Showing posts with label Greg Maddux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greg Maddux. Show all posts
The Other Maddux
When you hear the name Maddux you think of Greg Maddux. Greg Maddux was an eight time all star, won the Cy Young four times, won eighteen gold gloves, won a World Series, and won at least 15 games for 17 straight seasons. He also won more games during the 1990s than any other pitcher. For these reasons he is considered one of the best pitchers of all time and arguable the best of my generation. Greg Maddux had great stuff through his career, especially during 1992 to 1995 where he won his four consecutive Cy Young’s and had a remarkable record of 75-29 with a 1.98 ERA, while allowing less than one runner per inning. Even though he has 3,371 career strikeouts and ranks 10th on the all time strikeout list, Greg Maddux wasn’t known as being a strikeout pitcher. He was known as the best in getting batters to pitch to contact. This way he was able to throw fewer pitches and go deeper in games. He is known for being a great finesse pitcher and possible the best control pitcher ever. This made him one of the most successful groundball pitchers ever. Maddux relied on his command, composure, and baseball IQ to get hitters out by mixing in strikeouts with his strategy to induce the ground out. Thus, when you hear the name Maddux, you automatically think about Greg Maddux the Hall of Fame pitcher!
Mike Maddux is the older brother of Greg Maddux. He was a mediocre journeyman pitcher who spent 15 years in the major leagues playing for 10 teams. He was mostly a relief pitcher who appeared in 578 career games. In his career he won 39 games and lost 37. That is compared to his brother Greg who won 355 and lost 227. Mike Maddux has pitched 861 innings with a career ERA of 4.05. Thus, he had the opposite career of his hall of fame brother. One thing they had in common was there baseball IQ and great understanding for pitching. After he retired from playing in 2000 he started his career as a pitching coach first for the Round Rock Express, a Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. In 2000 his Round Rock Express staff ranked 2nd in the Texas League with a 4.11 ERA. Also, in 2000 the same team won the league championship. With his success it wasn’t too long before he was noticed for being an excellent pitching coach and was given a chance in the major leagues.
In 2003 he started his professional career as a major league pitching coach with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was the Brewers pitching coach for six years from 2003 to 2008In 2008 the Brewers staff ranked 2nd in the National league with a 3.85 ERA. This was the lowest earned run average for the Milwaukee Brewers in 16 years since 1992.
During the 2008 season Manager Ed Yost was fired and the new manager, Ken Macha hired his own coaching staff. Mike Maddux was not made to feel welcome with the new coaching staff. The Brewers should have been more aggressive to retain him. Mike was offered a position by the Rangers which he accepted. This was a big mistake for the Milwaukee Brewers. A good organization knows that the coaches have a big impact on the team, and maybe even more than the actual manager. The Chicago Cubs know this. The Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild has been with the Cubs since 2002. He has seen the Cubs go through three managers in Don Baylor, Dusty Baker, and now Lou Piniella. Cub’s management knows how important a pitching coach is and they have told the three managers that Larry Rothschild is the pitching coach. Lou Piniella didn’t mind because he was the first manager who gave Larry Rothschild a chance as a pitching coach back with the Reds in 1990 after Larry Rothschild was his bullpen coach. Dusty Baker wanted to bring in one of his guys in Dick Pole as pitching coach, but the Cubs said no, so Dick Pole became the bench coach. Dick Pole is currently the pitching coach for the Reds managed by Dusty Baker. Other organizations have had the same pitching coaches for a while, but very few out last the manager like in Chicago.
On February 6, 2008 Nolan Ryan was hired as the president of the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers have made their hitting coach the highest paid hitting coach in the game, until this past off-season where The Chicago Cubs lured him away from The Rangers. This is because they know the importance of good coaches. One of the first things Nolan Ryan did was hire Mike Maddux as their pitching coach on November 3rd, 2008. He joined Jackie Moore (bench) and Dave Anderson (third base) as new coaches for the 2009 season. Maddux decided to go from Milwaukee to Texas because of prior connections in the Texas Organization. This is because Maddux started his pitching coach career as the pitching coach at Double-A Round Rock from 2000 to 2002. That Round Rock team was owned by Nolan Ryan who is now the Rangers President. That team was managed by Jackie Moore, the new Texas bench coach. Maddux inherited a Texas pitching staff that had a 5.37 ERA, worst in the major leagues.
