This round provided a close battle between two born-in-1947 guys who were out-voted in the previous round by Johnny Bench. In the end, it was another catcher, Carlton (Pudge) Fisk, who prevailed by just four votes over Nolan Ryan to become the 27th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. This election also saw more voting participation (66 ballots cast) than in any round we’ve had since the opening week of the MLB season. More on Pudge and the voting after the hop skip jump.
The Red Sox and White Sox franchises have each been around since the inception of the American League; they are each finishing up their 113th regular season of major league play. Yet, at least according to b-ref’s WAR, the most valuable catcher in the history of each of these venerable franchises is the same guy, Carlton Fisk. Half a Carlton Fisk career has apparently produced more value for each of these stocking-feet franchises than either has otherwise been able to muster from any other one backstop.
Most Career Wins Above Replacement (baseball-reference version) by a Catcher for the Boston Red Sox Franchise:
1. Carlton Fisk 39.4
2. Jason Varitez 24.4
3. Bill Carrigan 12.0
4. Rich Gedman 11.7
5. Rick Ferrell 11.0
Most Career Wins Above Replacement (baseball-reference version) by a Catcher for the Chicago White Sox Franchise:
1. Carlton Fisk 29.0
2. Ray Schalk 28.6
3. Sherm Lollar 26.0
4. Ron Karkovice 14.7
5. A.J. Pierzynski 12.5
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–Fisk appeared on exactly half of the ballots cast, 33 of 66.
–Nolan Ryan’s appearance on 29 ballots (44%) would have been enough to win induction in some rounds, but wasn’t quite enough here. It will be interesting to see how Ryan fares in upcoming rounds against a fairly steady stream of high-profile names.
–There was little support for that portion of the 1946 birth year class that was on this ballot (the best-known guys from the 1946 birth year will be coming up in Round 2). Rollie Fingers appeared on three ballots and Bonds the Elder appeared on one ballot, but that was it.
–With little interest shown in this round’s portion of the 1946 birth-year group, there was plenty of voting room for long-standing holdovers. All the guys on the bubble survived, and Kenny Lofton, a redemption round beneficiary, received enough support not just to survive but also to escape the bubble next round. In addition to Lofton and Ryan, Bobby Grich, John Smoltz, Craig Biggio and Lou Whitaker all appeared on over 25% of the ballots, further expanding their accumulated eligibility totals for future rounds.
–Lofton’s appearance on 27% of the ballots was his best showing among the 13 rounds in which he has appeared on the ballot. Craig Biggio had his best percentage showing since the 1961 ballot, 19 rounds ago. Over the last nine rounds, Eddie Murray’s vote totals have been: 10, 8, 10, 11, 9, 8, 8, 8 and 9. Eddie seems to have a loyal but limited following.
— As Fisk won induction and no one from the new birth-year group received enough support to remain on the ballot, the holdover class for next round shrinks to 10. The number of guys on the bubble is down to two (Sandberg and Murray).
As usual, you can check out the complete voting record for this past round at Google Docs. The link is here: COG 1946 Round 1 Vote Tally
If you would like to review the history of the COG voting, a spreadsheet summary of the voting is here: COG Vote Summary , with a summary of the raw vote totals on Sheet 1 and a summary of the percentage totals on Sheet 2.
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The Circle of Greats membership thus far:
Bert Blyleven, P
Roger Clemens, P
Tom Glavine, P
Randy Johnson, P
Greg Maddux, P
Mike Mussina, P
Curt Schilling, P
Johnny Bench, C
Gary Carter, C
Carlton Fisk, C
Mike Piazza, C
Jeff Bagwell, 1B
Wade Boggs, 3B
George Brett, 3B
Mike Schmidt, 3B
Barry Larkin, SS
Cal Ripken, Jr., SS
Ozzie Smith, SS
Alan Trammell, SS
Robin Yount, SS
Rickey Henderson, LF
Tim Raines, LF
Barry Bonds, LF
Tony Gwynn, RF
Larry Walker, RF
Paul Molitor, DH
Frank Thomas, DH
