He relented, signed with St. Louis, but they then shipped him off to the expansion Toledo Blue Stockings. There are seventh inning guys, lefty specialists, setup men, long relievers, and traditional closers. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-CeXsjSMQXpEqN8nMfMOXQ',sig:'aPSIwiN6WT5Zl3uyeAdW_2g5nAPoP84MemQtfAdqDM8=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1023432000',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); A few weeks ago, I kicked off a challenge here. The current Hall of Famers are then grouped by position and He has the requisite 200 wins, over 40 shutouts, and his 2,832 Ks are still third among left-handed pitchers all-time. The Hall of Fame began in 1936, inducting Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson in its first year. Miranda Remaklus. Blyleven is arguably among the top 20-25 pitchers in baseball history. Next came Cy Young. Stats: 368 saves, 2.44 ERA, 1.043 WHIP, 4.37 K:BB, 177 ERA+. 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. Stats: 310 saves, 3.01 ERA, 1.232 WHIP, 2.05 K:BB, 126 ERA+, Accolades: 9 All-Star appearances, 1 World Series ring, Baseball Hall of Fame. Its no wonder the Cubs won the NL pennant four times behind these twoin 1906-1908, and 1910. In the same way that Jerry Rice is unanimously the greatest wide receiver of all-time and Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player and Babe Ruth is the greatest baseball player, Mariano Rivera is far and above any other closer to ever play the game of baseball. Bert Blyleven was born in the Netherlands, but grew up in California. Sportswriters and players wondered how Pierce could go toe-to-toe with the firepower of the Yankees, coming armed with slap hitters Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, and Minnie Minoso. When Bruce Sutter began experimenting with the split-fingered fastball, he wasn't looking for a path to Cooperstown. Cooper teamed up with Babe Adams, another pitcher on this list, to make quite a pitching combination for the Pirates of this era. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. 7 Noodles Hahn 4.4 Initials. He didnt debut in the majors until he was almost 30 and promptly led the National League in ERA (2.43), games pitched (71), and winning percentage (.833). Mccormick ended up in Pittsburgh where he ended his career the next year. Sanders projects well, with a 3.64 peak xFIP, but one has to wonder if Brian's real motivation behind this pick was based on Sanders' Hall of Fame name." It also includes "Black" Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte who is banned from baseball, and not eligible for the HOF. Opposition has cooled considerably in recent years toward enshrining Clemens, a brilliant pitcher long before rumors of performance enhancing drug use surfaced. Sabermetrics lover. Career: 16 years (1995-2010) Teams: Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves. Always ranking QBs. Among these, my favorites are Charles Buffington, a pitcher of significant quality and accomplishment from the 1880s, and Doc White, who pitched alongside Ed Walsh on the White Sox and won 189 games while tossing 45 shutouts. The players on those teams were the players the sportswriters saw most. He is among the top ten pitchers of the live ball era1921-1945. Guess there was still some gas in this Tigers tank! Being a relief pitcher often means you take an unconventional route. Will pitched a very respectable 3500 innings, but crammed most of it into eight years of pitching. Cooper may be the best pitcher in Pirates history. Baseball Hall of Fame , MLB MVP's , MLB Cy Young Award , MLB Rookie of the Year , Rawlings Gold Gloves , 2023 HOF results , 2024 Hall of Fame ballot , . Mark McGwire reached higher peaks, but Palmeiro nearly matched McGwires career homer total, almost doubled Big Macs hit total and was a more lauded defender, too. Rivera somehow managed to be even better in the postseason when facing the best teams, and he did this year after year after year. In Gossages day, he did all of that. But he will face the same hurdles as Bonds, Clemens and Sosa thanks to multiple transgressions with performance-enhancing drugs that included over a year-long suspension from baseball from 2013-14. Nothing in his pitching resume says he doesnt belong in the HOF. In his World Series career, he threw an absurd amount of innings (33.1), appearing in 16 of a possible 19 games and fashioning a 1.35 ERA. 8) Tommy John (1963-1989) (288-231; 3.34 ERA; ERA+ 110; 46 SHO; 4710 IP/ 4783 H/ H/9 9.1; 2245 K/ 1259 BB/ 1.78 ratio; 1.283 WHIP). Free shipping for many products! Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Warneke continued his winning ways, winning 20 games three times and posting a winning record every year until '43, when he left to fight in the war. 5) Billy Pierce (1945-1964) (3.27 ERA; ERA+ 119; 38 SHO; 3,306 IP/ 2,989 H/ 8.1 H/9; 1,999 K/ 1178 BB/ 1.70 ratio; 1.260 WHIP). What if Milt Pappas had not been traded to Cincinnati? He finished second in the MVP balloting. Qualtrics allows more sophisticated functionality. Mariano Rivera was a failed starter. The Worst Pitchers in the HOF: Searching for Historys Bottom Line. Fingers career ERA+ of 120 is lower than youd expect (24th among 30 closers with at least 300+ saves). It looked at pitchers in the HOF with the weakest resumes. Part of this is probably due to the distraction of the war years. measure a player's Hall of Fame worthiness. He had a 1.80 ERA after the age of 38. I gave a list of 10 players at each position, based primarily on who I thought voters would expect to be in the poll. Get Jay Jaffe's book The Cooperstown Casebook But keep in mind that he wasnt used in nearly as much of a specialized role as modern closers are. He had winning streaks of 14 and 17 games, and at one point held the NL record consecutive scoreless inning streak with 44. All rights reserved. History doesnt remember Hoyt Wilhelm the way it should. Mack was referring to Jackson -- maybe the games most revered natural hitter before Williams came along -- whom Mack regrettably traded away before he became a star in Cleveland. His devastating curve also made him one of hardest pitchers to hit of his generation. That said, after 425 responses, voting has officially wrapped for this poll. 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 . He wasnt perfect think of the Luis Gonzalez walkoff single in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Against Detroit, he pitched a five hitter to win Game Two, and a complete game shutout to win Game Five. But Trevor Hoffman may have the most unique path, going from a failed minor league shortstop to one of the all-time great closers. If he does not pick up that . With that backdrop in mind, let's proceed with our tenth-best relief pitcher of all time: 10. He was consistently good, winning 14 or more games 11 consecutive years, 6474. Some historians have labeled the shorter career effect as the Smokey Joe Wood effect, referring to HOF pitchers whose career lengths were shorter than required for HOF inclusion, but whose careers made a significant impact and thus we're inducted. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Relief RHP: Dan QuisenberryJust about every modern-day righty reliever who should be in the Hall is already there following Lee Smiths election in 2018. Relief Pitcher JAWS Leaders. During the '76 season he was traded to Texas, where he joined a strong staff and put in some outstanding work. The HOF process seemed uneven, and somewhat political. Rankings of Negro League players should consider that Negro League data is not complete. Warnekes career backed up into WWII. 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. Top 25 Relief Pitchers not in the Hall of Fame Can you name the Best Relief Pitchers not in the MLB Hall of Fame (by Baseball Reference WAR)? Even though others have won Cy Young awards (and even regular season MVPs), Rivera was as close as youll find to a perfect closer, and he did this all with just the legendary cutter. He was less than stellar in the World Series though, famously giving up Kirk Gibsons home run and allowing a 5.79 ERA in six career Fall Classic appearances. Q1 Rank the following pitchers, ranging from 1 for most-deserving of Hall of Fame induction to 10 for least-deserving, [From a survey of 425 respondents, fielded via Qualtrics]. 2/4/18 Super Bowl champs. He continued to dominate major league hitters for the next five years. McCormick was a pitcher of high quality who won 265 games. The knock against Wagner is that he got some easy saves throughout his career. Incredibly, the Pirate management left him there until the end of the 18 season. Another contemporary who made the HOF is Lefty Gomez. The beloved submariner has a case for the 1980s best reliever, having won five Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Awards, finishing with a league-adjusted 146 ERA+ and helping the Royals claim two pennants and the 1985 World Series title. