Hall of Fame voting is underway, and the SnakePit Hall of Fame (created in 2015) is looking to the past
In 2015, with Randy Johnson being the first certain inductee on the ballot for the more famous Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the SnakePit Hall of Fame was established. The principle is simple: site members vote on a ballot that is, in general, equivalent to that voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). We have now voted ten times, and elected twenty players. We are more selective than the BBWAA; they have elected 24 members to Cooperstown over the same period, while we have not elected five players they have elected. (Curt Schilling is, for obvious reasons, in our Hall of Fame, but for equally obvious reasons, not in Cooperstown.)
But a number of universally recognized great players have not been included into our own Hall of Fame, for the simple reason that it didn’t exist for almost 150 years of professional baseball history. From the time when Bobby Mathews (presumably) threw the first pitch in “major league” history in Fort Wayne, Indiana, all the way through Pablo Sandoval catching Salvador Perez’s foul pop-up in Kansas City, Missouri, there was no such thing as a SnakePit Hall of Fame (or if there was, it was honoring an entirely different set of persons and/or reptiles.) This means that pitchers ranging from Mathews to Greg Maddux and batters ranging from Ross Barnes (who led the National Association in bWAR among position players in four of five seasons, and the National League in bWAR among position players in 1876) to Frank Thomas (like Maddux, elected on the first ballot in 2014) have never been considered for the honor of the SnakePit Hall of Fame.
How great of an honor is it? In terms of notoriety, perhaps not much. However, it’s harder to get into the virtual halls of AZ SnakePit glory than it is to the brick and mortar halls of Cooperstown. We’re just as tough on cheating and despite not having a ten player minimum, tend to only elect the best of the best.
In this series, historical figures will begin to receive their due. However, it does not make sense to have a sitewide vote on many of these figures. Do we really need to vote on Babe Ruth? Henry Aaron? Lou Gehrig? Jackie Robinson? There are so many “inner-circle” players like this that it would seem a waste of time. On the other hand, there are also players who belong according to the statistical standards SnakePit voters have set with whom we might not be familiar. So in addition to the obvious names, players who are not as well known but clearly exceed SnakePit standards will also receive “induction”.
The standards are strict, but simple. The average WAR, WAR-7, and JAWS scores for all inductees were calculated by position. Players who exceeded the average on all three metrics, had never appeared on a SnakePit ballot, and did not have any compelling reason to not consider them receive automatic induction. These are “inner-circle” guys, or guys who should be regarded as “inner-circle” in Cooperstown. Borderline cases (whether they are already in Cooperstown or not) will be covered separately and with reader input.
Because there are a substantial number of players, this will be broken down into multiple pieces. This week, the pitching inductees, with shorter blurbs for well known figures, and more detailed information on those lesser-known. For starting pitchers, they must exceed 79.5 bWAR, with a WAR-7 of at least 51.5 and a JAWS of at least 65.6. Names link to SABR bios.
Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander: Across twenty seasons with the Phillies, Cubs, and Cardinals, Alexander led the National League in pitching WAR six times and won 373 games despite only contributing three times to a pennant. His JAWS score of 94.7 ranks fourth of all time, trailing just Walter Johnson, Cy Young, and Roger Clemens. His personal tragedies pursued him throughout his life, but his adaptability kept him an effective pitcher despite demons that have ruined many.
Steven Norman Carlton: “Lefty” has a case as the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time. He won four Cy Young Awards, was selected to ten All Star teams, and was the first left-handed pitcher to reach the 3,000 and 4,000 strikeout milestones.
John Gibson Clarkson: Clarkson was the first pitcher to post three seasons with 12 or more WAR, including an 1889 season that was, by bWAR, the fifth most valuable ever, at 16.7, a total no one has reached ever since. Yes, it was a different era, but that does not make his numbers any less astounding. From 1885-1891 he averaged 10.7 bWAR, threw over 600 innings twice, and won thirty games six times, with a high of 53 in 1885. His career was already on the downhill side when the pitching rubber was moved back to its current distance in 1893, but he remained an above-average pitcher in 1893 and 1894 before his career came to an end. His career concluded as a teammate of Cy Young with the Cleveland Spiders, and his 1894 season saw him post an identical 1.454 WHIP with the legendary hurler (albeit in over 250 fewer innings.) His SABR bio notes that he helped Young with his curveball.
