Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Hall of Fame Voters Are Absolutely Nuts



I submit to you the following names as proof: Robin Ventura, Ellis Burks, Erik Karros, Kevin Appier, Pat Hentgen, and David Segui.  Each of these players, All-Stars and award winners though they might have been, are not by any stretch of the imagination Hall of Famers.  Yet, each one of them received votes today.  A few of them even appeared on multiple ballots! 

Ventura appeared on the most- seven, which is one more than the number of Gold Gloves he won at third base.  But he's a career .267 hitter who slugged 294 homeruns, made a pair of All-Star games, got votes for Rookie of the Year, MVP twice, and had 1885 hits in 16 seasons.  In other words, he had a nice, long career and was a solid player.  But does he belong in Cooperstown?  C'mon.

Offensively, you could probably make the strongest "case" for Burks.  He was a two-time All Star, got MVP votes twice, won a Gold Glove and two Silver Sluggers while finishing with 352 homeruns, 2,107 hits, 181 steals and a .291 average over 18 seasons.  And his 1996 season in Colorado was one to remember- .344, 40 homeruns, 142 runs, 128 RBI, 93 XBH, 32 steals, and an OPS of 1.047!  But his name still doesn't belong between Jesse Burkett and Roy Campanella.

While all these Hall of Fame votes are astonishing, the David Segui ballot is the one that truly makes me think there are mental patients in the BBWAA.  Segui was never an All-Star, never won a major award, and never even received votes for a major award.  So if you're scoring at home Segui got more Hall of Fame votes than he got MVP votes in 15 seasons. 

And it's not like he had a bunch of good-but-under-the-radar seasons.  The most homeruns Segui ever hit in a year: 21.  Number of times he appeared in at least 150 games in a season: 1.  Number of 100 RBI seasons: 1.  Number of mentions in the Mitchell Report: 1.  Number of public steroid-use admissions: at least 1.  His best season, by far was 2000 when he went .334/19/103 in 150 games.  These were all career highs achieved right smack-dab in the middle of the Steroids Era.

Nothing against Segui.  Good for him for admitting he cheated, and good for him for notching almost 6,000 plate appearances.  I'd just love to talk with the guy who thinks he deserves a spot between Tom Seaver and Joe Sewell in baseball immortality.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

David Segui? Really?

I know that at one point he was the holder of one of those, "Only person to hit .300+ in 5 consecutive odd-numbered-years where he played 30+ games at first base" stats, but .... really?

Oy vey. Someone needs his Evil Laugh (say "BBWAA" phonetically) card revoked.

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