This is not a baseball Hall of Fame argument. The world has enough of those. These are baseball Hall of Fame observations.
The 2019 ballot was announced this week, with 20 first-timers joining the 15 holdovers from past balloting. And thanks to the indispensable Baseball-Reference, you can compare all 35 across a variety of statistical categories.
You can see that Barry Bonds’ career WAR of 162.8 is more than double that of the next closest hitter on the ballot, Larry Walker’s 72.7. You can see how an advanced statistic like OPS+ ranks Omar Vizquel — who trails only Bonds on the ballot in career hits — as well below a league-average hitter. You can see that Rick Ankiel hit 58 more home runs than Juan Pierre in 5,604 fewer at-bats.
It’s good fun. Here are three other quirky facts from the 2019 Hall of Fame ballot.
It was almost impossible to go deep against Rivera
There is no shortage of otherworldly Mariano Rivera statistics. His 652 saves and 205 ERA+ are the best all-time. The 1,115 games he pitched in are the fourth-most of any player in MLB history. He had 11 seasons with at least 30 saves and an ERA below 2.00. No other pitcher has more than five. Only eight pitchers have more than two.
And yet, perhaps one of Rivera’s most impressive feats was his ability to limit home runs. Working in the highest leverage, with hitters their most dialled in, closers tend to allow a high rate of homers relative to the low amount of innings they pitch. But over 1,283.2 innings, Rivera allowed just 71. Only two other pitchers — Kent Tekulve and Clay Carroll — have thrown that many innings and allowed that few long balls since 1942.
And 11 of the homers off Rivera came in his rookie 1995 season, when he was still working as a starter. From the time he transitioned to the bullpen full-time in 1996 through the end of his career in 2003, he allowed only 60 long balls over 1,216.2 innings, a HR/9 of 0.4. Of the 154 closers in MLB history with at least 100 saves, 148 have a HR/9 higher than 0.4.
No player ever homered off Rivera three times, while only five have done it twice. And the list — Aubrey Huff, Edgar Martinez, Miguel Cabrera, Evan Longoria, and Rafael Palmeiro — is pretty impressive.
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The ultra-durable Juan Pierre did things we may never see again
Over five seasons from 2003 through 2007, Pierre played centre field every single day. Of a possible 810 games over that span, Pierre started 800 in centre. And in the remaining 10, he entered the game as a pinch-hitter, runner, or defensive replacement. He didn’t have a full day off in half a decade.
That simply does not happen in today’s game. It’s rarely happened in history. Only five players have more 162-game seasons than Pierre: Cal Ripken Jr. (10), Pete Rose (8), Steve Garvey (7), Miguel Tejada (6), and Billy Williams (6).
And none of those five put as much stress on their legs as Pierre, who finished his career with 614 stolen bases, the 18th-most all-time. It’s hard to imagine any player ever stealing that many bases again.
Jose Reyes (517) and Ichiro Suzuki (509), the leaders among active players, are on their way out of the majors. Rajai Davis has 415 but he just turned 38. The only active player under 30 with more than 250 steals is Billy Hamilton (277). He’ll have to average 34 steals over the next 10 seasons to catch Pierre.
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Vernon Wells is one of the greatest Blue Jays in franchise history
Any opportunity to further repair the reputation of Vernon Wells — a homegrown talent who was absurdly disowned by a segment of the team’s fan base due to his apparently unrelatable decision to accept a massive payday — must be utilized. And so, with Wells appearing on the ballot for the first and almost certainly last time, here we are.
Just look at these numbers:
| Games played | 1,393 (3rd in Blue Jays history) |
|---|---|
| fWAR | 24.6 (5th) |
| Hits | 789 (3rd) |
| Doubles | 339 (2nd) |
| Home runs | 223 (4th) |
He had a higher wRC+ as a Blue Jay than Tony Fernandez, Lloyd Moseby, and Joe Carter. He’s one of only five players to put up a 200-hit season in a Blue Jays uniform. His 16.6 WAR over a four-season run from 2003-06 was among the top 25 hitters in baseball, trailing a late-prime Vladimir Guerrero Sr. by only a win.
Wells has not only been one of the most active Blue Jays in franchise history, trailing only Fernandez and Carlos Delgado in games played, he’s been one of the most productive. He’s an all-time Blue Jays great. There is a strong statistical case for putting his name on the Rogers Centre level of excellence. The teams to which Wells contributed prolific offensive seasons were perennial also-rans. But he deserved better.
