Steve Garvey Had A Great Career, But It Is Not Hall of Fame Worthy

Here is an age-old question: Is Steve Garvey a Hall of Famer? The actual answer is “no,” as he has never received enough votes for induction. The former first baseman peaked at 42.6% of the vote in 1995, his third year of consideration. Since then his name has appeared on five different veterans committee ballots, and he has yet to find more than 37.5% of the vote. But should he?

For those of us who grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Garvey was the Platonic ideal of what a baseball player should look like. Nearly six feet tall, chiseled chin, bowling pins forearms, a bright smile, the beautiful wife, and a want and ability to play every day. He scooped every bad throw from Bill Russell at shortstop, and bunted for the occasional hit. All while averaging nearly 20 home runs and nearly 100 RBI every year.

From September of 1975 through July of 1983, Garvey never missed a game. A run of 1,207 consecutive games still stands as the National League record, and it is the fourth longest streak in the history of the game*.

*By the end of this season, Matt Olson of the Braves will have played in 944 consecutive games (obviously the longest current streak). He will need to stay healthy for more than another season and a half to catch Garvey. And Garvey (and potentially Olson) would have had to play every game in nearly nine more seasons to match Cal Ripken Jr.’s streak of 2,632 consecutive games.

Over Garvey’s career, he was an All-Star ten times (and was the MVP in two of those games), won four Gold Gloves, and was awarded the National League MVP in 1974 (and was the runner-up to Dave Parker in 1978). He also won two NLCS MVP awards and was an integral part of the Dodgers’ 1981 World Series championship.

Over a career that spanned 19 seasons, Garvey collected 2,599 hits (natch!), while slashing .294/.329/.446, with 272 homers and 1,308 RBI. He accumulated 38.1 bWAR. According to Baseball Reference, his career most closely resembles the recently-passed Garret Anderson, Al Oliver, John Olerud, and Rubén Sierra.

But getting into the specific stats, the typical Hall of Famer led the league in one category or another 27 times. Garvey, just 12. But he was in the top ten of those categories 142 times, which is just below the 144 for the typical Hall of Fame player.

According to Bill James’ Hall of Fame Monitor, where 100 is a Hall of Famer, Garvey comes in with a robust 132. However, per James’ Hall of Fame Monitor, where 50 is an average Hall of Famer and 100 is the maximum, Garvey scores just 32.

Unfortunately, Garvey fails all metrics of Jay Jaffe’s JAWS analysis:

Average HOF 1B: 65 bWAR; 42.1 7-year peak bWAR; 53.5 JAWS; 4.8 bWAR/162.

Steve Garvey: 38.1 bWAR; 28.8 7-year peak; 33.4 JAWS; 2.6 bWAR/162. Garvey is still beloved by fans all along the West Coast, as he played 14 years with the Dodgers and another five with the Padres. He helped San Diego get to the 1984 NLCS. At the end of his career and into the first years of his retirement, Garvey made headlines with his personal life, as it was reported that he was having an affair before his first wife left him for composer Marvin Hamlisch. He then had two children with two different women. In 1989, he married yet another woman, who remains his wife to this day, and they have three children together. All of this was fodder for the then-raging tabloid industry, as fans in San Diego wore t-shirts that read:

Garvey thrust himself back into the spotlight by running for the Senate in 2024; but he ultimately lost to Adam Schiff. That same year he repeatedly called college students protesting the war in Gaza as “terrorists,” and encouraged law enforcement to take action against anti-war protestors.

Garvey will find himself on the Classic Era Committee ballot in the winter of 2027. He will be joined by Pete Rose (who has been reinstated from the permanently ineligible list), John Donaldson and Vic Harris (two former Negro League players who merit consideration), and Tommy John (who is back in the news after his recent passing). There will only be eight candidates considered, and to get elected, a player needs to appear on 12 of the 16 ballots, which means that there are typically not more than two or three inductees. Based on past experience and the names coming up in 2027, Garvey’s prospects don’t look good. And, based on the statistical analysis, that does not seem like the wrong outcome.

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Pete Crow-Armstrong Has Been Involved In A Bunch of Exciting Battles This Season

On August 5^th at Wrigley Field in Chicago, four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani led off the game for the Dodgers with a home run to right field. A few minutes later, in the bottom half of the first inning, 2026 MVP hopeful Pete Crow-Armstrong did the same. It was each of their 25^th homers on the year. Shohei’s dinger accounted for his 68^th RBI, while PCA’s was his 66^th.

