He went 3517 in the minors. 1. DH: Hal McRaeOnly six players have logged at least 7,500 career plate appearances while playing at least half their games at designated hitter. When he finished playing nearly two decades later, Wilhelm held the major league record for games pitched (1,070), relief wins (124), and saves (228). He had a 1.80 ERA after the age of 38. He isnt the first Pittsburgh pitcher on this list. Movies. 4 Rick Reuschel 4.0 13)Wilbur Cooper (1912-1926) (216-178; 2.89 ERA; ERA+ 116; 35 SHO; 3480 IP/ 3415 H/ H/9 8.8; 1252 K/ 853 BB; 1.47 ratio; 1.226 WHIP). 8 Chuck Finley 3.7 After playing for the St. Louis Browns, he chose to try to sign with Cincinnati, but was blocked. Pitching for the Cubs, Reulbach teamed up with Mordecai Brown to make one of the great pitching tandems in baseball history. Along with those pitchers, Ill evaluate others with a case to be considered among the 10 best ever, which can be broken into categories of the modern (Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, Francisco Rodriguez, Billy Wagner, and Joe Nathan), and the throwbacks (Sparky Lyle and Dan Quisenberry). Bruce Sutter, a Hall of Fame reliever and 1979 Cy Young winner, has died at the age of 69. Tom Glavine 1987-2002, 2008 (63.6 WAR) Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images. The Blue Stockings folded after one year, and he then signed with Cincinnati. Pierce got his chance to test his grit in postseason action in 62 for the Giants. His resume for the HOF is strong. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Many thanks to him. 15) Ed Reulbach (1905-1917) (182-106; 2.28 ERA; ERA+ 123; 40 SHO; 2,632 IP/ 2,117 H/ 7.2 H/9; 1,137 K/ 892 BB/ 1.27 ratio; 1.143 WHIP). Blyleven toiled long and hard for the Twins in the 70s. He pitched his no-hitter in '77, as well as leading the league that year in WHIP. The 41 voters who ranked Schilling first ranked Clemens eighth-worst among the field, ahead of only Wes Ferrell and Rick Reuschel, with an average ranking for Clemens of 7.00. Its hard not to wonder whether Santana would be making a steady year-by-year improvement in the voting totals now if he had rightfully taken home the 2005 AL Cy Young Award that went to Bartolo Colon instead. 2B: Lou WhitakerJeff Kent famously hit the most homers of any second baseman, thus making his exclusion from the Hall somewhat strange. So with a lack of a real statistical standout, how about Quiz? Awards. He was the best pitcher in the NL during his era. Hes unlike any relief pitcher weve seen to date, allowing fewer hits per nine innings than Aroldis Chapman and striking out more batters per nine innings than Billy Wagner. His 46 shutouts are HOF worthy, and his postseason resume shows he was still good against the best competition of the era. Heres a stat for you to show Wagner was ahead of his era: There were five seasons before 2000 (38 after 2000) in which a pitcher threw at least 50 IP and had at least a 14.0 K/9 rate. In the postseason, Papelbon started his career with 25 consecutive scoreless innings in October, including 4.1 of those innings in the 2007 World Series. 4 Wes Ferrell 4.7 This list includes pitchers with some of the greatest curve balls in the history of the game. Blyleven had one more significant season in 89 for the California Angels, winning 17 games and Comeback Player of the Year award. Mccormick ended up in Pittsburgh where he ended his career the next year. Chapman wont qualify on any official leaderboard because hes only at 535.2 innings, but if you look at all pitchers with 500+ innings, hes first all-time at 14.84 K/9 and a 2.01 FIP. Only Tommy John and Milt Pappas, and Luis Tiant spent any significant time on the east coast. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Eck didnt become a reliever until his age-32 season but still appeared in enough games to retire first on the games all-time list (1,070). 8 Urban Shocker 4.4 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. Bridges had the most awesome drop off the table curve ball of his era. Heck, you can easily make the argument he's the best pitcher in baseball, and that's not even his primary position. Looking at the names below, Curt Schilling is probably moving toward enshrinement. I looked at some pitchers with shorter careers as well, and included some whose careers I thought made the greatest statements. Career: 16 years (1995-2010) Teams: Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves. Its much easier to pitch one scoreless inning than to face the full lineup once or even twice. I guess his curve ball fooled a few batters. He would hold the ball with both hands and then surprise the hitter. 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. During the season he went 12-0 for the team at Candlestick Park. Jack Chesbro (198), Rube Marquard (201), and Lefty Gomez (189) were all pitchers with low career win totals who made the HOF. Ill add in hyperlinks for each subsequent post, allowing anyone who happens upon this post later to easily be able to navigate between the different positions. CF: Carlos BeltrnThis was Kenny Lofton's spot before Beltrn reached Hall eligibility on the 2023 ballot, receiving a respectable 46.5% of the vote in his debut. career WAR averaged with their 7-year peak WAR. He was a major factor in Oaklands stretch of three straight pennants, winning the 1988 ALCS MVP award. First-ever unanimous National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee (Class of 2019) Mariano Rivera is the greatest relief pitcher in Major League Baseball history. Opposition has cooled considerably in recent years toward enshrining Clemens, a brilliant pitcher long before rumors of performance enhancing drug use surfaced. He was a product of the more relaxed "Golden Years". Wagner has rapidly gained BBWAA support in recent years, rising to 68.1% in 2023, which gives him a good shot to crack the 75% mark over his two remaining ballots. He was the second great Latin pitcher, following Juan Marichal. He was scouted by Hal Newhowser, who encouraged him to sign with the Orioles. There are seventh inning guys, lefty specialists, setup men, long relievers, and traditional closers. Particularly blighted were the pitchers in Pittsburgh. If thats the case, Kimbrel probably wont move down these rankings at all but he also wont move any higher. Honorable mention: Nathan, Papelbon, Rodrguez, Keith Foulke, Tom Gordon, Tom Henke, Firpo Marberry, Troy Percival, Kent Tekulve, John Wetteland. