OK, Let’s Talk Hall of Fame and Yankees…

Senescence, for me anyway, quells any need to speak or write just for the sake of speaking or writing – hence, my hibernation from posting here lately. That said, the winter and lack of actual baseball is making me a little “Jack Torrancey” lately, so bear with me as I get a few quick rants out of the way.

The Baseball Hall of Fame became an institution that’s hard to take seriously a while ago.

 See; Selig, Bud.

See also; Baines, Harold.

Unfortunately, it’s one of the few things we fans must talk about in January, so here goes…

Teams need bullpens to perform well over the course of 162 games, and in the postseason to be successful. Yet relief pitchers on an individual level, are highly overvalued and are the most fungible between the lines aspect of a baseball organization, by FAR.

To wit; There are 733 former MLB players (261 pitchers, 472 position players) with more than Billy Wagner’s career 27.7 bWAR who are not in the Hall of Fame.

By MLB standards, knowing you only have to throw one inning, with a cushion, against a part of the lineup that usually isn’t the oppositions’ best, is pretty damn easy if you’re a good major league pitcher. Imagine David Cone, Dwight Gooden, Dave Stieb, Kevin Brown, countless others, pitching under those circumstances. Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz were both in their 30s, and both had serious arm issues – then they went and made a mockery of MLB hitters when they were in the bullpen, more so than when they were starters.

With obvious exceptions – Mariano Rivera, who was great for two decades and Eckersley, who was a dominant starter – relief pitchers should be buying a ticket to get into Cooperstown.

Two more quick jabs:

After Joe Morgan, Jackie Robinson, and Rod Carew, Bobby Grich is the fourth best second baseman of all time, post integration – and he’s not in Cooperstown.

Graig Nettles has more career bWAR than any third baseman not in Cooperstown, and more than eight third baseman who are.

Now let’s talk about the Yankees…

After signing Max Fried, the Yankees, as they have for the better part of the last decade and a half, made a series of half measure roster additions to continue the Hal/Cashman legacy of giving the impression of trying. Yet as of right now, to paraphrase Brad Pitt, if there’s a ground ball to third base, there’s not going to be anyone there to pick it up, and Jasson Dominguez – whose staunchest supporters have serious questions about his ability to play left field and hit lefty pitching – is the left fielder.

Yeah, I’m done talking about that.

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Recommended reading: “The Bronx is Burning”. Speaking of wondering what’s going on with the NY baseball team…

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