Absolute Hall of Fame Standards - Pitchers
With the 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame announcements due on Tuesday, I thought I’d take a look at the historical statistical standards that have automatically warranted election. That is to say the minimum values in areas like career hits or wins which all players who have surpassed are enshrined.
Wins: 300. Number of HOF pitchers with 300 or more wins: 18. The most career wins for 2008 HOF eligible pitchers not enshrined are Tommy John’s 288 and Bert Blyleven’s 287.
Strikeouts: 4136. Number of HOF pitchers with 4136 or more strikeouts: 2. (Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan) If you exclude Bert Blyleven (3701 strikeouts) from the list, the strikeout number for inclusion goes all the way down to Cy Young’s total of 2803 and then includes a total of 13 pitchers. This includes such non-300 game winners as Fergie Jenkins, Bob Gibson, and Jim Bunning all of whom have fewer wins than Blyleven.
Saves: No current standard. Dennis Eckersly and Rollie Fingers are the two HOF’ers with the most saves (390 and 341, respectively) but HOF-eligible Lee Smith (478 saves) has not been elected. Saves may be a difficult statistic for establishment of a standard since closers are a fairly new development and their use has changed significantly from the 70’s. After the first wave of closers have been enshrined, this number may settle somewhere around 500 -Trevor Hoffman’s and Mariano Rivera’s neighborhood.