Ichiro HOF Poll

[Captain 97]

Here's how Felix compares to Hamels.

[D-train]

Next years first year eligibles are weak sauce. Hamels is the only one over 50 WAR.

Should help Felix.

[D-train]

Here's how Felix compares to Hamels.

Nearly identical other than WAR and ERA+ due to ballpark difference. Wins is interesting given the narrative that Felix missed out so many due to lack of run support.

[Captain 97]

Here's how Felix compares to Hamels.

Nearly identical other than WAR and ERA+ due to ballpark difference. Wins is interesting given the narrative that Felix missed out so many due to lack of run support.

Felix also has the hardware with the Cy Young and the two ERA Titles. Hamels never finished higher than 5th in Cy voting. Felix had a first, two seconds, and a 4th. Hamels was more consistant, Felix had the more dominant peak.

[Donn Beach]

Ichiro says he would like to have the one writer that didn’t vote him into the HOF over to his house to “have a drink together and have a good chat”

Yeah, probably with a baseball bat

[D-train]

Ichiro says he would like to have the one writer that didn’t vote him into the HOF over to his house to “have a drink together and have a good chat”

Yeah, probably with a baseball bat

Ichiro doesn't strike me as any thing like the irrational reactionary lunatics on X that want the guy dead.

[DavidGee24]

Next years first year eligibles are weak sauce. Hamels is the only one over 50 WAR.

Should help Felix.

I don't think that either of those guys should be in the HOF. The nice thing about baseball is that there are usually fresh HOF-caliber players on the ballot and they don't have to enshrine either of these two just because they're the "best available" in one particular year.

On the other hand, the Rock And Roll HOF has just about run out of rock acts to enshrine so now they're reaching for guys like Peter Frampton to induct.

[Captain 97]

Next years first year eligibles are weak sauce. Hamels is the only one over 50 WAR.

Should help Felix.

I don't think that either of those guys should be in the HOF. The nice thing about baseball is that there are usually fresh HOF-caliber players on the ballot and they don't have to enshrine either of these two just because they're the "best available" in one particular year.

On the other hand, the Rock And Roll HOF has just about run out of rock acts to enshrine so now they're reaching for guys like Peter Frampton to induct.

I don't think Felix or Hamels belong in the hall either. I was simply making the comparison to show how weak the upcoming class is. The top guy is basically neck and neck with a guy that only got 20% of the vote this year.

[Donn Beach]

Interesting, it is possible to make a Felix in the HOF case.

In January 2024, we looked at the changing ways in which Hall of Fame starting pitchers should be evaluated and came away with the idea that a good place to start would be in seeing how often the best pitcher in the sport across a seven-year span did or should get in, and it was satisfying: 16 of the last 20 leaders in WAR across seven-year spans are in already or clearly will be in (like Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw), and two of the ones who didn’t, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, had obviously-worthy cases sidelined by off-field issues.

Hernández didn’t rank first in any seven-year span, though he was second from 2009-’15, and third from 2007-’13 and 2008-’14. Is being a clearly top-three starter across several years good enough? Maybe, but it’s also not the full story, because Hernández’s peak wasn’t seven years. It was nine, perhaps 10.

From 2007-’15, he was second in WAR only to Kershaw, meaning you could easily say Hernández was the best pitcher in the American League for basically a full decade. He was three outs shy of being tied for the most innings thrown, and only four pitchers -- one already a Hall of Famer, and two more likely to get there -- had a better ERA+ than he did, among those with 500 innings pitched.

That peak included the 2010 Cy Young, five years with down-ballot MVP placements and six All-Star appearances. So let’s expand that best-of-seven-years exercise to best-of-ten-years. If you’re the best pitcher across the sport for an entire decade, shouldn’t that be enough?

If we go back to 1950, there are nineteen pitchers who were the best pitcher in the sport across a 10-year span. Hernández is one of them.

In the Hall of Fame (13): Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Jim Bunning, Don Drysdale, Juan Marichal, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Phil Niekro, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roy Halladay
Will clearly be inducted in the near future (2): Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw
Not in (2): Dave Stieb, Ron Guidry
Had a no-doubt-deserving on-field career (1): Roger Clemens
Is Félix Hernández (1): Félix Hernández
That’s sixteen of the previous eighteen best-for-a-decade guys who are in, will be in, or missed only due to off-field problems. Between 2005-’14, Hernández was The Best Pitcher In Baseball. Even if that was a bit of a low point for being the best -- only Guidry’s 1978-’87 run as The Best was meaningfully lower -- it is still The Best.

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-hall-of-fa ... -hernandez