COG Round 28 Results: Reggie Stirred Voters

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As in the last round, Nolan Ryan gained much support from voters, but fell just short to a strong rival, as Reginald Martinez Jackson becomes the 28th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Reggie and the voting after the jump.

Most Homers As A Right Fielder in American League History:
1. Reggie Jackson 429
2. Dwight Evans 320
3. Babe Ruth 313
4. Jermaine Dye 306
5. Al Kaline 294
6. Jay Buhner 293
7. Magglio Ordonez 283
8. Rocky Colavito 266
9. Tim Salmon 249
10. Jessie Barfield 224

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Reggie is also coming to New York theater. The new play “Bronx Bombers” is scheduled to open this month at Primary Stages on West 38th Street in Manhattan. Apparently, the drama opens with the infamous game in which Billy Martin pulled Jackson from right field mid-inning and the prideful player and the erratic, combative manager had to be separated in the dugout. It’s hard to imagine one of baseball’s most theatrical stars is disappointed in (once again, if you will) becoming a character on a New York stage. Well, he might be disappointed that the new play is appearing Off-Broadway.

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–Nolan Ryan fell four votes short of Carlton Fisk in the last round of voting, 33 to 29. Ryan increased his support by two votes this round, but fell short of the top spot by the exact same four-vote margin as last time, 35 to 31.

–As a concession prize, Nolan wins the rarely awarded four-round eligibility extension that goes to candidates who fail to win induction but appear on more than half the ballots.

–Besides Ryan, only Bobby Grich won an extra eligibility extension this round, and with not a single vote to spare. Smoltz, Whitaker and Edgar Martinez all fell one vote short of winning an extra extension. Our holdovers on the bubble — Sandberg and Murray — survived with some room to spare.

— BBWAA-elected Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter got a bit of support but not nearly enough to remain on the ballot. Same for Gene Tenace (famously patient as a hitter) and Bill Lee (famously entertaining).

As usual, you can check out the complete voting record for this past round at Google Docs. The link is here: COG 1946 Round 2 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
Reggie Jackson, RF
Larry Walker, RF
Paul Molitor, DH
Frank Thomas, DH

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Darien

11 years ago

I honestly had Ryan pegged as an easy first-ballot guy; the fact that he’s now moving on to his *fourth* round really surprises me.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Here’s one to ponder: If a young Nolan Ryan came to the majors today and put up the exact same rate stats, how many games would he be allowed to win? I think it’s quite possible that the obsession with pitch counts would keep him from becoming a star. We only have pitch data for the tail end of Nolan’s career, but from 1988-90 alone (age 41-43), he had 18 games of at least 135 pitches. In the last 5 years, that pitch count was reached just 3 times — two no-hitters, and one broken up in the 9th. In… Read more »

Darien

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

It’s a very interesting question, and I certainly don’t have a pat answer to it. I do note that, starting in 1972 (Ryan’s first “full time” year), he led the league in both K and K/9 seven out of eight years. He also, of course, allowed generous tons of hits and walks, but he struck people out like nobody’s business. It almost makes me wonder if Nolan Ryan today would be shunted into a closer role; the huge quantity of walks and strikeouts reminds me of Carlos Marmol back when he was useful.

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birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John @ comment #2: Fascinating question about how Nolan Ryan would fare now. One possible answer might be that the way batters are trained today, Ryan would have had more trouble getting hitters to swing at his pitches out of the strike zone, and would have had to become a different sort of pitcher or fail. Very similar to your hypothesis, but with evolving hitting strategies, rather than evolving coaching strategies, as the moving force.

BryanM

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John – this is similar to a discussion on another thread – but it may be the case that certain pitches are much harder on the arm than others – and also that throwing 130 pitches is the best training for the ability to throw 135 = sort of like weightlifting or marathon training and that strict pitch counts are actually making modern arms more susceptible to injuries; – just as easy an argument to make as the opposite. I do think that certain pitches are harder on the human anatomy than others – thinking back to Pedro’s 1999-2000 seasons… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Just for fun, I compared Ryan’s rates for his Angels years, 1972-79 (when he won 7 of 8 strikeout titles), against those of his last 4 strikeout titles, 1987-90. Earlier period is listed first: SO/9 — 10.0, 10.6 BB/9 — 5.4, 3.6 SO/BB — 1.9, 3.0 WHIP — 1.29, 1.13 BA — .198, .201 OBP — .317, .283 SLG — .286, .311 OPS — .603, .593 ERA+ — 115, 117 IP/Year — 273, 219 IP/Game — 7.50, 6.78 WAR/200 IP — 3.69, 3.68 WAR/year — 5.0, 4.0 Quick thoughts: — Big decrease in walks, with a tiny increase in BA,… Read more »

