HOF Results

So they announced the Baseball Hall of Fame inductees yesterday -- Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas. And Jack Morris is off the ballot. A few thoughts:

• No complaints on the three inductees, since all are worthy. Maddux in particular was an amazingly dominant pitcher, while Glavine was a consistent winner for nearly an entire generation. Thomas might have been the best overall right-handed hitter since Frank Robinson. Congratulations to all.
• Jack Morris didn't make it and I suspect the arrival of Maddux, Glavine and others on the ballot hurt his chances. It's hard to explain Morris unless you saw him pitch -- he gets much grief for his relatively high earned run average (3.90), but the key stat to understanding his overall value is this: he threw 175 complete games in his career. We live in an era where the league leaders have about 4-5 complete games a season and most teams carry 12-13 pitchers on their 25-man roster. Morris ate up a lot of innings and saved his team's bullpens in ways that few of his contemporaries did and that no one does now. Typically, the Tigers would come north with only 9 pitchers when Morris was in their employ. Beyond the greatness of his performance in Game 7 of the '91 World Series, he was the definition of a staff ace in the 1980s. Perhaps the seamheads don't value such things, but I do. When the Veteran's Committee considers Morris in 2017, I suspect he'll get a more sympathetic look.
• I remain disappointed that Tim Raines and Alan Trammell don't get more support. Their misfortunes stem, I think, from the existence of contemporaries who were better players -- Rickey Henderson for Raines and Cal Ripken for Trammell. That shouldn't matter, really, but often it does.
• Craig Biggio almost made it, but fell short by two votes. He'll be fine. Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell will both make it eventually, too, I think. 
• Next year you'll see Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez on the ballot. They're no-brainers. John Smoltz, also on next year's ballot, will eventually join his pals Maddux and Glavine in the Hall, but he might have to wait a while. You could make a good argument that Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling, who both fell short this year, were both better than Smoltz. In fact, I probably would make that argument.