First there is quite possibly the greatest right handed pitcher of this generation in Greg Maddux. Maddux finished with 97.2% of the votes, the 8th highest votes total in history. During his brilliant 23 year career, Maddux went 355-227, good for 8th all time on the wins list, and a career 3.16 ERA. During his career Maddux struck out 3,371 hitters, while allowing just 999 walks. He was an eight time all star, won four Cy Young Awards, won a record 18 gold gloves and was a member of the 1995 world champions with the Atlanta Braves. He did this all pitching for the Braves (11 seasons), Chicago Cubs (10 years 2 stints), Los Angeles Dodgers (2 years) and San Diego Padres (2 years). What mad Maddux so good over his career was he relied on his command, composure, and guile to outwit hitters, something you don't really see too much of in today's game. He had a great command of his pitches, being able to paint the corners better than almost everybody. He also had a durability to him, leading the National League in innings pitched in five consecutive years. He also had outstanding control, finishing with the lowest BB/9 ratio in the NL nine times. He also was the most celebrated fielding pitcher of his day, with a record 18 Gold Gloves to his credit and the third-highest range factor per 9 innings among all Major League pitchers. Very few right handed pitchers in history had the kind of control and command Maddux did, making him a slam dunk to get elected into the hall.
Next there is Tom Glavine, who was a running buddy for Maddux for years with the Braves. Glavine was no slouch, having a great career of his own, pitching 22 years in the big leagues, 17 years with the Braves and 5 with the New York Mets. Glavine finished his career with a record of 305–203, a 3.54 ERA and 2,607 strikeouts. Glavine was a ten time all star, two time Cy Young Award winner, four time Silver Slugger award winner and was MVP of the 1995 World Series which he won with Atlanta. Glavine is known for a calm, unemotional personality, even during rough outings. This is a marked contrast to longtime teammates Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, both emotional competitors. And, much like Maddux, Glavine has been very consistent during his career, which is also highlighted by his durability. Since his first full year in 1988, he started at least 25 games every year and never being placed on the disabled list until his final season---at age 42. In addition to his excellent changeup and well-controlled fastball, Glavine has a plus-curve ball, a slider, and a tailing two-seam fastball. Despite being a left-handed pitcher, Glavine was often more effective against right-handed batters. Glavine and Maddux, when together in the rotation, made up one of the best one two punches of the 1990's in all of baseball.
And think about this. Both of those guys may be the last two guys to ever hit the 300 win mark for pitchers. The closest active pitcher to getting to 300 was Andy Pettite but he retired with 256 career wins. In fact the only active big league picture with 200 or more wins is CC Sabathia, who has 205.
Finally we have the only hitter to make the hall this year, Frank Thomas. Thomas spent 19 years in the big leagues, with the Chicago White Sox (16 years), Oakland Athletics (2 Years) and Toronto Blue Jays (2 years). During his career, Thomas was a lifetime .301 hitter, with 521 home runs and 1,704 RBI's. Thomas was a five time all star, a four time silver slugger winner, won the 1997 AL Batting Title and oh yeah won the American League MVP in 1993 and 1994. Unlike the other two gentleman he is going into the hall with, Thomas never won a World Series. He was a big guy and a tremendous power hitter, plus he was one of the few great power hitters who did it clean. He even admitted in his press conference yesterday that he was clean. During his career, for a long time in fact, he was the face of the White Sox franchise. The Big Hurt was the first player in major league history to win two Silver Slugger awards each at two different positions (1993–94 at first base; 1991 & 2000 as designated hitter).
So those are the three who got the call for induction. Lets take a look now at the guys who missed out. First there is Craig Biggio, as he finished two votes shy with a voting percentage of 74.8%. This ties him with Nellie Fox (1985) and Pie Traynor (1947) for smallest margin not to get into the Hall. Biggio was one of the most patient hitters at the plate ever, drawing a fair amount of walks every season.
Also missing out, for the final time, is Jack Morris, who was 78 votes short at 61.5 percent in his 15th and final appearance on the writers' ballot. His next chance at Cooperstown could come at the expansion era committee meeting in December 2016. A solid pitcher in his own right, but wasn't quite at the level of Glavine or Maddux.
Then there's Mike Piazza, who is considered to be one of if not the greatest hitting catchers of all time. Piazza's came in with 62.2%. Of course you have some other names on the list who didn't get voted in like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire and Rafael Palmeiro. Palmeiro landed just 4.4% of the votes. The fact that he has failed to earn 5% of the votes in back to back ballots means that he will be left off the ballot from now on, making him inelegable for hall induction.
To me that's a bit of poetic justice that Palmeiro can't get into the hall. That's a big statement to me made by the sports writers in that they are saying that anybody who has used steroids won't get into the hall. I know it hasn't been proven outright yet but this means to me that the likes of Sosa, McGuire, bonds and Clemens don't have much of a chance to get into the hall going forward.
So there you have it, the hall of fame class of 2014!
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