Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to Baseball Hall of Fame Dec 13, 2018 23:24:44 GMT OrsonSwelles likes this

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Post by fjenkins on Dec 13, 2018 23:24:44 GMT

Dec 11, 2018 1:15:01 GMT OrsonSwelles said:

Dec 10, 2018 19:22:41 GMT @crimeboss said:

Nope.

As I stated above, the save was a new stat that wasn't used nearly as much. Lee Smith is more a product of timing than anything else.

1969-1979 (First 11 years of the save stat): 8209 league saves

1980-1990 (First 11 years of Smith's career): 10592 league saves

1969-1979 (First 11 years of the save stat): 8725 complete games
1980-1990 (First 11 years of Smith's career): 5184 complete games

Prior to Smith's time, the game was managed differently.

1969-1981 (First 13 years of save stat): 9716 league saves

1982-1994 (First 13 years of Smith's closer career): 13295 league saves

1969-1981 (First 13 years of save stat): 9786 complete games

1982-1994 (First 13 years of Smith's closer career): 5151 complete games

Not sure what those numbers have to do with Smith. In the last 30+ years teams have used closers more than ever. Smith was the all-time leader for over a decade and despite having retired a 'career' ago he still has been surpassed by only 2 players. Craig Kimbrell is the closest active player (14th on the list) and he has approximately 50% fewer saves. He might eventually pass Smith.

I don't see anyone else among active players passing him anytime soon. Maybe that's what this committee realized: he's third all time in an important category and should be in the HOF for it. Back when he was on the ballot Hoffman was saving lots of games and Rivera was coming on too so the voters thought Smith's total wasn't going to be all that impressive in the future but here we are in 2018 and Smith's total is looking more and more like an almost unbeatable number.

Plus Smith was before the "come in for one or two outs with the tying run on deck and get a save" era. He was throwing 2 or 3 innings at times. And he was one of the most feared stoppers ever. He should have been in the Hall years ago.