David Horwich

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

If Ryan had been born one year later, he might well have won the 1948 vote (won by Trammell in a close vote in which nobody cleared the 50% mark); but in his first year on the ballot he was up against Johnny Bench, who won in a landslide (and rightfully so, IMO). Also to consider, Ryan’s 112 ERA+ would be the lowest of any current CoG’er. His 83.8 bWAR is on the face of it an impressive number, but a fair amount of that is a product of longevity rather than dominance. E.g. Mike Mussina racked up 82.7 bWAR… Read more »

Darien

11 years ago

Reply to David Horwich

I cannot disagree with any of this; it’s all correct on the face of it. For my part, the thing that really jumps out at me about Ryan is his utterly unreal strikeout total; I do realise that raw strikeouts is not a very SABR idea, but I’m sort of a dope. I’m impressed by the size of his lead over Johnson. 😀

Also worth noting: I’m one of the guys who really really likes Mussina.

David Horwich

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Sure, there’s no doubt Ryan had one of the most unique careers of any pitchers – the strikeouts, the no-hitters, his effectiveness into his mid-40s. I was just offering up some thoughts on why he wasn’t a slam-dunk first-ballot electee.

I think he stands a pretty good chance of making it in – eventually. He’s finished 2nd in his first three appearances on the ballot; so far, everyone who’s placed 2nd has subsequently been elected, with the exception of Grich (and of course Ryan himself).

11 years ago

Reply to David Horwich

David H – Unless my eyes deceive me, Smoltz finished 2nd in the 1948 balloting.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to David Horwich

Correct, Ed. Trammell appeared on 26 ballots in the 1948 round, Smoltz on 22, Whitaker and Grich on 20 each.

David Horwich

11 years ago

Reply to David Horwich

Grich finished second in the 1949 part 1 election.

11 years ago

Birtelcom – Is the title of this post some sort of reference to the shape of the infamous Reggie Jackson candy bar??? 🙂

Personally, I was hoping for something like: Mr. October is now Mr. September!

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

I didn’t figure out what the title meant until after Ed’s question. “Reggie” rhymes with “wedgie” … though I could be off-base.

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Indeed. Hey, they can’t all be Schmidtstorm.

Darien

11 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Here I thought you were just excited to have somebody called Reggie in the Circle. A quick glance at the list ( http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl/player_search.cgi?search=reggie ) shows that there have been quite a few Reggies, and a few of them were even pretty good; I don’t think Jackson’s sole possession of CoG Reggieness will be challenged, though.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Ok, so I’ve replaced the title with something I like much better. Sorry I didn’t think of it sooner. Inspired by tomorrow’s Primary Day here in New York, I guess.

bells

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Holy crap, that title is killer!

paget

11 years ago

Ok, I have to confess that when I first saw Babe Ruth sitting at #3 (and not #1) on a list for “Most Homers As A Right Fielder in American League History,” I thought it must have been a typo. I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no idea he played as many games as he did in Left. From a casual perusal of his stat page looks like he played around 35% of his games in Left. That seems super unusual to me – does anyone out there know why Huggins/McCarthy moved him around so much? Was there a… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to paget

The issue of Ruth being switched between RF and LF was recently addressed in a comment, I forgot by whom. I think it had something to do with playing him out of the sun field. If you check, for example, his 1927 game log, all his RF starts were at Yankee Stadium and all his LF starts were on the road.

paget

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Ah, ok thanks. Sorry for going over familiar terrain.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Taking another look at his 1927 game log, all his starts in Cleveland and Washington were in RF. Summarizing, all his RF starts were in NY, Cleveland and Washington. The LF starts were in the other 5 cities.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

And that’s pretty consistent over his Yankee career — at Yankee Stadium he played right, and most games on the road he played left, except for a couple of specific parks. Privileges of being a superstar — you get to choose your corner.

David Horwich

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I believe it also had something to do with the sheer size of left field in Yankee Stadium, the famous “Death Valley”.

One of Ruth’s teammates on the Yankees in the ’20s was Bob Meusel, who in his day was considered to have the best outfield arm in baseball. In 1921-22 Ruth played more LF than RF, and Meusel more RF than LF; but after the opening of Yankee Stadium in 1923, their roles reversed, with Meusel playing more in LF, and Ruth more in RF, for the rest of Meusel’s tenure with the team.