For the 2008 season the Texas Rangers pitching was terrible. The prior year they ranked dead last in ERA for team ERA of 5.37. That is why Nolan Ryan hired Mike Maddux to try and turn the pitching around. They had 8 shutouts for 17th place in the majors, gave up the most earned runs at 860, ranked 6th in walks at 625 free passes, and ranked 27th in strikeouts with only 963 as a team. Opponents batted a league best .288 against them. The Texas Rangers pitching staff was bad for a number of years having the 24th ERA in 2007 at 4.75 ERA, 9th in giving up earned runs at 755, and second in walking batters at 668
In his first season with Texas, the Rangers pitching staff had an ERA of 4.38 which ranked 8th in the American league out of 14 teams and 18th in the major leagues out of 30 teams. They had 11 shutouts and 8 complete games. Their 11 shutouts ranked 8th in the majors and their 8 complete games ranked 7th in the Majors. They were 7th in saves with 45. Their Achilles heel was converting saves where they were 45 for 58. Thus, the Texas rangers had an average pitching staff, but were much improved from the previous seasons.
The Texas pitching staff has much to look forward to this year. They are anchored by the veteran in Kevin Millwood. Millwood came up with the Atlanta braves in 1997 behind Hall of famers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. He was overshadowed by those great pitchers, but showed a lot of promise and potential. Then he played for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cleveland Indian in 2005. In 2005 for the Indians he had his best season since 1999. In 2005 he went 9-11 with a 2.86 ERA. Then he signed a big multiyear deal with the Texas rangers before the 2006 season. He struggled with the Rangers until this season under Mike Maddux. Maddux was able to get him back on track and be the ace he was supposed to be.
Then there is the magic he has performed with the other pitchers. This was Scott Feldman’s second year as a starter in the big leagues after pitching in their bullpen for a few years. Last season Feldman went 6-8 with a 5.39 ERA in 25 starts. This past season under the mentorship of Mike Maddux Feldman put his game together going 17-8. He had a 4.08 ERA in 31 starts logging a career high 189.2 innings only allowing 86 runs and 18 homeruns. He turned Feldman into a top of the rotation pitcher after barley being a 5th starter. Tommy Hunter pitched in 3 games for the 2008 season going 0-2 with a 16.36 ERA in 11 innings. He was able to make adjustments this season and went 9-6 with a 4.10 ERA in 19 starts. Under Maddux, Feldman and Hunter developed to being middle of the rotation pitchers with the potential of getting even better as they learn from one of the best pitching coaches.
This year he will have 2 new projects to make effective starters. Derek Holland made his debut this season going 8-13 with a 6.12 ERA in 21 starts in 33 games with a complete game shutout. He is a lefty with potential to grow next season. The 5th starter in the Rangers rotation will be Brandon McCarthy. McCarthy just needs to stay healthy because he has been injury plagued since his debut back in 2005 with the Chicago Whites Sox.
Thus, Mike Maddux may not be the Maddux everyone knows, but he has found his place as one of today’s elite pitching coaches.
Mike Maddux is the older brother of Greg Maddux. He was a mediocre journeyman pitcher who spent 15 years in the major leagues playing for 10 teams. He was mostly a relief pitcher who appeared in 578 career games. In his career he won 39 games and lost 37. That is compared to his brother Greg who won 355 and lost 227. Mike Maddux has pitched 861 innings with a career ERA of 4.05. Thus, he had the opposite career of his hall of fame brother. One thing they had in common was there baseball IQ and great understanding for pitching. After he retired from playing in 2000 he started his career as a pitching coach first for the Round Rock Express, a Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. In 2000 his Round Rock Express staff ranked 2nd in the Texas League with a 4.11 ERA. Also, in 2000 the same team won the league championship. With his success it wasn’t too long before he was noticed for being an excellent pitching coach and was given a chance in the major leagues.
In 2003 he started his professional career as a major league pitching coach with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was the Brewers pitching coach for six years from 2003 to 2008In 2008 the Brewers staff ranked 2nd in the National league with a 3.85 ERA. This was the lowest earned run average for the Milwaukee Brewers in 16 years since 1992.
