Glavine's Greatness

Here are ten testaments to Tom Glavine's greatness

1. Glavine did not go on the Disabled List until his age 42 (and final) season in 2008.

2. Like his rotationmate and fellow inductee Greg Maddux, Glavine was incredibly durable, making at least 25 starts in every season from 1988 through 2007. That's 20 years, in the last of which he threw 200 and a third innings at age 41.

3. Speaking of Maddux, I find it funny that Glavine made more All-Star teams (10) than Maddux (8). Glavine also had five 20 win seasons to Maddux's two.

4. Many pitchers are doomed to consistently finish with 17-19 wins per year while rarely reaching 20. Maddux was one such pitcher, Mike Mussina another. Glavine wasn't. He won precisely 20 three times, 21 once and 22 once, but never 19 and 18 only once. He had zero 17-win seasons. This probably explains why whenever Glavine received Cy Young consideration, (six times--including all five 20-win seasons--and winning twice) he never finished outside the top-three.

5.Glavine was a pretty decent hitting-pitcher, winning four Silver Slugger awards (second only to Mike Hampton all-time) and batting as high as .289 in 1996. Far from an automatic out, Glavine got on base in nearly one-quarter of his plate appearances. Interestingly enough, his best run as a hitter (1995 through 1998, when he won three of his four Silver Sluggers) also coincided with his best run as a pitcher. His 2.87 ERA over that stretch was 48 percent better than average on a league and park adjusted basis. As a batter he contributed 7.5 bWAR over the course of his career.

6. Great as Glavine was, the 1995 World Series MVP was even better in the playoffs, with a 3.30 postseason ERA compared to his 3.54 regular season mark. He pitched the equivalent of a full season in October, making 35 starts (24 of them quality) and throwing 218 and a third innings. And while he had a losing record in the playoffs (14-16), his teams had a winning record (18-17). Opponents batted .237/.316/.366 against him in the postseason compared to .257/.319/.378 in the regular season.

7. I believe he is still the only pitcher to throw two shutouts at Coors Field.

8. Glavine's 682 starts are a record for someone who never made a relief appearance. Throw in his 35 postseason starts--also without a relief appearance--and that makes 717.

9. One of only six southpaws with at least 300 career wins. The others are Steve Carlton, Lefty Grove, Warren Spahn, Randy Johnson, and Eddie Plank.

10. Glavine was rarely great, with only two seasons over the six-win mark and just two more above five, but he was always good (typically in the three-to-four win range). His adjusted ERA was better than average every year but one from 1991 through 2006 and he had four other seasons (1989, 90, 2003, and 07) where it was very close to average.

Three Down, Many More to Go

Yesterday a trio of all-time greats--Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas--were voted into the baseball Hall of Fame. They will be officially inducted on July 27th alongside Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa, the three unanimous selections from the Expansion Era ballot. Congratulations to all of them for receiving such a well-deserved honor.

But let's not give the BBWAA too much credit. Maddux, Glavine, and Thomas were all slam-dunks (as were the three skippers), and a failure to vote them in would have been incredibly shortsighted. Consider, though, that this Hall of Fame still has yet to induct:

• Barry Bonds--baseball's all-time home run and walks leader, as well as the only player with seven MVP awards (nobody else has more than three)
• Roger Clemens--the only pitcher with seven Cy Young awards (nobody else has more than five) also won seven ERA titles, 354 games and an MVP award
• Craig Biggio--3,060 hits and more doubles (668) than any righthanded hitter in history
• Mike Piazza--the best hitting catcher of all-time
• Jeff Bagwell--a better all-around player than Thomas and only first baseman with more than 400 home runs and 200 steals. Has the fourth highest JAWs score of any first baseman to debut after 1880
• Edgar Martinez--the sport's best DH in the position's 40-year existence as well as one of its best pure hitters with 514 doubles and a .312/.418/.515 career batting line
• Tim Raines--the best percentage basestealer in the sport's history swiped 808 bags with an 84.7 percent success rate and reached base more times than Tony Gwynn
• Mark McGwire--prolific slugger went yard 583 times in his career, broke Roger Maris's single season home run record and owns the best AB/HR ratio of all-time
• Sammy Sosa--609 home runs and the only player to top 60 in three seasons
• Rafael Palmerio--one of only four men with at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs (the others are Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Eddie Murray)
• Jeff Kent--MVP with more long balls than any second baseman
• Fred McGriff--one of just ten players to retire with an OPS over .886 in more than 10,000 plate appearances
• Larry Walker--MVP with seven Gold Gloves and .313/.400/.565 career batting line
• Alan Trammell--almost identical to Barry Larkin
• Curt Schilling--best postseason pitcher in history with the best career K/BB ratio since 1900
• Mike Mussina--one of baseball's 25 most valuable pitchers per bWAR

Not to mention...

• Pete Rose--baseball's all-time hit king with 4,256 base knocks
• Shoeless Joe Jackson--Deadball era legend has the third highest batting average (.356) and eighth-highest adjusted OPS (170) of all-time
• Ted Simmons--top ten catcher (per JAWs) who ranks second among backstops in hits, doubles, and RBI 

Make no mistake: the system is still broken, and there is much work to be done.