Jack Morris For the Hall
Yesterday we started our preview of this year’s Hall of Fame elections and how that relates to Mussina. For today I’m going to cover Jack Morris, whose inclusion on my ballot, has already made me insane in the the eyes of some. According to baseball-reference Morris is actually Mussina’s 7th most similar pitcher over the course of their entire careers.
Jack Morris had the most wins of any pitcher of the 1980s; a decade during which he was a five time all-star (starting three times). This is point number one and it can not be forgotten. During that decade he also led baseball in starts, innings, strikeouts and complete games. And he continued his excellence into the early nineties. For 14 consecutive years his team called on him to be the team’s opening day starter; that’s a baseball record.
From 1979 to 1988 he never won fewer then 14 games, breaking the magical 20-win total three times. During his career he won 15 or more games 13 times (2 more then our beloved Moose). He accumulated five Top 5 Cy Young finishes and probably out pitched 1983’s winner La Marr Hoyt (like Moose in ‘01 Morris had a much better stat line but a poorer W/L record).
For his career Morris allowed less then a hit/ip, finished 31st all-time in strikeouts (just 22 shy of 2500), totaled 254 wins and recorded a staggering 175 complete games in an age when the stat was slowly dying.
And of course, as is often mentioned first when discussing Jack Morris, he was an amazing postseason pitcher for the Detriot Tigers in 1984 and the Minnesota Twins in 1991. In both series Morris won 2 of the his teams four games including the deciding one. In both series he posted sub-2.00 ERAs and was the story of the series (sorry Brave fans). Unfortunetly the story did not hold when Morris joined the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992. He lost both Series starts, but the Blue Jays won the title anyway (again apologies to any Atlanta fans out there, we know this still hurts). In total Jack Morris owns four World Championship rings, an impressive feat on any Hall of Fame candidates resume.
The knocks against Morris have weight. His career ERA was 3.90. That’s only 5% better then the league over the same span. Mike Mussina’s career ERA is 23% better. I don’t think this disqualifies him because Morris’s ERA skyrocketed because of terrible years in 1989 (when he had arm trouble), 1993 and 1994 (also his last). From 79-88 Morris’ ERA was at or, more often, well above the league average. (The arguement that the former hitter’s pinball machine known as the old Tiger Stadium hurt Morris does not hold water. His career road and home ERA’s are exactly the same - yeah, strange I know.)
Jack Morris is borderline. His gray ink score is only 193 (185 is avg for a HOF). But was he one of the best players during his era? There’s no question he was. He’s got the stat line and credentials for Cooperstown. Jack Morris should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Last 5 posts by Rorschach
- Mussina: The WAR-rior - May 27th, 2010
- Bill James Projects Mussina (sans retirement) - September 23rd, 2009
- Three Quick Things About the Moose - June 21st, 2009
- The Class of 2014 - May 8th, 2009
- Henderson and Rice Elected to HOF - January 13th, 2009
December 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Great stuff, as always — you have a true fan’s feel for the admittedly odd relationship between the athlete and his public. I wrote an article that Dugout Central published a few months ago that described my discovery that the BBWAA — no matter what they might say — essentially vote for starting pitchers as though only wins matter. 300 in total gets the “career” guys in, and leading the majors for five consecutive years gets the “peak” guys. Morris has a five-year title, but he may remain outside looking in like Stewart and Viola, not hanging on the wall like Lemon and Ford.
June 21st, 2009 at 5:31 am
[...] Morris and Andy Pettitte, two boderline Hall of Fame candidates also make the list. I argued for Morris in December and his vote percantage this year was a decent 44% good enough for 6th (only [...]