His life, unfortunately, ended in tragedy. A heavy drinker, his relationship with the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players (the main union at the time) may have been a casualty, as he lost many friends and others noticed his personality changing. He organized a hunting trip at the beginning of 1894 during which his good friend, catcher Charlie Bennett, slipped, fell under a train, and lost both of his legs. That likely contributed to his decision to retire to Michigan (where he would be nearer to Bennett) rather than report to Baltimore after he was traded in July. The event increased his drinking, and that largely contributed to his complete mental breakdown a decade later. He smoked heavily as well. A rumor spread that he killed his wife; however, that was certainly false, as she was still living in Michigan after Clarkson’s death in Massachusetts.
For his career, Clarkson posted 83.2 bWAR, with a 74.7 WAR-7 and a 78.9 JAWS score. While his WAR and JAWS scores are not extremely high due to his relatively short career, his WAR-7 trails just Walter Johnson and Cy Young among all pitchers.
Robert “Hoot” Gibson: A multi-sport star at Creighton University, Gibson overcame racism (including that of some teammates) to become one of the greatest players in the long history of the St. Louis Cardinals. He twice won the World Series (being named MVP each time) and won two Cy Youngs and nine Gold Gloves. In 1974, he became the first pitcher in baseball’s integrated era to reach 3,000 strikeouts (and only the second ever, after Walter Johnson.)
Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove: Led American League in pitching WAR an astounding eight times in a ten year period from 1928-1937. Helped the Philadelphia Athletics win three straight pennants from 1929-1931, breaking a string of Yankee dominance. Led AL in strikeouts seven times and ERA+ nine times, and posted a career ERA+ of 148, sixth in AL/NL history and at the time best in AL/NL history among pitchers with at least 1500 innings.
Walter Perry “The Big Train” Johnson: The greatest pitcher between the founding of the American League and integration, Johnson held the career strikeout record for over sixty years and continues to hold the record for most shutouts ever with 110.
Gregory Alan “The Professor” Maddux: Greatest pitching artist of his era, he excelled as a fielder as well, collecting a record 18 Gold Glove awards, as well as four Cy Youngs. In the strike shortened seasons of 1994-1995, Maddux went 35-8 with a 1.60 ERA while recording 18.2 bWAR, which pro-rates to 23.4 bWAR in full seasons.
Christopher Mathewson: 373 wins. A career 2.13 ERA, with a 2.26 WHIP. Won 30 games four different times. His career came to an injury (and war) induced early end, as after his age-32 season he accounted for negative value and pitched just 572.2 innings, although he did win 20 games in his age 33 season. But his 14 year run prior to that may have been the best in baseball history.
Charles Augustus “Kid” Nichols: Nichols burst onto the scene in 1890 as a 20-year old, posting 12.9 bWAR and winning 27 games. But it was one of his 19 losses that season, an extra-inning pitching duel with Amos Rusie, that elevated him to stardom in the early days of the National League. He won 30 games in each of the subsequent seasons, and for his first three seasons he had compiled 31.5 bWAR, an ERA+ of 146, 17 shutouts, and 654 strikeouts.
Then, the pitching rubber was moved back to its current distance and offense boomed. While his strikeouts went down and his raw ERA and FIP went up, he remained one of the top pitchers in the game. Over the next nine seasons, he compiled 75.8 bWAR, posted an ERA+ of 142, and won 238 more games.
His career numbers of 116.3 bWAR with a 74.5 WAR-7 and 95.4 JAWS score are impressive enough (good for the sixth highest JAWS score among starting pitchers) they could have been even better, but after 1901 he accepted an offer to be the player-manager of the Kansas City club in the Western League, a minor league team. He spent two years there. As these were his age 32 and 33 seasons, and when he returned to the National League in 1904 as player-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals he posted 8.6 bWAR with a 2.02 ERA (and a 133 ERA+) he likely would have climbed further up leaderboards. 1905 was rough, as he struggled mightily in St. Louis but was valuable enough with Philadelphia to post positive WAR, but he struggled and appeared in just four games in 1906 as his career came to an end. While with Kansas City, he won 47 games, and it is not a stretch to say that he would have won 400 games had he not spent two years in the minors of his own volition.