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Players said they could hear the ball spinning as it approached and went by. 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. Ed Reulbachs career somehow fell between the cracks by the time the veterans committee was reconstructing who should be in the HOF. In 43, his last year before joining the war effort, he went 12-7 with a 2.39 ERA (ERA+ 147), with three shutouts and only 159 hits allowed in 191 innings. Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen is the 12th pitcher to amass 1,000 career strikeouts in relief, and just the third pitcher with 1,000 relief strikeouts all with one team, joining Hall of Fame closers . It took the veterans committee some 90 years to find and induct Vic Willis. Pitching in an era before closers were sexy, McMahon pitched 872 games out of the bullpen won . His career stands up nicely against contemporary HOF pitchers Bob Lemon and Hal Newhowser. Lolich had a splendid career with the Detroit Tigers from 6375. His momentum with BBWAA voters stalled out, and he didn't fare any better with the Today's Game Era Committee in late 2022, meaning that it's hard to see Bonds reaching Cooperstown anytime soon. 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. measure a player's Hall of Fame worthiness. How many relief pitchers are on a baseball team? However, Smokey Joe Wood is not among those pitchers given a bye for the length of their careers. He won 21 games with an ERA of 1.60 and led the league in shutouts with nine. That leaves an even matchup between McRae and Don Baylor on the outside looking in. . The top few on the list have a body of work and cases for the HOF so compelling, one wonders how they got missed. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, File) via Associated Press. If we limit it to 3000 innings, heres the top ten: 1 Roger Clemens 5.7 Oct 14, 2022, 04:09 PM EDT. 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. I will be presenting the results here of the survey over the next week or so, going position by position. He was the fastest relief pitcher ever reach 200 career saves, he was the first closer ever to rack up at least 25 saves in each of his first five seasons, and hes the all-time leader in saves for two different franchises Boston and Philadelphia. Certainly he can be given credit for his time in the service, as he would have easily made 200 wins without giving up the season and a half to the war, plus the recovery time. Trevor Hoffman is getting a lot of love this year, and Lee Smith did really well by the voters . He simply does not have the statistics or the longevity. That said, if I field this again in the future, Ill probably sub in Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer for Ferrell and Reuschel. He easily lost enough time to give him credit for not having 200 wins. There are some interesting findings to highlight along these lines as we get there. That year, facing Ty Cobb and the Tigers in the postseason, the Pirates manager went on a hunch and started Adams in game one of the series. Bridges was still an effective pitcher after his peak. C: Bill FreehanCall this a toss-up between Freehan and Thurman Munson, both of whom could use a longer look from the Halls veteran committees. What did it take to be ignored by the HOF voters and veterans committee? Although the Tigers walked away losing two of the three World Series, Bridges record stands at 4-1. I found some interesting threads that could be followed up. Pappas deserves recognition for his accomplishments, even if it is just to clear his name from the fall out of a trade for which he was never responsible. After improving his control in 51, and developing a slider, he began a series of impressive years for the White Sox. He led the league in wins in 36 with 23, but also led the league in strikeouts and games started twice. He was a fireballing closer who actually registered more multi-inning saves in his career than one inning saves. He racked up 126 saves in his 40s. Important note: For this exercise, we only considered players who have been retired for at least five years, the waiting time required before one can appear on a BBWAA ballot. Next came Cy Young. Luis Tiant was born in Cuba and his father was a famous pitcher for the Cuban national team. John's pitching exploits began in Chicago where he was part of the stingiest pitching staffs ever compiled. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. And John is at 2.6, not much better. He is one of our all-time greats. The average run scoring in the period was some 20-25 percent more than the league average. He finished second in the MVP balloting. Least half their games at designated hitter Milt Pappas, and included some whose careers i made! 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