In the fourth inning, Crow-Armstrong edged ahead of the Japanese star, hitting his 26^th home run off the scoreboard in right for a two-run shot. Four innings later, Ohtani matched the youngster, smashing one out to left for his 26^th. Both players went 3-for-5 of the day with two runs scored, with PCA knocking in four with ten total bases against Ohtani’s three and nine. When they walked off the field, the players were tied in homers, and Ohtani led the RBI race 70-69. Not that it matters, but PCA hit his dingers a total of 825 feet, while Shohei’s went a pedestrian 743.

On August 17^th, Ohtani went to Colorado and smacked two more homers (#28 and #29). Later that night, PCA hit two of his own (#29 and #30). With his second home run (more about below), Crow-Armstrong sealed his second consecutive 30/30 season (Ohtani has only nine stolen bases this year).

The next say Shohei joined PCA in the 30-homer club. But PCA was not to be out done, so he hit his 31^st that day. As of this writing, Shohei is still at 30 HRs, while Pete is up to 36.

But PCA is not just competing with Shohei Ohtani. He also currently finds himself with a battle against history and Randy Arozarena of the Seattle Mariners.

In that August 17^th game referenced above, Crow-Armstrong hit a home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first. And then he hit the last pitch of the game – a 2-1 slider from Carson Kelly – into those same bleachers for a walk-off. It was the first time a player had accomplished that feat since Vic Power in 1957. But five days later, the Mariners’ outfielder held serve – against the Cubs, natch.

In the bottom of the first inning, Arozarena hit the first offering from David Peterson 416-feet over PCA’s head into the stands in center field. And then, in the bottom of the ninth, with Seattle trailing by two and with two runners on, Arozarena smacked a Jacob Webb slider again over Crow-Armstrong’s head for the walk-off home run. This had not happened once in nearly seventy years, and then it happened twice in a week. Not for nothing, but Arozarena also robbed a home run off the bat of Miguel Amaya in the third inning (PCA didn’t rob any homers in any of the aforementioned games, just sayin’).

But wait, there’s more. After PCA hit “Bookend Bombs” (as so named in Episode 2522 of the Effectively Wild podcast), he then hit a home run to lead off the next game. Arozarena saw that and said, “hold my beer.” The Seattle slugger hit his “Bookend Bombs” and then led off the next game with a dinger as well. Funnily enough, Arozarena’s home run represented one of the two runs that the Mariners scored in their 19-2 drubbing by PCA’s Cubs that day, a game in which — stop me if you have heard this before — Crow-Armstrong homered as well.

Earlier this season, Dansby Swanson became the first Cub to hit five home runs over a two-game span. With two round-trippers on Sunday night, PCA matched his teammate with five of his own over the weekend.

Crow-Armstrong may win the MVP this year, or he may not. But there is no doubt that what he is doing on the field, and the battles he is involved in seemingly every day (including with fans on Chicago’s South Side, but that is a topic for another day), are quite entertaining. And, when it is all said and done, isn’t that what this is all about?

PLAY BALL!!

Joshua Báez Has A Debut For The Ages

The St. Louis Cardinals selected outfield Joshua Báez in the second round of the 2021 draft out of the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is the number six prospect in the Cardinals’ system, and FanGraphs lists him as 45+ Future Value (meaning he might be a serviceable big leaguer, even if slightly below average).

But what really stood out to scouts was Báez’s power. FanGraphs gives him a 50/60 (on the 20-80 scale) in Game Power and a 60/70 in Raw Power. Earlier this season, while playing at Triple-A Memphis, he hit four homers in a game. When he got called up to the big club, his slash line was .256/.328/.573, with 34 home runs and 22 doubles.

So, ten days ago, when he had his inaugural at-bat with two outs in the first inning of a game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, it was not all that shocking to see him crush a ball 109-mph and 449-feet to center field. What was surprising was that it was on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues.

Báez came up again to lead off the fourth inning. He ran the count full, and then launched his second home run of the day and his career. This one traveled 382-feet to the left field bleachers.

Alec Burleson walked to lead off the sixth inning. Báez came to the plate and took a curveball outside for ball one. The next pitch was a slider on the outer half that the left fielder drove 368-feet into the right field bleachers. Three major leagues at-bats, three major league home runs. Suffice it to say, that had never been done before.

Báez came to bat a fourth time in the eighth inning and lined out to left. On his walk back to the dugout, he was treated to a standing ovation by the fans in Chicago. St. Louis is often credited with having the best and most knowledgeable baseball fans, but the Wrigley Faithful gave them a run for their money with their appreciation of a rival player who put on a show for the ages. Or, they were simply applauding the fact that Báez got out and didn’t inflict any further damage on their beloved Cubbies.

The Cardinals would go on to win that game 8-4. Since that afternoon, Báez has added only two more hits, one of which was his fourth home run. His 2-for-28 run is for fitting for a rookie, but there is no doubt there is more magic in his bat. The Cardinals entered the season predicted to win about 72 games in a rebuilding year. They have already won 66, with six weeks left to play. They will not win the division (they are 15 games back of Milwaukee and in third place), but are only about four games out of the wild card race.

