Max Scherzer: HOF

Clemens aside, no 3 time winner (not active) is not in the Hall of Fame.
At least 1 in each league, 2 strike out crowns, led his league in wins 3 times. 9 seasons in a row of 31+ starts and 5 in row of 200+ innings . Career 127 ERA+

 

One qualification is that they have to play in the majors 10 years. We used to have a writer who had a Hall of Fame vote on here who would say, "let me see in five years" when someone would ask about a potential HOF candidate when they had just retired.

Don Mattingly looked like he was on track for the Hall of Fame until he hurt his back. You also have to see what other layers do. It took Gary Carter until his 6th year to get into the Hall of Fame. What happened was that in the first years he was on the ballot plus the five-year waiting period, few catchers matched what Gary Carter did.

Hey abbott, just relax and enjoy watching what happens with Scherzer. It should be fun.

 

Koufax is another interesting case. His first four years in Los Angeles, he was a left-handed pitcher who played in a park where it was 251-feet down the left-field line and a right-hand hitter could hit a pop fly for a home run. Bill James did an analysis of Koufax and showed his road record to his home record for 1960. It showed he was a really good pitcher in 1960 but was not recognized as such.

 

If Mattingly had won three MVPs, he'd be a Hall of Famer too.

 

What about Johan Santana?

 

Koufax was the ultimate eye test guy. You just knew you were seeing historic greatness, not to mention everyone knew he was doing it in tremendous pain. He and Pedro were the best pitchers I ever saw with my own eyes, and I've been lucky enough to see a lot of great pitchers.

 

2 Cy Youngs, Bret Saberhagen country

 

Because he was robbed of a third.

 

He definitely leads the league in coming up in other HOF discussions.

If he'd won a third Cy Young, he'd definitely be in. As it stands, I'd put him in, but I could see the arguments against him.

 

Sportswriters? What the fuck do they know?

 

There is no way that today's BBWAA gives Colon that Cy Young Award. None. The vote would be like the Kluber-Sale vote. At least 28-2. Maybe unanimous. Rivera, in fact, probably finishes second. Buehrle third. Garland fourth. Colon fifth.

I was a "sportswriter" at the time, covering baseball. Here's "what the fuck" I knew then: Santana was the best pitcher in the American League that year.

Cliff Lee (3.79 ERA) finished ahead of Mark Buehrle (3.12) in the voting because Lee was 18-5 and Buehrle was 16-8. LOL.