During the 2008 season Manager Ed Yost was fired and the new manager, Ken Macha hired his own coaching staff. Mike Maddux was not made to feel welcome with the new coaching staff. The Brewers should have been more aggressive to retain him. Mike was offered a position by the Rangers which he accepted. This was a big mistake for the Milwaukee Brewers. A good organization knows that the coaches have a big impact on the team, and maybe even more than the actual manager. The Chicago Cubs know this. The Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild has been with the Cubs since 2002. He has seen the Cubs go through three managers in Don Baylor, Dusty Baker, and now Lou Piniella. Cub’s management knows how important a pitching coach is and they have told the three managers that Larry Rothschild is the pitching coach. Lou Piniella didn’t mind because he was the first manager who gave Larry Rothschild a chance as a pitching coach back with the Reds in 1990 after Larry Rothschild was his bullpen coach. Dusty Baker wanted to bring in one of his guys in Dick Pole as pitching coach, but the Cubs said no, so Dick Pole became the bench coach. Dick Pole is currently the pitching coach for the Reds managed by Dusty Baker. Other organizations have had the same pitching coaches for a while, but very few out last the manager like in Chicago.
On February 6, 2008 Nolan Ryan was hired as the president of the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers have made their hitting coach the highest paid hitting coach in the game, until this past off-season where The Chicago Cubs lured him away from The Rangers. This is because they know the importance of good coaches. One of the first things Nolan Ryan did was hire Mike Maddux as their pitching coach on November 3rd, 2008. He joined Jackie Moore (bench) and Dave Anderson (third base) as new coaches for the 2009 season. Maddux decided to go from Milwaukee to Texas because of prior connections in the Texas Organization. This is because Maddux started his pitching coach career as the pitching coach at Double-A Round Rock from 2000 to 2002. That Round Rock team was owned by Nolan Ryan who is now the Rangers President. That team was managed by Jackie Moore, the new Texas bench coach. Maddux inherited a Texas pitching staff that had a 5.37 ERA, worst in the major leagues.
For the 2008 season the Texas Rangers pitching was terrible. The prior year they ranked dead last in ERA for team ERA of 5.37. That is why Nolan Ryan hired Mike Maddux to try and turn the pitching around. They had 8 shutouts for 17th place in the majors, gave up the most earned runs at 860, ranked 6th in walks at 625 free passes, and ranked 27th in strikeouts with only 963 as a team. Opponents batted a league best .288 against them. The Texas Rangers pitching staff was bad for a number of years having the 24th ERA in 2007 at 4.75 ERA, 9th in giving up earned runs at 755, and second in walking batters at 668
In his first season with Texas, the Rangers pitching staff had an ERA of 4.38 which ranked 8th in the American league out of 14 teams and 18th in the major leagues out of 30 teams. They had 11 shutouts and 8 complete games. Their 11 shutouts ranked 8th in the majors and their 8 complete games ranked 7th in the Majors. They were 7th in saves with 45. Their Achilles heel was converting saves where they were 45 for 58. Thus, the Texas rangers had an average pitching staff, but were much improved from the previous seasons.
The Texas pitching staff has much to look forward to this year. They are anchored by the veteran in Kevin Millwood. Millwood came up with the Atlanta braves in 1997 behind Hall of famers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. He was overshadowed by those great pitchers, but showed a lot of promise and potential. Then he played for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cleveland Indian in 2005. In 2005 for the Indians he had his best season since 1999. In 2005 he went 9-11 with a 2.86 ERA. Then he signed a big multiyear deal with the Texas rangers before the 2006 season. He struggled with the Rangers until this season under Mike Maddux. Maddux was able to get him back on track and be the ace he was supposed to be.
Then there is the magic he has performed with the other pitchers. This was Scott Feldman’s second year as a starter in the big leagues after pitching in their bullpen for a few years. Last season Feldman went 6-8 with a 5.39 ERA in 25 starts. This past season under the mentorship of Mike Maddux Feldman put his game together going 17-8. He had a 4.08 ERA in 31 starts logging a career high 189.2 innings only allowing 86 runs and 18 homeruns. He turned Feldman into a top of the rotation pitcher after barley being a 5th starter. Tommy Hunter pitched in 3 games for the 2008 season going 0-2 with a 16.36 ERA in 11 innings. He was able to make adjustments this season and went 9-6 with a 4.10 ERA in 19 starts. Under Maddux, Feldman and Hunter developed to being middle of the rotation pitchers with the potential of getting even better as they learn from one of the best pitching coaches.