Báez — who announced his presence with authority on a sunny Saturday on the North Side of Chicago — is part of the future of this team, and that future may be here sooner than anyone expected.

PLAY BALL!!

The Sad And Forgotten Story Of Hank Thompson

There is no baseball fan in America, maybe no person in America, who doesn’t know that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. A slightly smaller circle of fans knows that Larry Doby came next, breaking the American League color barrier with Cleveland also in 1947, a mere eleven weeks after Jack.

The third player to do so was Hank Thomspon, less than two weeks after Doby. I imagine the vast majority of baseball fans have never heard of Hank Thompson (I certainly hadn’t). And that is because Thompson lived a troubled life. Born in 1925 in Oklahoma City, he played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues in 1943, and then went off to serve in World War II. When he came back from the Battle of the Bulge, after a brief stint back with the Monarchs, the St. Louis Browns signed him to play second and third base. Three days after his debut, he joined Willard Brown on the field, marking the first time two Black players appeared in the same major league lineup.

The Browns released him after 27 games, and he again rejoined the Monarchs, playing through the 1948 season. In 1949 he was with the New York Giants, making him the first Black player to integrate two different teams and the first to play in both the American and National Leagues. That same year, when he faced the Dodgers Don Newcombe, that was the first time a Black pitcher matched up against a Black batter. And in 1951, he moved to right field alongside Willie Mays and Monte Irvin for the first all-Black outfield.

Thompson had a tough upbringing, and was arrested for the first time at age eleven. He went AWOL for a few days while in the service, and found himself in the stockade after a drunken brawl. These were a precursor of future troubles.

After a nine-year career wherein he amassed 129 home runs and finished with a slash line of .267/.372/.453, Thompson left baseball and became a cab driver in New York. A few years after his career ended, Thompson robbed a liquor store and was convicted of armed robbery, burglary, and theft. That got him a 10-year prison sentence, but he was paroled after serving just three. After his release, Thompson moved to Fresno, California to become a city playground director. Unfortunately, a year later – 13 years to the day of his last game in the majors – Thompson suffered a seizure and died at just 43 years of age.

After his release from prison, Thompson had regrets but also took responsibility for his lot in life. “Don’t ask me to blame society. Or the fact I’m a Negro in a white world. Or the fact I have a grade school education. I’m the one who kicked society in the teeth.” And then he added, “Baseball was the only thing I’ve ever done well.”

Baseball is filled with so many players, and so many stories, and so many are forgotten. Thanks to the inimitable Joe Posnanski, I was introduced to Hank Thompson, a ground-breaking player and a law-breaking citizen. His story – like hundreds if not thousands of others – has been lost to history, and we baseball fans have an obligation to try to remember them when we can if for no other reason than to understand the complexity of the people who play the game we love so much.

PLAY BALL!!

The Angels’ Roster Would Be Solid If It Were Just A Few Years Ago

As of this writing, the Angels are the worst team in baseball…even worse than the Colorado Rockies. They are currently playing on a below-70-win pace. They won 72 last season, 63 the year before, and 73 two years before that. One thing in their favor, they have never lost 100 games in a season. So there’s that.

For a while there (2018-2023) they employed two of the greatest players to ever lace up their spikes. And yet, they still couldn’t do anything. And yet, they have averaged more than 2.5 million fans per year for the last four seasons, and are on pace for the same this year as well.

Prior to the season owner Arte Moreno cited an internal fan survey that said winning is not a top-five priority for the fanbase. And that may be why he doesn’t seem to care who he puts on the field, or how far past their sell-by date they may be.

On Episode 2490 of the Effectively Wild podcast, hosts Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discussed how good the Angels could be with their current roster if it just were another year, or maybe even another decade.

Let’s take a look:

Vaughn Grissom has 211 plate appearances for the Angels this year, which is 55 more than his previous career high with Atlanta in 2022. That year he accrued 0.8 bWAR, also a career high.

Jorge Soler is essentially the Angels’ everyday designated hitter this season. He was the 2021 World Series MVP with the Atlanta Braves. And yet you would need to go all the way back to 2019 to find a year in which he had more than 1 bWAR (he had 3.5 for the Royals).

Josh Lowe has played 60 games for the Angels this year. He put up 3.7 bWAR for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023.

Yoán Moncada has come to the plate 130 times for Anaheim this year. But we are seven years from 2019, when he had 5.1 bWAR for the Chicago White Sox.

In 2021, while playing for the Pirates and the Padres, Adam Frazier put up 4.0 bWAR with a 176 hits. This year has played in 41 games with the Angels and banged out 17 hits.

