Maddux: You’re voting for me?
It’s Hall of Fame time at the Illowa APBA League. I’m finally getting around to filling out my ballot for the 2011 IAL inductee class.
As I mentioned before, this is a year with some talented players especially among the pitchers.
The pitchers on this year’s ballot with their IAL stats:
| Pitcher | G | GS | CG | ShO | W-L | Sv | IP | BB | K | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Glavine | 713 | 582 | 148 | 36 | 247-202 | 11 | 4231 2/3 | 1512 | 2797 | 4.15 |
| Greg Maddux | 749 | 749 | 193 | 63 | 354-232 | 0 | 5086 1/3 | 1271 | 3925 | 3.59 |
| Pedro Martinez | 452 | 376 | 76 | 16 | 200-130 | 7 | 2740 | 952 | 2767 | 3.72 |
| Mike Mussina | 525 | 499 | 93 | 17 | 204-180 | 0 | 3428 2/3 | 1097 | 2870 | 4.18 |
…and the hitters
| Name | H | R | RBI | 2b | 3b | HR | SB | AVG/OBA/SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barry Larkin | 2064 | 1269 | 961 | 395 | 82 | 199 | 376 | .277/.347/.433 |
| Carlos Delgado | 1712 | 1287 | 1174 | 449 | 11 | 466 | 4 | .257/.356/.538 |
| Ray Durham | 1390 | 850 | 623 | 310 | 63 | 144 | 293 | .253/.327/.411 |
| Jim Edmonds | 1469 | 947 | 1002 | 338 | 31 | 320 | 42 | .273/.362/.526 |
| Luis Gonzalez | 1714 | 1050 | 989 | 441 | 46 | 244 | 85 | .259/.336/.450 |
| M. Grudzielanek | 1325 | 628 | 565 | 306 | 23 | 65 | 101 | .262/.301/.372 |
| Frank Thomas | 2112 | 1368 | 1431 | 461 | 20 | 475 | 19 | .279/.392/.534 |
The emails flying among the IAL managers around the HOF issue have been interesting. They’ve centered around couple issues. One, how does one feel about “first ballot Hall of Fame voting? Do managers take that into consideration when they vote?
There’s also the standard “they’re all on steroids” talk. Meh.
Well, I’m voting on players whether they belong or not, first ballot or not. In the tradition of sport journalism, I’m publishing my open ballot.
If I could give Greg Maddux three votes I would. He’s the IAL career leader in wins plus a couple other categories. Sixty-three shutouts. Wow! That’s enough for me.
Tom Glavine gets a vote. That’s a given. For seventeen years, he’s been my one-up on my nemesis Tedd M who traded him to me as a throw-in back in 1993. Since then, he’s won over 200 games and struck out over 2500 batters.
I feel like I’m giving away prizes at kindergarten (everybody wins!) but I can’t ignore Frank Thomas’ 1368 runs and 1431 rbis. That combination is rare even in the Hall of Fame.
Barry Larkin was the best of his generation at his position (save perhaps Ozzie Smith). His relative power (199 HR) and speed (376 SB) to go with his fielding merits recognition. Give him a vote.
The big question is what to do with Pedro Martinez and Mike Mussina. I’ve been thinking about this for a bit. I just gave our all-time leaderboards a check. Didn’t help. Martinez is a Koufax-type who didn’t pitch as much but boy, when he did, he pitched great. In roughly 1500 innings less, he had as many strikeouts as Glavine.
Give it to them both. Mussina and Martinez. Both of them for winning 200.
My ballot:
- Maddux
- Glavine
- Thomas
- Larkin
- Mussina
- Martinez
Delgado is just going to have to lobby harder this coming year.
Wow!
“My nemsis Tedd….” pretty strong stuff isn’t it webmaster?
I just got the last ballot in the mail (email). The 2011 Class of the IAL Hall of Fame is:
Frank Thomas (unanimous)
Greg Maddux
Barry Larkin
Tom Glavine
Congratulations to all four new Hall members.
Is this (4 inductees) the biggest class ever?
Is this the BEST Class ever?
I guess Troy Glaus will have to “wait til next year.”
Maybe then, the competition will not be as stiff.
DonS.
wow, no unanimous for Maddux???
Recount?
Take it to the Supreme Court?
We also had 4 inductees in 2001 – Dale Murphy, Joe Carter, Paul Molitor, and Wade Boggs. Of course that was when we still had old-timers in the voting to catch up on all the years we didn’t have a Hall. And even with that, the quality is not like this year’s. We’ve had 3 years with 3 inductees – and 6 years with none (the first year of the Hall was 1996, when Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton were voted in).