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Wednesday, March 1, 1:07PM. Reggie Jackson struck out the most times. Dennis Eckersley was a starter-turned-reliever. Reulbach used a high leg kick, a la Juan Marichal, to hide the delivery of the best curve ball of his generation. He would also be the only pitcher in the Hall of Fame not to exceed 1,000 career innings pitched, which is a testament to the unique specialty role of being a modern closer. What if Billy Pierce and Bert Blyleven had received league average run support though the peak of their careers? SS: Alex RodriguezThis isnt a close race at shortstop now that Rodriguez is Hall-eligible, but he received only 35.7% of the vote in his second year on the BBWAA ballot in 2023. His dominance was evident with every 100 MPH fastball he threw. Heck, you can easily make the argument he's the best pitcher in baseball, and that's not even his primary position. 7) Tommy Bridges (1930-1946) (194-138; 3.57 ERA; ERA+ 126; 33 SHO; 2,826 IP/ 2,675 H/ 8.5 H/9; 1,674 K/ 1,192 BB/ 1.40 ratio; 1.368 WHIP). 2B: Lou WhitakerJeff Kent famously hit the most homers of any second baseman, thus making his exclusion from the Hall somewhat strange. But Beltrn gets the slight edge, given his enviable combination of power (435 homers), speed (312 steals), defense (three Gold Gloves) and postseason heroics. When he retired, no one had surpassed his 601 saves; now, only Mariano Rivera has done so. Babe Adams was a great pitcher who was overlooked by the veterans committee. Kimbrel still hasnt hit the decline phase of his career, unless 2019 was the beginning of the end and not just an aberration. Your email address will not be published. Particularly blighted were the pitchers in Pittsburgh. Free shipping for many products! What if Pappas had never been traded to Cincinnati? I attempted to rank the 10 best ever. But his rookie year really came in 09 for Pirates at age 27. He would have had more wins if he hadnt been held back to face the Yankees, or had been given better run support . 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. Pierce pitched four scoreless innings in relief. . He pitched at the height of the live ball era on and against some of the greatest offensive teams ever gathered. He was scouted by Hal Newhowser, who encouraged him to sign with the Orioles. In the '40s he pitched with young pitchers Hal Newhowser, Virgil Trucks and Dizzy Trout. His name is best known for the elbow surgery named after him that, not only prolonged his career, but many after him. So 2009 was perhaps Ichiro's best year, in terms of bonding with his teammates. hide this ad PLAY QUIZ Score 0/25 Timer 10:00 Recently Published Actresses. He was consistently excellent for the Orioles, winning 12 or more games and posting a winning record every year with the team. His K/BB ratio of 2.01 is historically strong. Over a five-year span, he led the league in saves twice, finished in the top six in Cy Young award voting four times, and turned in one of the most dominant seasons in baseball history in 1990: 0.61 ERA, 48 saves, 73 K to 4 BB in 73.1 IP. Wilbur Cooper and Babe Adams have likewise been missed. He racked up 126 saves in his 40s. He simply does not have the statistics or the longevity. Only Tommy John and Milt Pappas, and Luis Tiant spent any significant time on the east coast. Mariano Rivera. And he never got a single Cy Young vote. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Al Spalding took a disliking to the off-field activities of several of the players during the '86 campaign. Several players careers have been overlooked instead of championed. By 1946 they told him he was washed up-finished. Pete Alexander followed. Not every pitcher on this list should necessarily be in the HOF, but all of them could have been selected and voted in with the proper attention and support without any change in the historical standards that have been set. Many of their careers and cases are compelling. Four straight seasons early on Kimbrel led the league in saves, posting absurd single-season ERAs of 2.10, 1.01, 1.21, and 1.61. After breaking in with the Cleveland Indians, Tommy John spent significant time with the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Yankees, as well as a shorter stint with the California Angels. After winning 20 games in '24, the Pirates traded him to the Cubs. Hes insanely dominant against both righties and lefties as well. His 287 wins are certainly HOF material with any historical perspective. Although posting a fine season in '67, he was never accepted by the Reds faithful, and was sent to Atlanta during the '68 season. He found success again after arriving in Chicago with the Cubs during the '70 season, winning 17 games in both '71 and '72. Wilhelm passed away on Aug. 23, 2002. Ahead of: Bob Lemon Red Ruffing Steve Carlton Don Drysdale Fergie Jenkins Dizzy Dean Lefty Gomez Red Faber Waite Hoyt Jim Bunning CC Sabathia* Herb Pennock Lee Smith Hal Newhouser Honorable mention: Pete Rose, Manny Ramirez. Many thanks to him. And John is at 2.6, not much better. 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