This year he will have 2 new projects to make effective starters. Derek Holland made his debut this season going 8-13 with a 6.12 ERA in 21 starts in 33 games with a complete game shutout. He is a lefty with potential to grow next season. The 5th starter in the Rangers rotation will be Brandon McCarthy. McCarthy just needs to stay healthy because he has been injury plagued since his debut back in 2005 with the Chicago Whites Sox.
Thus, Mike Maddux may not be the Maddux everyone knows, but he has found his place as one of today’s elite pitching coaches.
Greg Who?
I pulled this gem by Barry Rozner from this morning's Daily Herald.
Maddux never more popular
Maddux never more popular
The irony is not lost on Greg Maddux.
It took his final season - before which he told the Daily Herald it was virtually certain to be his last - for him to become a truly popular figure around baseball.
Actually, it took the Mitchell Report.
Before Roger Clemens became Public Enemy No. 2 behind Barry Bonds, you rarely heard Greg Maddux mentioned as one of the best of his generation, let alone one of the best of all time.
Really? No one ever thought Greg Maddux, who won a record four consecutive Cy Young awards for being the best pitcher in the NL for four consecutive years, was one of the best pitchers of his generation? Has time and space ignored the fact that Greg Maddux walked under 1000 batters in his 5000+ inning career? Did nobody notice that he has 355 career wins (if you're into that kind of thing)? Does Barry Rozner even know who the fuck Greg Maddux is?
He was an afterthought,
With four consecutive Cy Young awards
considered less than special because he didn't overpower anyone, didn't throw no-hitters and didn't excite those who wanted 99 mph fastballs and 20-strikeout games.
Ok, so you're point is that Greg Maddux isn't Randy Johnson. You know who also didn't overpower anyone, "have exciting stuff," throw 99 MPH fastballs or strikeout 20 batters in a game? Hall-Of-Famers Cy Young, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez and Three Finger Brown to name but a few -- all players who pitched in an era where not only was the rubber much closer to the plate and the mound much higher elevated, but one in which it was also legal to cover the ball in human feces.
Did I mention that Maddux walked under 1000 batters in 5000+ innings?
But this year, suddenly, Greg Maddux became a great pitcher, while having his worst season in 21 years.
"I'm popular now,'' Maddux said with a laugh this weekend, as he prepared for a news conference today making his retirement official. "That's OK. I didn't need the attention. Better to sneak up on people.''
By saying little and offering even less with his actions, Maddux cruised under the radar.
Remaining relatively unknown before 2008.
During 22 seasons of quietly going about his business,
And winning four consecutive cy young's, 18 gold gloves (13 consecutive) and being nominated to eight All-Star games...
he merely won 355 games,
The most of ANY living pitcher alive.
good for eighth all time and one more than Clemens, who had - up until this year - been universally hailed as the greatest pitcher of the last several decades,
Really? Not Pedro Martinez or Nolan Ryan or Sandy Koufax? Roger Clemens? Not, oh, I don't know, Randy "Bird Killer" Johnson?
and by some as the greatest of all time.
Exaggeration, verb:
1. To represent as greater than is actually the case; overstate.
2. To enlarge or increase to an abnormal degree.
Maddux wasn't even called the best pitcher on his own staff for most of his time in Atlanta
Despite being the perennial team leader in ERA, WHIP, K:BB, and Cy Young Awards.
And when he left Chicago as a free agent late in 1992, he was blasted for having made a big mistake
Actually, I do believe that it was the Cubs who were blasted for having made a big mistake.
and was informed then that Jose Guzman would be ample replacement for a guy who had never been impressive before winning 20 games and a Cy Young in 1992.
Who?
But now he's a big deal, history has been revised,
By you, apparently.
both in the real world and the imagined, and Maddux will get a hero's send-off by the national press in Las Vegas.