After his baseball career came to an end, he was one of the pioneers of presenting games via and electronic scoreboard (a practice which, in the form of MLB Gameday, continues to this day), was a key influence on a young Charles Stengel, and led one of the first semipro teams to play a team from Japan. He was also an avid bowler. Somewhat unique among players of his era, he was able to survive until he was inducted into Cooperstown in 1949.
Philip Henry Niekro: Arguably the greatest knuckleballer of all time, Niekro compiled more bWAR (65.5) from age 35 onward than any other pitcher, while also winning 208 games (the only pitcher to win 200 from 35 on). Furthermore, the only pitchers to strike out more batters from 35 on were Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, and that trio are the only players to strike out 2,000 batters during that period.
Robin Evan Roberts: Kept from winning 300 games by playing for poor teams throughout his career, Roberts was able to taste postseason play just once, as he pitched well in two appearances against the Yankees in the 1950 World Series. After struggling through 1961 in Philadelphia, he went to Baltimore for a few years, was briefly in Houston, and finished up his career in Chicago. He led the National League in pitching WAR five times and won 20 games in six consecutive seasons from 1950-1955.
George Thomas “Tom Terrific” Seaver: A member of the “Miracle Mets” in 1969, Seaver was the premier pitcher in the National League throughout much of the 1970s. After being traded to Cincinnati, he led the league in his for the third time in 1981, becoming the only player to lead the league in wins in three different decades.
Denton True “Cy” Young: 511 wins is a legendary number, but it clouds what Cy Young really accomplished. He was far more than a compiler, and unlike almost every pitcher of his (or any) era, he aged gracefully. For 14 straight seasons (1891-1904) he won at least 20 games each season, resulting in a 396-208 record and a 131.5 bWAR just in those seasons. Those numbers are impressive enough. But it’s easy to argue that he got even better as he got older; from his age-35 season onward he posted better ERA, FIP, WHIP, strikeout rate, and walk rate than his career numbers, although he played on worse teams and didn’t rack up as many wins. In fact, among starting pitchers with at least 100 appearances from age 35 onwards, Young’s 3.74 K/BB ratio ranks 8th all-time, and every other pitcher in the top 18 pitched those innings primarily in the high-strikeout environment of the 21st century. (Randy Johnson in 1999 and David Wells in 1998 and 1999 are the only other pitchers with any 20th century games in the top-18.) Whitey Ford, almost a full strikeout behind Young at 2.84, is in 19th place. By terms of WHIP, the only better pitcher ever from age-35 onwards is Justin Verlander (prior to last season Max Scherzer was better as well) and his ERA+ of 130 ranks 7th among pitchers age-35 or older.
To make his level of control and his effectiveness relative to his peers even more impressive, he pitched 293 complete games from his age-35 season onwards. Every other pitcher with a K/BB ratio over 3 in those ages combined for 141 complete games, or less than half of his total. But didn’t everyone pitch a ton of complete games then? Sort of, but during those same years, only two pitchers (George Mullin and Christy Mathewson, both of them in their 20s) pitched more complete games than Young, who was five years older at the start of the span than they were at the end of it.
The only possible comparison to the combined level of longevity and effectiveness of Denton True Young would be the great Satchel Paige. But while Paige’s longevity is more widely remembered, it is harder to quantify. We simply don’t have good records for Paige, but the records we do have from age-35 onwards show Paige completing 16.2% of his starts, while Young completed 89.3% of his. (Paige was mostly a reliever at that stage of his career, so this is not a fair comparison.)
As Diamondbacks fans, we got to see the dominance of Randy Johnson in his late-30s and early 40s. We saw Roger Clemens accomplish great things with the assistance of performance enhancing drugs. What Cy Young did before the advent of modern medicine simply cannot be fathomed.
These thirteen pitchers join the seven voted in. Next up, position players!