Maddux or Morris

Greg Maddux was not be a unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame because long time Dodger beat writer Ken Gurnick only voted for Jack Morris. This action could improve HOF voting protocol in the future, as many have long known that the selection process is far from perfect. It could also have a negative effect on Morris' candidacy. While Morris was a great pitcher, he is at best a borderline hall of famer. He never won single a Cy Young Award.

Most pitchers pale in comparison to Maddux, and Morris is no exception. Morris won over 100 fewer games than Maddux and pitched 1200 fewer innings. Morris faced over four thousand fewer batters but gave up more home runs and walked 400 more batters. For every Maddux wild pitch, Morris had three.

Gurnick has announced that he will no longer cast a HOF ballot. Will this give 300 game winner Randy Johnson the chance next year to become the first to receive 100% of the vote? Unless drastic changes are made, I doubt it.

PL  years       W    L     %  ERA CG SHO IP   hits  runs   ER
GM 23 86-08 355 227 .610 3.16 109 35 5008 4726 1981 1756
RJ  22 88-09 303 166 .646 3.29 100 37 4135 3346 1703 1513
JM  18 77-94 254 186 .577 3.90 175 28 3824 3567 1815 1657

PL  HR  BB IBB    K    hbp  bk wp   BF   WHIP H/9 hr/9 w/9 K/9 K/BB
GM 353 999 177 3371 137 28 70  20421 1.143 8.5 0.6 1.8  6.1  3.37
RJ 411 1497  37 4875 190 33 109 17067 1.171 7.3 0.9 3.3 10.6 3.26
JM 389 1390  99 2478   58 27 206 16120 1.296 8.4 0.9 3.3 5.8  1.78

Percentage of walks that were intentional:
17.7% GM
02.5% RJ
07.1% JM

Some fans label players like Craig Biggio "compilers" – saying their numbers piled up over many years of above average (but not great) play. Since so many players have long careers, it seems like the distinction between these so-called compilers and these fans' hall of famers are the teams they played for. If you play in a major market and win championships you are great, but if you played out your career on a small market team you are merely a compiler. Many lapel Phil Niekro a compiler. One year he won 20 games – and lost 20 games the same year. Had he played for an above average team he could have very easily gone 30-10.