Question for the group regarding Hall of Fame eligibility....

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

I have to disagree; Mickey Lolich is not a Hall of Famer. He was a pretty good pitcher for a while, but compared to his peers, he just doesn't measure up. And there's certainly nothing historic about his pitching performance. That's overstating it a bit.

His 7 year WAR peak is 38.6. There are 50 starters in the Hall, and they average a 50.3 7 year peak WAR. Lolich is ranked 112th all-time as a starter by JAWS. And, his career ERA + is 108. 100 is Major League average.

He finished second in the Cy Young once, and third once. And in those seasons, his ERA + was only 124 and 127. Hardly exemplary. He didn't receive any votes the other eight seasons where he was a full time starter, post 1967.

Wins in a decade isn't really a great way to evaluate a pitcher. A good pitcher can get a lot of wins on a great team, and the Tigers team he was on was very, very good. Multiple seasons of 90 + wins, including a 103 win season in 1968 when they won the World Series. Given his number of complete games, it doesn't surprise that he won a lot of games. But his pitching metrics, again, ERA +, WHIP and FIP, don't show he was anything spectacular.

Good pitcher, but not a Hall of Famer, in my opinion.

Bill- While I agree with you that Lolich is not a Hall of Famer, I have to point two instances of his pitching performances being historic:


1.) He won three games in the 1968 World Series culminating with breaking Bob Gibson's 7-game World Series winning-streak - oh, and clinching the championship for the Tigers.

2.) In 1971, he amassed 376 Innings Pitched which were the most by any pitcher since Grover Cleveland Alexander threw 388 in 1917.

Now, I'd call both of those pretty darn historic.

As for my opinion on who's out that should be in...I have to go back to the island again:

Minnie Minoso and Luis Tiant
Tiant's stats compare favorably to both Drysdale and Hunter, though I concede that those two are border-line at best.

But, Hey - Eppa Rixey is in there - so why not Lolich and Kaat and Tommy John!