Travis d’Arnaud has received limited reps at catcher this year, which is good because we are four years removed from when he was 2.8 bWAR player with the Braves.

Jeimer Candelario had 3.6 bWAR for the Detroit Tigers in 2021 when he led the league with 42 doubles. This year he has gotten 20 plate appearances for the Angels.

Nick Madrigal was once a hot prospect in Chicago, with both the White Sox and the Cubs. He has never lived up to his promise as a hit-first middle infielder, but he did have a 111 OPS+ in 2021. This year he 12 hits in the 15 games he has played in SoCal.

Alek Manoah pitched in the All-Star Game in 2022 when he came in third in Cy Young voting. This year the Angels have given him five starts. He has 9.82 ERA.

In 2022, Jordan Romano pitched in 59 games for the Blue Jays, and ended the year with 2.9 bWAR. He had 2.2 the following season. The Angels have ran him out of the bullpen 11 times for a 10.13 ERA before releasing him.

Trey Mancini is an incredible feel-good story. He came back from colon cancer, thought about retiring, had a daughter and decided to give it another go. The Angels put him on a minor league contract and he made his way back up, getting three hits in his debut with the Halos. But you have to go back to 2019 to find his best season. That was when he hit 35 home runs, drove in 97, and accrued 3.7 bWAR for the Orioles. After five games with the Halos, he was released in late June.

If we wanted to continue this exercise into last season, we could keep it going. Kyle Hendricks pitched for the 2016 World Champion Cubs and he made 31 starts for the Angels in 2025. We also could add Kenley Jansen, JD Davis, Tim Anderson, Chris Taylor, Taylor Ward, Andrew Chaffin, and Nicky Lopez to this list of players who were once something, but weren’t anything when the Angels elected to employ them.

Moreno may be right. Fans may show up regardless of who takes the field in their crisp white jerseys. Mike Trout may be enough of a draw to keep the faithful happy. But at some point he will retire (or demand a trade); at some point the fans will grow tired of watching retread players trying to compete with teams that have an actual plan for winning. If and when that happens, the Angels will need to do more than look to the past if they want to have any hope for the future.

PLAY BALL!!

War Hero Lou Brissie And His Most Famous Moment

A few weeks back, on the Baseball Tonight podcast, in advance of our nation’s 250^th birthday, Buster Olney and Todd Radom discussed the most “American” moments in baseball history. Olney brought up Lou Brissie.

Leland Victor Brissie was born in South Carolina in 1924. He began his baseball career at the tender age of 16 in a textile league, where he caught the attention of Connie Mack. Brissie’s father insisted he finish his education before becoming a professional baseball player, and so he attended Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina after high school.

At age 18, Brissie enlisted in the United State Army, and soon found himself fighting in World War II. As part of the 88^th Infantry Division, he was involved in heavy fighting in Mussolini’s Italy. On December 2, 1944, at just twenty years of age, an artillery shell shattered his left shinbone into 30 pieces. At an Army field hospital Brissie was informed that the leg would need to be amputated. The budding pitcher pleaded with the medics, telling them that he was ballplayer and that he needed his leg to continue his career. He said he was willing to risk his life to save the leg.

Two years and twenty-three surgeries later, with his left leg now shorter than the right, and a metal brace holding everything in place, Brissie was home from the war and able to resume playing. The injury caused lifelong pain in the leg, but that was nothing compared to his desire to pitch in the big leagues. Mack was finally able to sign him in 1946. Brissie began at Double-A Savannah in 1947, and won 25 games. He got “the call” in late September of that year, making his major league debut against the Yankees. He went seven innings, allowing nine hits and five earned runs; he did strike out four in taking the loss.

The next time Brissie took the hill was the second game of the 1948 season against the Red Sox. In the sixth inning, with Dom DiMaggio on second after a double, Ted Williams hit a line shot back up the middle that smashed into Brissie surgically repaired left leg. DiMaggio scored on the play and Williams reached first safely. Everyone quickly crowded around the fallen pitcher. In his memoir, My Turn At Bat, Williams recalled how guilty he felt in the moment, and he rushed over as well.

Williams propensity to hit the ball to the right side of the field was so pronounced that he was often the victim of the “Ted Williams Shift” (originally known as the “Boudreau Shift”). This, of course, was long before analytics and spray charts and Joe Maddon and the Tampa Bay Rays and then MLB rules changes banning “the shift.” But on this April day, Williams went back through the box and right into the war hero pitcher.

When Williams reached the mound, Brissie, by all reported accounts, looked up at the slugger and yelled: “For chrissakes, Williams, pull the damn ball!” Brissie shook off the injury and retired 10 of the next 11 batters – including striking out Williams in the ninth – to complete the 4-2 victory for the Athletics.

