Worst Hall of Fame ballot ever? Worst Hall of Fame ballot ever.

Felix Hernandez winning the Cy Young and Bert Blyleven in the HOF means the revolution is over, the stat nerds have won!

Actually, it means we're finally over wins being the ultimate stat for measuring quality starting pitching. Wins are nice, wins are great, but they also are reflective of the quality of your team overall. You can see the shift in thinking in Blyleven's HOF votes:

1998 BBWAA (17.5%)
1999 BBWAA (14.1%)
2000 BBWAA (17.4%)
2001 BBWAA (23.5%)
2002 BBWAA (26.3%)
2003 BBWAA (29.2%)
2004 BBWAA (35.4%)
2005 BBWAA (40.9%)
2006 BBWAA (53.3%)
2007 BBWAA (47.7%)
2008 BBWAA (61.9%)
2009 BBWAA (62.7%)
2010 BBWAA (74.2%)

 

Yep, the sabermetrics people finally won the public over on that arcane stat, ERA.

 

If someone said that to my kid, I'd get a restraining order.

 

A fine point, perhaps.

 

A high schooler? Maybe... A 12-year-old? Ugh...

 

I don't understand the outrage. What does Surhoff's age at the time matter? And he, in effect, was simply telling Surhoff he'd have a long enough career to show up on the HOF ballot. Don't see the harm.

It's not like he was telling a 12-year-old Surhoff he could sure fill out an athletic supporter.

 

Well, I'm not concerned about what level the kid's ability. It's as fucking absurd in HS as in LL. But yeah, I think I'll not have a guy slobbering over my pre-teen, but that's just a personal taste thing.

Saw Matt Tuiasosopo go all Cody Webster at the LL level about 15 years ago and it is easy to fall in love with kids who are that good at that level. Something very inspiring about that. But yeah, Matt's a 25th-man on a bad team and won't ever be much more, but that was a fun weekend of baseball because of him. Saw a kid strike out 20 of 21 in a HS perfect game one time. Still perhaps the most amazing thing I've ever covered. Kid pitched at a JC and was done.

Anyway, I think we all have those moments where we get ourselves on the fan boi train. It's an OK ride so long as you know you're doing it. Barry seems to be in on the joke, so I don't have an issue with it.

 

Not that it will matter much, but Surhoff wasn't 12 when he said he'd vote for him for the Hall of Fame. It was after he'd become a high school star, so ... not a pre-teen.

 

You have not been touting ERA, you have been spouting off about WAR ...
which could also be called TBS (Total BullShit).

 

WAR. What is it good for?

 

There's quite the distance between "Great game kid." or "It's going to be fun to follow your career." to "I know that one day I will cast a ballot for you for the Hall of Fame."

CREEP.

 

Totally harmless silly vote that didn't cost anybody anything.