Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeThierry
He did have the most wins of the 80's and I think he suffered a bit from adjusting to the DH. I'm not an advocate of him being in the HOF but I think some of those things have to be taken into account when talking about Morris.
As Joe Posnanski has pointed out, the players from the 80's are vastly under represented in the HOF.
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Perhaps. Though if that were truly people's argument for Morris, they'd be arguing for Dave Steib. I think the increase in support for Morris has been, in large part, a reaction to the prevalence of both steroids and sabermetrics, a HOF version of "back in my day..."
That said, I'd agree with the 50% threshold. I'm a big hall guy. The telling of history is rarely made worse by providing a broader perspective.
For fun, I looked at the top 10 fWAR pitchers of the 1980's. Enjoy! (Morris' win total was definitely impressive. But then again, he was 1st in IP, 1st in decisions and 3rd in losses.
Code:
# Name GS IP W L K% BB% HR/9 ERA FIP WAR ERA- CyTop5 (win) AL Years
1 Nolan Ryan 314 2094.0 122 104 24.9% 10.3% 0.55 3.14 2.83 46.2 90 3 1 of 10 (Rangers)
2 Bert Blyleven 288 2078.1 123 103 17.2% 6.5% 0.92 3.64 3.56 42.1 88 4 9 of 10 (Indians, Twins)
3 Dave Stieb 331 2328.2 140 109 14.3% 8.6% 0.71 3.32 3.78 41.5 80 1 10 of 10 (Blue Jays)
4 Roger Clemens 174 1284.2 95 45 23.2% 7.1% 0.67 3.06 2.79 39.8 72 2 (2) 6 of 6 (Red Sox)
5 Fernando Valenzuela 287 2144.2 128 103 18.4% 9.4% 0.56 3.19 3.21 37.3 91 4 (1) 0 of 10
6 Steve Carlton 240 1732.1 104 84 20.0% 8.7% 0.70 3.48 3.19 37.2 91 3 (2) 2 of 9 (White Sox, Indians, Twins)
7 Jack Morris 332 2443.2 162 119 16.0% 8.4% 0.97 3.66 3.90 36.2 91 4 10 of 10 (Tigers)
8 Dwight Gooden 175 1291.0 100 39 22.4% 7.3% 0.45 2.64 2.53 34.5 75 4 (1) 0 of 10
9 Frank Viola 271 1858.0 117 98 16.5% 7.0% 1.06 3.84 3.84 34.3 90 1 (1) 8 of 9 (Twins)
10 Mike Witt 72 1945.0 109 104 15.4% 7.8% 0.77 3.78 3.62 33.8 95 1 9 of 9 (Angels)
If you want the best pitcher who spent the 1980's in the AL, you could easily make a case for Dave Stieb, who got 1.4% of votes in his only appearance on the HOF ballot in 2004 (while Morris was getting 26.3% in his 5th ballot). Apparently more than 1/4 of the electorate gained new appreciation for Morris.
I looked at 1990-1999 to see if I could find a decent comp for Morris in terms of high IP, a lot of wins, mediocre ERA and came across Steve Finley and Andy Benes -- and they both have to face guys on steroids. WHen he pitched in the early 90's, Morris had an ERA- of 107 (7% worse than average).