The man called greedy in Chicago 16 years ago this week will now be nominated for sainthood after leaving $10 million on the table.
Once called mediocre, he will be called one of the greatest of all time and absolutely the best of the last 30 years.
Who ever called Maddux, whose ERA was never above 2.75 between 1992 and 1998, mediocre?
Once called skinny and weak, he will be called clean in an era of filth.
Only fat, unathletic pitchers with big hearts and bigger stomaches are Men.
Once called dull because he was too wise to say too much, he will be called brilliant, funny and entertaining as he says farewell to the game.
"I never cared about any of that stuff,'' Maddux said. "The way I figure it, the less people know, the better. I had a teammate that played second base in Chicago who did that pretty well, and it worked out OK for him.''
Maddux will join Ryne Sandberg in Cooperstown in the summer of 2014, after he receives one of the highest vote totals in the history of the ballot.
We'll spare you the numbers because you've heard them all before,
Apparently you haven't seen his numbers before, since you think Maddux was "irrelevant" before 2008.
but Maddux finally has earned respect for an astounding career that placed him among the very best in 132 years of baseball in nearly every statistical pitching category of consequence.
And yet he was irrelevant before 2008.
But after 22 seasons and at the age of 42, Maddux has his sights set on much bigger goals.
"I want to watch my son, Chase, pitch and help him if there's anything I know worth telling him,'' Maddux said, with typical humility. "He's seen me pitch enough. He's 11 (years old) and now it's my turn to watch him.
"My family put up with a lot from me while I went off and played a kid's game. I've been lucky with health and the rest of it's just been fun.
"Everything I have is just from going to do what I enjoyed doing, and they paid me for it, too. I never got caught up in the rest of it, never looked too far ahead. I just enjoyed the moments, the going to the ballpark, the teammates. I enjoyed it all.
"I've been very lucky.''
Actually, Maddux's career -- one which was marked by a superiod HR/9 rate, a stellar BB/9 rate and well-above-average K/9 rate -- was hardly the byproduct of luck.
The rest of the article is pretty boring and pointless, but ends with this funny line
You'd forgive Greg Maddux if he privately wondered where everyone has been all this time.
Call me crazy, but Tom Glavine does not deserve to be in the Hall Of Fame
In analyzing Tom Glavine, you need to put his 305 wins aside. Wins do not measure a pitchers talents because a guy can give up 10 runs in a game, but if his team scores 11, he still gets the win. I highly doubt anyone would argue such a pitcher, someone in the mold of say Jason Marquis, is such a good pitcher.
Tom Glavine's career line is 4413.1 IP, 1500 BB, 2607 K's. That's nothing impressive, by any means. He has a career K/BB ratio of approximately 1.7 (Greg Maddux's K/BB, by contrast, is a shade under 3.4 -- depressed by a nothing-special-but-well-above-average strikeout rate. More impressively, Maddux walked under 1000 batters in 5000 IP -- truly a king of control! The major league average for K/BB was 2.00 in 2007).
Glavine never once struck out over 200 batters in a single season and only once posted a strikeout rate above 7.0 (the league average is around 6.7). Strikeouts, of course, are not the only way to show how good a pitcher is at pitching, but it is a very pitcher-controlled and fairly consistent metric by which one can monitor a pitcher's consistency, ability to fool hitters and simply dominate with good stuff. He came close to 200 strikeouts once, in 1992, when he won a Cy Young with 192 K's. Far be it from me to DENY someone HOF votes because of a low strikeout rate, but a career 5.3 K/9 rate is far from anything impressive, and I want my HOF-ers to have impressive careers.
In fact, the only thing impressive about Glavine's career may be that he posted such a low ERA between 1991 and 2002 (under 3.00 six times, only above 4.00 once). His barely above-average strikeout rates and walk rates over this period were heavily distorted by an incredibly low HR/9 rate (which, however, deteriorated rapidly after the 1999 season). In 1992, with 225 IP, Glavine surrendered only 6 HR. In 1995, he followed that up with 199 IP, 9 HRs. From 1991 thru 1999 (including the 1999 season), Glavine gave up approximately 15 HRs per year and clocked in 225+ innings in all but two seasons (165 IP in 1994 and 199 IP in 1995). After the 1999 season, Glavine only once gave up under 20 HRs in a season (2005), while his IP per season fell to 211 (it was above 230 in seasons Glavine pitched 30+ games), only topping the 225 mark once (2000).
