Your Thoughts On The 2015 MLB Hall Of Fame Class

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by sskink

Yeah. I don't think Wagner, Smith or Franco get in. But Hoffman will when it's time, as will Rivera.

I think the HoF made a mistake with guys like Gossage & Sutter.

When Rollie Fingers was elected with some 341 saves, my remark at the time was that the saves record would probably be double that within the next two decades, consequently they should be careful about enshrining the 400 save guys of the future because others will go whizzing past them before long.

Mariano's career saves record is going to be safe for a decade and quite possibly much longer. The current active saves leader is Joe Nathan with 376, but he is 39 years old and 276 saves short of the record. The one with a chance is Francisco Rodriguez who at age 32 has 348 saves. If he can average 31 saves a year until age 42, he would pass Rivera. Rodriguez rebounded last season and complied 44 saves, but before that you have to go back to 2009 to find a year when he had as many as 35.

Hudson Street, at age 30, has 275 saves, 377 saves away. There is no one younger with as many as 200 career saves.

So, Rodriguez has a chance to do it, but it will take ten more years, and no one else is really on the horizon.

[Ridgerunner]

Originally Posted by malfunction

Nice group of four they have this year, with a gritty second baseman (and former catcher; don't forget) and three very fine pitchers. It's a deserving group and the best class, I think, in years. And next year's group (Griffey, Jim Edmonds, Billy Wagner, etc, with holdovers Bagwell and Piazza) could be very mesmerizing, too.

Jim Edmonds? Probably not.

[Ridgerunner]

Originally Posted by sskink

I think the HoF made a mistake with guys like Gossage & Sutter.

I disagree with this. The voting instructions dictate that players are to be evaluated on the basis of their performances versus players of their own era. Gossage and Sutter were dominant in their eras and should not be denigrated because their accomplishments were eclipsed by pitchers of another era.

[AlfredB1979]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Voters reviewing Edmonds' career stats when considering him for the HoF, will most likely notice the career spike that begins at age 30 and extends for five seasons. That is hardly proof of PEDs use, but it is cause for suspicion.

Edmonds is a marginal candidate even without suspicion, so I doubt that he draws heavily in the voting. Relievers with careers like Wagner's are getting more and more common, the bar is likely to be raised for relievers and HoF consideration. Lee Smith and John Franco are getting rebuffed by the voters, and Wagner isn't more worthy than either of them.

I'm thinking that Griffey Jr. will be elected, and probably Piazza will make it as well. I suspect that will be all.

Griffey Jr's saving grace is that he was a "good guy". He was one of those skinny guys, like Bagwell, who suddenly found a power surge and later fell apart physically, like Edmonds as well. That seems to be a pretty common theme amongst juicers. Bagwell's numbers didn't fall off quite as drastically thanks for MMP's short left field, but his right arm all but fell off before he was done for and he certainly had sliders get the best of him way more routinely from what I recall of his later days. Edmonds fell off badly after age 35 and Griffey Jr had two pretty solid seasons but fell off drastically after age 30, like Edmonds.

Like you say, not proof, but eyebrow raising. Biggio, on the other hand, just gradually tailed off. Pretty pedestrian the last handful of seasons, but nothing terribly alarming.