Brissie’s career would last seven seasons, with him playing the final two-plus years in Cleveland. He finished with a record of 44-48 with a 4.07 ERA and a 102 ERA+. But the stats are secondary to the mere fact that he played major league baseball at all.

And it is quite possible that he is most remembered on the baseball field for the time when two war heroes faced off against one another, one giving it his best shot, the other taking the shot, and then dusting himself off to stay in the fight.

Brissie was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart as well as an American Campaign Medal for his services in World War II. After his retirement, Brissie served as the National Director of American Legion Baseball, and was part of President Kennedy’s Physical Fitness Council. Later on he would scout for the Dodgers and the Braves.

We should never forget the story of Lou Brissie, who defied the odds to live – with two legs, a full heart, and a baseball career – 89 fine years.

PLAY BALL!!

The Sad Story Of Mel Hall

When I was a kid, there was a outfielder for the Cleveland Indians who used to put batting gloves in each back pocket so that when he hit a home run, he could “wave goodbye” to the other team. In the parlance of the day, Mel Hall was a “hot dog.”

Funnily enough, he never got to wave goodbye to the other team more than 18 times in a season, so the gimmick may have been lost on the masses.

The Chicago Cubs selected Hall in the second round of the 1978 draft out of Port Byron High School in New York, which is about 30 miles west of Syracuse. Three years later, on September 3, 1981, he made his MLB debut, flying out to right field against Doyle Alexander of the Giants. He would get into ten more games the remainder of the year, collecting one hit in twelve plate appearances.

Hall became an everyday player for the Cubs in 1983, slashing .283/.352/.488 for a 128 OPS+, which was good for third place in Rookie of the Year voting.

The Cubs traded the outfielder to the Indians in mid-June of 1984. And while his numbers with Chicago were better than with Cleveland, he was still a solid performer for his new American League club (104 OPS+).

A car accident kept Hall out of nearly the entire 1985 season. He came back in 1986 and slashed .296/.346/.493, with a then-career-high 18 home runs. 1987 and 1988 were more of the same.

Prior to the 1989 season, Cleveland traded the outfielder to the Yankees, and that is when and where the real trouble began. During spring training, he brought both his wife and his girlfriend to the team hotel and then proceeded to watch them get into a fight near the pool. While on the injured list, he got into a violent wrestling match with Rickey Henderson. And then he brought a gun into the clubhouse. In the years before “Manny being Manny,” the team seemed to shrug it all off, with Hall stating, it’s “me being Mel Hall.”

He still played in 113 games that year for the Bombers, hit 17 homers and had a 103 OPS+.

His production was roughly the same in 1990. 1991 was up there with his best seasons, as he slashed .285/.321/.455, setting a career-high with 19 homers and 80 RBI. In 1992, he did it again, putting up about the same numbers, including his all-time high of 81 RBI.

And yet, when his contract with the Yankees expired, no MLB team wanted him. So, Hall took his talents east, and signed a two-year, $4 million contract to play for the Chiba Lotte Marines in the NPB. He then played for the Chunichi Dragons, before coming back stateside in 1996 with the San Francisco Giants. That experiment lasted a month, as the club released him after he got three singles in 25 at-bats.

Not willing to give up, he signed a minor league contract with the White Sox, but that lasted only twelve days. Years later he would try his hand at independent ball, but that didn’t lead anywhere.

While playing in New York, Hall was known to have two great passions: spending money and chasing women. That, unto itself, made Hall like many athletes. Unfortunately, Hall had a proclivity for young women. It started with him inviting a 15-year-old (and her family) to a game at Yankee Stadium in 1989. And then there were others. It took until 2007 for Hall to be arrested. It happened in Texas, where he was charged with two counts of sexual assault and of having sex with a woman under the age of 17. During the investigation, a second victim – under the age of 14 – was identified. A twelve-year-old girl was determined to have been raped by Hall.

He was ultimately convicted of three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison, where he currently resides. His earliest possible parole would be in late 2031, when Hall will be 71 years old. Based on his actions off the field, that simply may be too soon to let this predator free.

Hall could have made a name for himself as an irreverent player and a fan favorite. Instead, he became a clubhouse cancer, a pariah, and a convicted felon.

It will be a long time until Mel Hall can ever again… PLAY BALL!!

We Don’t Talk Enough About Orel Hershiser

Not enough is written about Orel Hershiser’s career, and, specifically, his 1988 season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted Hershiser out of Bowling Green State University in the 17^th round in 1979. He made his major league debut four years later, pitching one inning, giving up two hits, and one run to the Montreal Expos.

For the first few years of his career, Hershiser was an enigma:

1984: 11-8, 2.66 ERA
1986: 14-14, 3.85 ERA
1987: 16-16, 3.06 ERA

Smashed in the middle of those middling seasons was 1985, when he went 19-3 with a 2.03 ERA, and came in third in Cy Young voting. So, everyone in baseball knew that greatness lived within him.