As evident by his career 3.5 ERA, Glavine was surely (and undeniably) a work horse who ended up giving his team a lot of quality innings. However, a lot of that "quality" simply seems to be the result of luck and circumstance. His career WHIP is above 1.3 and hasn't been below 1.28 since 1999. In fact, during his 1991-1999 seasons, his WHIP was more often above 1.4 than it was below 1.2. Glavine's WHIP was never below 1.1. For reference, Maddux's career WHIP is 1.14 and was below 1.1 nine times, almost consecutively. Now WHIP is hardly the tell-tale stat since hits are a volatile statistic. However, the stat does show that Glavine did not do much to limit baserunners and keep his team out of high leverage situations. Further, while Glavine's control element of WHIP was above average, it was hardly anything impressive. Whereas his teammate Maddux walked 20 batters in 233 innings in 1997 and posted ridiculous control numbers annually, Glavine's only elite walk rate year came in 1989.
Of course, we shouldn't by any means argue that "since Maddux was a much better pitcher, Glavine doesn't deserve to go" because Maddux, like Pedro and Clemens and arguably even Smoltz, is on a completely different plane of "greatness."
Still, when you look at the total of his peripherals, Glavine's numbers are not very impressive. He did not have great control (in fact, his control was below average) and he didn't have overwhelming "stuff" (again, below the major league average (league average K/9 was 6.67 in 2007)). He was simply a quality pitcher on a great team who got inordinately lucky because he induced plentiful ground balls to a great defense over the course of his career. The only metric from the Holy Trinity of Consistency for pitchers (HRs, Ks, BBs) that he was above average in is HRs -- and his above average-ness in that department didn't even last a decade (not that I believe that pitchers generally directly control their HR rates anyways).
To quote Ken Tremendous of FJM, whose assertion I entirely agree with,
If anything, I would simply have to put Tom Glavine in what Tremendous called "The Hall of Very Good"
___
Let me just end this with a little post-script. I do strongly believe that Mike Mussina, who has a career ERA of 3.7 (in the AL, mind you) and is just 13 wins shy of 300, belongs in the HOF. His career K/BB is 3.6 and he only ONCE walked more than 55 batters in a single season (65 in 1996, where he logged a career high 243 IP). In fact, while averaging almost 200 IP across his whole career (215+, if you only look at his first 14 seasons), Mussina only walked more than 50 batters three times. His career BB/9 is under 2. He also struck out more than 200 batters more than few times in his career (four times, to be exact, though he did rack up 195 K's in 2003). If you ask me, Moose>Glavine.
Finally, just to postulate the question, why is Bert Blyleven not in the HOF?
Tom Glavine's career line is 4413.1 IP, 1500 BB, 2607 K's. That's nothing impressive, by any means. He has a career K/BB ratio of approximately 1.7 (Greg Maddux's K/BB, by contrast, is a shade under 3.4 -- depressed by a nothing-special-but-well-above-average strikeout rate. More impressively, Maddux walked under 1000 batters in 5000 IP -- truly a king of control! The major league average for K/BB was 2.00 in 2007).
Glavine never once struck out over 200 batters in a single season and only once posted a strikeout rate above 7.0 (the league average is around 6.7). Strikeouts, of course, are not the only way to show how good a pitcher is at pitching, but it is a very pitcher-controlled and fairly consistent metric by which one can monitor a pitcher's consistency, ability to fool hitters and simply dominate with good stuff. He came close to 200 strikeouts once, in 1992, when he won a Cy Young with 192 K's. Far be it from me to DENY someone HOF votes because of a low strikeout rate, but a career 5.3 K/9 rate is far from anything impressive, and I want my HOF-ers to have impressive careers.
