EVIL~! alkeiper

You're really letting your hatred of Pedro Martinez cloud your argument. The issue isn't whether Pedro is a big-game pitcher. The issue is whether Grady Little made a mistake by leaving him in the game. He clearly did.

Its as close to a lock as you can get. .328 career hitter, along with 3,010 career hits. Scores 268 on the HOF Monitor (100 or better indicates a likely HOFer).

I split this topic as I didn't want to derail Crimson's topic, and I felt there's the potential for good debate here.

From that group, I'd vote for Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Alan Trammell, and Wade Boggs.

Parker's interesting, because many thought, at the time, that he was a future HOFer.

Mariano Rivera blows the save as the Blue Jays tie the game in the 9th.

I'm waiting for Jim Harris to break character and start cracking up.

Jesus, my girlfriend could do a better job at this.

Ryan Madson has been placed on the 15-day DL, with a hand injury.

I doubt it. Severn looked really bad in his first round match. I cannot remember who he fought, but I remember thinking Severn was handed gift points. He certainly did not dominate. My thinking was that they handed Severn the decision, not wanting him to lose his rep, and afterwards dropped him from the tournament to avoid any possible embarrassment.

For another candidate, Bert Blyleven. He was only an All-Star twice in his career. But he played mostly for bad teams, finished third career in strikeouts (since displaced to fifth), and won 287 games. If he won 13 more, we wouldn't even have this discussion.

By sheer numbers, Lance Parrish is one of the greatest catchers of all-time. I think you may be judging his BA too severely. Trust me, I am the last person who will judge a player solely by his batting average. But his OBP (.313) is also quite low. In fact, that OBP is 20 points less than ANY catcher currently in the HOF. His OPS only beats two catchers currently in the Hall. Again, he never finished higher than 9th in MVP voting. How can he be anywhere near HOF quality when voters of his time didn't think he was incredibly valuable?

Mattingly had a great peak, but its hard to endorse a guy who fell off the table so quickly. There are alot of first basemen in baseball today with HOF arguments (Bagwell, Thomas, McGwire, McGriff) and that will make it difficult.

I absolutely think Tim Raines deserves the Hall of Fame. Along with 808 steals, he was only caught 146 times, for an 84% success rate. By comparison, Lou Brock, who stole 938 bases, was caught 307 times. Belle played at an All-Star level, but didn't play long enough. I can't see Lance Parrish as a viable candidate at all. Only once did he crack the top-10 in MVP voting, finishing 9th in 1983.

I lasted about four minutes.

Abreu is now 26 for 27 in stolen base attempts.

It isn't noted that along with the percieved bias against relievers, the Hall has been quite stingy with starters as of late. The Hall hasn't chosen a starter without 300 wins since 1991. Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven, and Tommy John have been passed over as well.

That's just idle speculation at best, and there's no substantiation behind it.

The amusing thing is that it comes from the perspective of Washington DC. 1969 was the only year the Senators finished in the top half of the league since WWII.

Anyone else suspect the term "potentially fatal" is getting played WAY out of proportion here? I doubt Giambi is in any danger of dying.

Agreed about Japan. Tokyo isn't exactly a third-world cesspool.

Big game tonight against the Marlins. Hopefully with the Fish floundering, we can finally figure out how to beat them and sent them crashing down the standings.

God bless Woody Paige. I don't always agree with him, but he really has fun out there, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

I agree. When a woman makes a run for a mens' tour win, we'll talk.

There are two with 400+ saves, Lee Smith and John Franco. Regardless of your feelings for relievers, I shudder at the thought of selecting them using saves. Saves are essentially a junk stat. In addition, I think writers are looking at the wrong pitchers. Dan Quisenberry pitched the same number of innings, but had a better ERA than Bruce Sutter. But Quisenberry is never mentioned as a HOF candidate. John Franco has a better ERA and Adjusted ERA than most candidates, but is never mentioned as HOF quality. Kent Tekulve had a better career ERA than Goose Gossage. I think we need better methods of determining the top relievers before we start endorsing them for the Hall.