That greatness was achieved in his magical 1988. He started the year with a three-hit shoutout against the Giants. He then went 8-1/3 innings, giving up one run in a win against Atlanta. Followed by a complete game win against the Braves five days later. Then he threw six innings, allowing just one earned run against the Giants. Next, while facing the Cardinals, he went eight innings and gave up three (!) earned runs.

When the calendar flipped to May, the Pirates touched him up for ten hits, but could only manage two earned runs. With the win, he ran his record to 6-0. The Buccos apparently had his number, as in Pittsburgh a week later he had his first bad game (12 hits, seven earned runs, three walks, and three homers allowed), suffering his first loss of the year. The next week he gave up just one earned run on five hits, but the Dodgers didn’t score, so he took his second loss.

Over the next ten weeks Hershiser went 12-6 with a 2.99 ERA and a 2/1 strikeout to walk ratio, which was just fine, but actually below his season totals to that point: 18-8, 2.84 ERA, 2.25 K/BB ratio. And that is when he decided to turn legend. Well, maybe even a bit before that.

You see, on August 19^th, he threw a complete game shutout against the Expos. On August 24^th, he threw seven scoreless innings before giving up two runs in the top of the eighth to the Mets, but did not allow them to score in the ninth (the Dodgers lost 2-1). On August 30^th, he held the Expos scoreless for four innings, had a two-run blip in the fifth, and then shut them down for the final four innings. Those four innings would be the start of the incredible month to follow. And, to be clear, even before “The Streak” began, Hershiser had allowed no runs in 12 of his previous 14 innings (two runs in each of those two blemished frames).

As we all know, Hershiser went all of September without giving up a run. He went 5-0, threw 55 innings allowing just 30 hits, and struck out 34 while walking only nine batters. Oh, did I mention that – prior to coming out of a tie game in which he pitched ten innings and broke Don Drysdale’s scoreless innings streak — Hershiser had thrown eight consecutive complete games.

In his first playoff start, against the Mets in the NLCS, he went 8-1/3, but got a no-decision when Jay Howell couldn’t hold the lead. Four days later, Hershisher gave up one earned run over six innings in another Dodgers’ loss.

But since six innings was mere child’s play, the ace came in as a relief pitcher in the 12^th inning the next day. After Kirk Gibson’s home run in the top half of the inning staked Los Angeles to a 5-4 lead, Tim Leary gave up back-to-back singles before recording the first out of the inning. Jesse Orosco (the former Met) came on to face two lefties, walking Keith Hernandez to load the bases, but then he got Darryl Strawberry to pop out to second. With the right-handed hitting Kevin McReynolds coming up with the bases loaded and the Dodgers facing a potential 3-1 deficit in the series, Tommy Lasorda called on “Bulldog” to get the final out. Three pitches later, he did just that.

It was no shock when he took the mound for Game 7 of the NLCS three days later at home and threw a five-hit shutout, propelling the Dodgers to the pennant.

Even superheroes need a day off, so Hershiser skipped Game 1 of the World Series, but started Game 2 in Los Angeles against the shell-shocked Athletics (try to recall how Game 1 of the 1988 World Series ended). He, of course, threw a three-hit shutout to put the Dodgers up to two games to none. Four days later, he took the hill for Game 5 and threw yet another complete game, yielding two runs on four hits, as the Dodgers won the World Series.

When all was said and done, counting both the regular season and the playoffs, in 1988 Hershiser tossed 309-2/3 innings, threw 18 complete games including ten shutouts, and went a combined 26-8. He won the NLCS MVP, World Series MVP, and Cy Young Award.

Hershiser pitched for 12 more seasons after that historic 1988. For his career, he went 204-150, with a 3.48 ERA and a 3.69 FIP. He appeared in the 1995 World Series with Cleveland after being named the ALCS MVP. He is in the Top-100 of all-time pitcher bWAR, but, unfortunately, is not likely to ever gain induction into the Hall of Fame. No matter, he was still a force of nature.

And, like I said, not enough is written about him or his season for the ages.

PLAY BALL!!

A Look At The Best First Basemen Of All-Time

Fun fact, when I was 10 years old, my parents promised to buy me a first baseman’s mitt if I made my league’s all-star team. I did, so they did. It was a Rawlings Model RFM 35 with Keith Hernandez’s signature on the palm. So, the former Cardinal and Met holds a special place in my heart (even if he broke the same as part of the 1986 Mets squad, but I digress).

Hernandez has a strong case for the Hall of Fame, and that got me thinking about the greats of the game who played that/my position and how Hernandez compares to them.

