Previous entries:

The 1870s, '80s, and '90s

The 1900s and '10s

The 1920s, '30s, and '40s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s and 2000s

20003 Notes: Part I & II

Final Analysis: I, II, III, and IV.

Base Relief I, II, and III

2006 Edition: Part I, II, III, IV, and V

In the final update to this gargantuan series, I would like to take a look at relief pitching and the Hall of Fame.

First, I should mention that whereas the press always say that there are just four relievers in the Hall (Wilhelm, Fingers, Eckersley, and now Sutter), in actuality for most of baseball history (i.e., through the Fifties), teams cannibalized their starters as relievers. All of the Hall of Fame pitchers were used in relief to some extent and many were used quite extensively, including Lefty Grove, Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander, Three-Finger Brown, Ed Walsh, Kid Nichols, Christy Mathewson, and Cy Young. Also, two of the four "relief pitcher" Hall of Famers worked as a starter for a large portion of their careers (i.e., Wilhelm and Eck). So to say that there are four relief pitchers in the Hall is inaccurate as best.

I ran the numbers for total Relief Wins (RWins) and Starter Wins (SWins) for every Hall of Fame pitcher through Sutter. I combined the two and called the results Pitching Wins (PWins) Below are the results. Listed are all of the pitchers who a) went into the Hall as a player (not an executive or manager) and b) primarily were pitchers throughout their careers. I will list the Hall-of-Famers who do not meet these criteria later—because I like listing stuff—but will not use them in the analysis.

The pitchers are sorted by PWins in descending order, and the Pitching Runs (PR), Pitching Win Shares, and various other pitching stats are listed. At the bottom are the averages for each stat along with the standard deviation for each and the min and max values one standard deviation above and below the average:

So the average Hall of Fame PWin total, whether from starting or relieving, is 33.83. 45 of the 60 Hall of Fame pitchers or 75% are within one standard deviation of the average (i.e., 15.98 to 51.68).

Next, we will take a look at all of the relief pitchers in baseball history that are within this range (more than 15.98 PWins). Since it's difficult to determine which pitchers are technically relievers, I will use a somewhat arbitrary cutoff —5 RWins—to cast a wide enough net to get all pitchers who have spent some portion of his career as a reliever.

Here are the pitchers that qualify, including nine current Hall-of-Famers:

Before you shake your head and waggle your finger at me for advocating the likes of Gary Lavelle for the Hall, I am not promoting all, or even most, of these men for the Hall, just pointing out which relievers fall within the sweep of the de facto Hall standards.

There are couple of things that do become clear, however. Three players are above the Hall average: Goose Gossage, Mariano Rivera, and John Smoltz. I am hoping that Gossage finally garners enough votes to get into the Hall next year. Rivera is not yet eligible but should be the strongest candidate of his era, meaning that even the writers couldn't screw his election up. Smoltz is a difficult case because he will probably fall short as both a starter and a reliever in the counting stats that usually get cited for Hall-worthiness, but I think this shows how he compares to a typical HOFer when you take into account his two careers. We'll have to see how well he is received by the writers after he retires.

Consider that there are eight starters that meet this criterion, and almost all have a good shot of getting into the Hall. Only one is eligible (Bert Blyleven (37.18 PWins)), and Blyeleven's candidacy is gaining momentum on the writers' ballot every year. Of the seven that are not yet eligible, Maddux (65.21), Johnson (61.33), Martinez (59.02), and Glavine (36.29) should be locks for the Hall. The rest are going to be hurt by the counting numbers but are solid picks (Kevin Brown (39.79), Mussina (35.92), and Schilling (34.48)).

It is also gratifying that a number of old timers show up in the table. I think the Vets, if they ever get their act together, or perhaps a special committee (though the one on the Negro Leagues might have put the kibosh on future committees) should take a second look at guys like Firpo Marberry, Ellis Kinder, John Hiller, Ron Perranoski, and Dan Quisenberry to name a few because of their importance to this ever-developing role.

Finally, here are the Hall of Famers, as promised, who did not meet the criteria I outlined above. Obviously, a few would have gotten in as a pitcher: