Bruce Sutter? Bruce SUTTER???
I would like to go through Cooperstown with a broom.I thought the standards were already pretty low. Then Bruce Sutter gets elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Are you kidding me? Let's look at some of the lowlights.
Sutter pitched for 12 years. That's right. 12 years. Then he blew his arm out by repeatedly throwing the splitter, the pitch that he became FAME-ous for. Infamous might be a better word. The split-finger fastball has ruined more arms than Tommy Lasorda and Dusty Baker combined. And that's a LOT of arms, my friends. And it's not like Sutter invented the pitch anyway. Roger Craig was throwing that pitch (and teaching that pitch to the future woe of the Giants bullpen) before Bruce Sutter ever learned how to put on a pair of stirrups.
It should also be pointed out that Sutter didn't exactly go out on the top of his game. His twelve years weren't Koufaxian by any stretch of the imagination. His last 3 years brought ERA's of 4.48, 4.34, and 4.77. Those don't sound good by 21st century standards, but they were awful by the standards of the 70's and 80's.
Sutter won one Cy Young award and four Rolaids Relief Awards. That's right, Rolaids Relief Awards. That's because he never started a single game and he is the first "Hall of Fame" pitcher never to have done so. Don't get me wrong, there are pitchers who were predominantly closers who belong in the Hall--I'm all for Dennis Eckersley being there---but Sutter is decidedly not one of them. He only led the NL in saves in three different seasons for cryin' out loud!
Here's the truth: Sutter was elected because there wasn't anybody else on the ballot even close to being deserving. If this was next year, a year when Mark McGwire, Tony Gwynn, and Cal Ripken Jr. will be on the ballot for the first time, I defy you to find me a single person outside the Sutter family who would have voted for him.
I'm sure that Bruce is a heckuva guy. But a Hall of Famer? He had 300 saves. Here are some people who had more: Doug Jones, Jeff Montgomery, Tom Henke, Jose Mesa, Troy Percival. Good relievers? No, great relievers. Hall of Famers? Gimme a break. Then gimme a broom.
posted by Thurman8er @ 10:40 AM
3 Comments:
A pretty weak Hall of Fame class to say the least.
I have my doubts about Mark McGwire next year. Will the "roids" tarnish his chances?
Greg - You need one of those deugsgb packages so you can catch up on your baseball.
What shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Jim Rice, Rich "The Goose" Gossage and Dave Concepcion.
The voting is more political than statistical. It's about young writers with incomplete knowledge of the past and old writers who have forgotten.
At least The Goose stood up to the voters (defending Rice directly but indirectly himself) and gave the writers a big dfzogy.
I really don't know what to write. But, you convinced me.
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