The Top-10 players on the list of all-timers are all in the Hall of Fame, save for Albert Pujols, who should become the second unanimous entrant (along with Mariano Rivera) when he is on the ballot in 2028. His 101.3 bWAR is second only to the Iron Horse, whose 113.5 leads the way. The next eight are: Jimmie Foxx, Cap Anson, Roger Connor, Jeff Bagwell, Dan Brouthers, Frank Thomas, Johnny Mize, and Jim Thome.

Miguel Cabrera chimes in at #11, and he will become a Hall of Famer in 2029. Right behind him is Rafael Palmeiro, whose wave of a finger at the United States Congress while stating “I have never used steroids, period,” was undercut just weeks later when he tested positive for steroids. He need not make any plans to head to Central New York any time soon.

Behind Palmeiro will be this generation’s test for “Hall Worthy”: Joey Votto. He is a six-time All-Star and won the MVP in 2010. All of his Jay Jaffe’s JAWS and Bill James’ Hall of Fame Monitor/Standards measures are right at, just below, or just above Hall of Fame-level. Writers love him, he remains relevant as a guest broadcaster for NBC, and no one would balk at his induction.

Next is Paul Goldschmidt. Is he a Hall of Famer? Not to me, but his stats may say otherwise. He is a seven-time All-Star and, like Votto, won an MVP Award. And also like Votto, all of his Hall of Fame credentials are right on the line. He continues to play, so he continues to accrue numbers that will help his case five years after he retires.

Willie McCovey, Todd Helton, and Eddie Murray all have plaques in Cooperstown. Next is Freddie Freeman, who will be way higher on this list when his career ends, and should walk into the Hall. Mark McGwire would be in but for…

George Sisler and Hank Greenberg have had their days in the Hall of Fame sun. Then there is Bill Terry and Harmon Killebrew, inductees both. Sandwiched between these four players is Mr. Hernandez. Hernandez went on the ballot in 1996, and fell off nine years later when he only received 4.3% of the vote (a player needs at least 5% to continue).

Let’s take a look at how Hernandez measures up:

Black Ink (led the league in a category): 14 (average Hall of Famer: 27)
Grey Ink (top-10 in the league in a category): 118 (average HOF: 144)
Hall of Fame Monitor: 86 (likely HOF: 100)
Hall of Fame Standards: 32 (average HOF: 50)
bWAR: 60.4 (average HOF at 1B: 65)
7-Year Peak bWAR: 41.3 (average HOF at 1B: 42.1)
JAWS: 50.8 (average HOF at 1B: 53.5)
bWAR/162: 4.7 (average HOF at 1B: 4.8)

All of the numbers above say that Hernandez is just below the borderline, and his failure to be inducted is warranted. But, as Bill wrote yesterday: “there has never been a first baseman who fielded the position the way he did, literally impacting opponents’ strategy.” His 11 Gold Gloves are a record for first baseman, and they were won consecutively from 1978 through 1988. In 17 seasons, the man committed 115 errors over nearly 20,000 chances. He finished with a .994 fielding percentage.

There is a reason I wanted his glove when I was 10 years old. And there is a reason more than 40 years later I want his skills at the plate, on the field, in the clubhouse, and now in the broadcast booth, to be recognized on a warm Sunday in Cooperstown. I may be biased, but that does not mean that I am wrong.

PLAY BALL!!

The 2024 Draft Class Is On Its Way To Being The Best Ever After Two Years

any of you readers listen to the Effectively Wild podcast, and if you happened to listed to Episode 2483 last week, you may be able to skip the rest of this article. On that show, hosts Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discussed (among many other things) the 2024 draft class, and the impact those players are having on the 2026 season, which is barely two months old.

For context, over twenty rounds, there were 615 amateur players selected in the June, 2024 draft. According to various studies over the years, approximately 15-20% of drafted players make it to the big leagues. As such, we could typically expect that more than 90 of the players selected in 2024 will eventually make it to the major leagues. Again, according to various studies, the standard player will do so three to five years after he was drafted. So getting there in two years is a sign of something. But what?

The extreme skills of today’s young ballplayers.
Better training and preparation from Little League through summer leagues and travel ball and beyond.
Colleges acting more like professional baseball development programs than institutions of higher learning (said differently, athlete-students rather than student-athletes).
And, what we have seen a lot lately, teams accelerating their timeline for prospects.

So, if we figure that roughly 100 of the players from 2024 will make it at some point, it is not so shocking that 15 already have. By comparison to 2023, when 614 players were selected, 29 made their debuts two years later. So 2024/2026 is on a faster pace, but not crazily so.

But what is crazy is the production teams are getting from their “debutantes” (h/t to the aforementioned Ben Lindbergh). As of last week, players who have debuted in the major leagues this season have accrued 19.9 WAR. That is a pace of nearly 60 WAR for the whole season (which is only one-third done), and that is with just 15 players. The numbers are astounding.

The 2023 draft class put up 43.2 WAR with those 29 players – for the entire 2025 season. They were led by Paul Skenes and Wyatt Langford and Matt Shaw.

In 1987, the 1985 draft class of 36 players, led by some guy named Barry Bonds, and some guy named Barry Larkin, and some writer’s favorite player, Will Clark, put up 37.1 WAR, which stands as the second highest WAR two years after any draft.

So who and how is this group of 2024ers doing it? See some of the answers above for the how. As for the who, let’s take a look at the early bloomers:

Travis Bazzana was selected first in 2024, came up to Cleveland on April 28^th, and is now slashing .294/.389/.450. He often finds himself in the leadoff spot for Stephen Vogt’s club.

Chase Burns went #2 to the Reds. So far this season he is 7-1 with a 1.96 ERA. He has struck out 72 batters against just 20 walks and is in the early Cy Young conversation.

Nick Kurtz went #4 in that draft, and already won Rookie of the Year. This year he is slashing .283/.432/.493 for the upstart Athletics.

Jac Caglianone (#6) is still trying to find his footing in Kansas City. There was early talk of “Jactani” being a two-way player when he came out of the University of Florida, but his natural power made him a better fit to be an everyday player. This year has seen improvement from a disastrous rookie campaign, but he is still not the middle of the order threat the Royals are hoping for.

JJ Wetherholt (#7) made the Cardinals out of spring training and has not looked back. While his batting average is below par (.248), he is getting on base at a .350 clip while leading off for St. Louis and playing a terrific second base. He has already accumulated 2.6 WAR in two months.

Konnor Griffin (#9) looked like he could make the Pirates out of spring training, but the team decided to give the then-19-year-old reps in Triple-A insofar as he had never even played at that level. Well, he was ready. After putting up a 1.196 OPS through his first five games at Indianapolis, he got the call to Pittsburgh, where he is slashing .270/.327/.402 with fourteen extra-base hits and playing great defense at short.

The Cubs drafted Cam Smith with the 14^th pick in 2024, and then sent him to Houston (with Isaac Paredes and Hayden Wesneski) in return for the right to rent Kyle Tucker. I would imagine Jed Hoyer would like to have that one back. Smith played fine as a rookie and is playing fine as a sophomore, but all of the talent is there, and Kyle Tucker is not.

Injuries and a lack of inspiration forced the Mets to bring up Carson Benge (#19) and give him run in their outfield. He has not set the world on fire (he has just an 90 OPS+ through 54 games), but the future looks bright for the youngster.

Trey Yesavage (#20) announced his presence with a jaw-dropping showing in last year’s post-season for the Toronto Blue Jays. He began this season on the injured list with a right shoulder impingement, but in his six starts to date, he has a 2.19 ERA, 2.42 FIP, and a 201 ERA+. He looks every bit the ace he did last October.

Ryan Waldschmidt was the 31^st pick in 2024 and got the call to come to Arizona on May 8^th. He has yet to hit his first big league homer, but he is batting .2964 with a 110 OPS+.

Payton Tolle went in the second round to Boston in 2024 (#50 overall) and has quickly found himself to be an integral piece of the Red Sox’ starting rotation. He has a 2.61 ERA and 0.895 WHIP over his seven starts.

Gage Jump (#73) just got the call to Sacramento, making his debut on the hill for the A’s last week. He went five innings and gave up four earned runs on nine hits to a Mariners team that is finding its stride. He struck five while only walking one in the loss.

Ryan Johnson (#74) made headlines when he skipped the minor leagues altogether and joined the Angels on their Opening Day roster in 2025 directly out of Dallas Baptist. After making four appearances this season with the Halos where he gave up 14 earned runs in 8-1/3 innings, he is currently back down in Triple-A.

Last (in draft order) is Sam Antonacci (5^th Round, #140 overall) who made a name for himself with Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. Antonacci is playing left field nearly every day for the surprising White Sox, and is hitting .275 with a .369 OBP. He has played five games at second base as well.

There is no doubt that additional players from 2024 will get the call this season. Charlie Condon (#3) got a taste in Colorado last season, but remains in Triple-A as of this writing. The White Sox may have reason to call up left handed pitcher Hagen Smith (#5). Christian Moore (#8) who got a cup of coffee with the Angels last season, may come up again. James Tibbs III, who was selected by San Francisco, then traded to the Red Sox as part of the Rafael Devers deal, and then subsequently traded to the Dodgers for Dustin May, is currently crushing it at Triple-A Oklahoma City. And there are many more who could add to the list and add to the WAR total for this special class of players.

PLAY BALL!!