1963-1964

Chicago White Sox 1965-1971

Los Angeles Dodgers 1972-1978

New York Yankees 1979-1982, 1986-1989

California Angels 1982-1985

Oakland Athletics 1985

 

13th year on the ballot

 

Past HOF Voting Results

1995: 21.30%

1996: 21.70%

1997: 20.51%

1998: 27.27%

1999: 18.71%

2000: 27.05%

2001: 28.35%

2002: 26.91%

2003: 23.39%

2004: 21.94%

2005: 23.84%

2006: 29.61%

 

Awards

None

 

All-Star Selections: 4 (1968, 1978, 1979, 1980)

 

League Leader

1966: Shutouts

1967: Shutouts

1974: Win/Loss %

1980: Shutouts

1982: BB/9

 

Career Ranks

Wins: 25th

Games: 45th

Innings: 19th

Strikeouts: 47th

Shutouts: 26th

 

Hall of Fame Stats

 

Black Ink: Pitching - 8 (281) (Average HOFer ≈ 40)

Gray Ink: Pitching - 137 (116) (Average HOFer ≈ 185)

HOF Standards: Pitching - 44.0 (53) (Average HOFer ≈ 50)

HOF Monitor: Pitching - 111.0 (76) (Likely HOFer > 100)

 

Similar Pitchers in HOF: 6 (Robin Roberts, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Burleigh Grimes, Don Sutton, Eppa Rixey)

Other Similar Pitchers: Jim Kaat, Bert Byleven, Tom Glavine, Tony Mullane

 

Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3)

 

1963: 1/0.1

1964: 2/1.3

1965: 12/4.5

1966: 15/5.7

1967: 11/4.9

1968: 15/6.6

1969: 17/6.4

1970: 17/7.3

1971: 10/4.0

1972: 11/3.9

1973: 15/4.5

1974: 11/4.1

1976: 13/3.7

1977: 19/6.5

1978: 12/3.4

1979: 23/8.4

1980: 19/6.3

1981: 10/5.3

1982: 12/5.7

1983: 10/3.8

1984: 7/2.7

1985: 1/0.1

1986: 6/2.2

1987: 13/4.0

1988: 7/3.0

1989: 0/0.0

 

Career Win Shares: 289

Career WARP3: 108.7

 

Would he get my vote?

 

No. John's entire case is based on his career counting numbers as he pitched for a very, very long time and usually at an above average to good performance level. But as I've mentioned before I favor peak over career and John's peak is seriously lacking. One knock against Win Shares is that it can underrate pitchers but it is hard to view someone who had only one season in 26 years where he had 20+ Win Shares as a HOF. Besides he already has his place in history by having a surgery named after him so he should be content with that.