In fact, the only thing impressive about Glavine's career may be that he posted such a low ERA between 1991 and 2002 (under 3.00 six times, only above 4.00 once). His barely above-average strikeout rates and walk rates over this period were heavily distorted by an incredibly low HR/9 rate (which, however, deteriorated rapidly after the 1999 season). In 1992, with 225 IP, Glavine surrendered only 6 HR. In 1995, he followed that up with 199 IP, 9 HRs. From 1991 thru 1999 (including the 1999 season), Glavine gave up approximately 15 HRs per year and clocked in 225+ innings in all but two seasons (165 IP in 1994 and 199 IP in 1995). After the 1999 season, Glavine only once gave up under 20 HRs in a season (2005), while his IP per season fell to 211 (it was above 230 in seasons Glavine pitched 30+ games), only topping the 225 mark once (2000).
As evident by his career 3.5 ERA, Glavine was surely (and undeniably) a work horse who ended up giving his team a lot of quality innings. However, a lot of that "quality" simply seems to be the result of luck and circumstance. His career WHIP is above 1.3 and hasn't been below 1.28 since 1999. In fact, during his 1991-1999 seasons, his WHIP was more often above 1.4 than it was below 1.2. Glavine's WHIP was never below 1.1. For reference, Maddux's career WHIP is 1.14 and was below 1.1 nine times, almost consecutively. Now WHIP is hardly the tell-tale stat since hits are a volatile statistic. However, the stat does show that Glavine did not do much to limit baserunners and keep his team out of high leverage situations. Further, while Glavine's control element of WHIP was above average, it was hardly anything impressive. Whereas his teammate Maddux walked 20 batters in 233 innings in 1997 and posted ridiculous control numbers annually, Glavine's only elite walk rate year came in 1989.
Of course, we shouldn't by any means argue that "since Maddux was a much better pitcher, Glavine doesn't deserve to go" because Maddux, like Pedro and Clemens and arguably even Smoltz, is on a completely different plane of "greatness."
Still, when you look at the total of his peripherals, Glavine's numbers are not very impressive. He did not have great control (in fact, his control was below average) and he didn't have overwhelming "stuff" (again, below the major league average (league average K/9 was 6.67 in 2007)). He was simply a quality pitcher on a great team who got inordinately lucky because he induced plentiful ground balls to a great defense over the course of his career. The only metric from the Holy Trinity of Consistency for pitchers (HRs, Ks, BBs) that he was above average in is HRs -- and his above average-ness in that department didn't even last a decade (not that I believe that pitchers generally directly control their HR rates anyways).
To quote Ken Tremendous of FJM, whose assertion I entirely agree with,
When determining whether or not Player X belongs in the HOF, we must ask "do Player X's numbers show that he was one of the very best players in the game for a long time? Because there are a lot of guys who excel for 1-3 years and then kind of fade away. And the Hall should be reserved for the ones who don't fade away. Or, alternately, the guys whose careers were cut short for some tragic reason, but who were so insanely amazing at baseball -- so utterly and completely dominant -- that you cannot deny their outrageous shining brilliance."While Glavine hardly faded away, he didn't really "shine" for more than a few seasons. His ERA+ was pretty damn good (130 or higher) in 9 of his seasons and above 100 (league average) every year but his first four, last two and one somewhere in the middle. However, ERA, as we all know, is often a byproduct of condition and luck (especially when your WHIP is in the 1.3's). I'd say -- and kill me if I'm out of line -- that Glavine's career is a lot like Carlos Zambrano's, only with less K's and less BB's. High WHIPs and mediocre control rates coupled by lower-than-expected ERAs and high win rates.
If anything, I would simply have to put Tom Glavine in what Tremendous called "The Hall of Very Good"
___
Let me just end this with a little post-script. I do strongly believe that Mike Mussina, who has a career ERA of 3.7 (in the AL, mind you) and is just 13 wins shy of 300, belongs in the HOF. His career K/BB is 3.6 and he only ONCE walked more than 55 batters in a single season (65 in 1996, where he logged a career high 243 IP). In fact, while averaging almost 200 IP across his whole career (215+, if you only look at his first 14 seasons), Mussina only walked more than 50 batters three times. His career BB/9 is under 2. He also struck out more than 200 batters more than few times in his career (four times, to be exact, though he did rack up 195 K's in 2003). If you ask me, Moose>Glavine.
Finally, just to postulate the question, why is Bert Blyleven not in the HOF?
