Whitey Ford may have been the most avidly discussed candidate we’ve had in the Circle of Greats voting, but he has ultimately prevailed, in his 25th round on the COG eligible list. Ford becomes the 76th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats.  More on Whitey, and the voting, after the jump.

The great debate over Whitey Ford arises from subjecting some spectacular traditional rate statistics that Ford put together over his career to adjustments proposed by more recent statistical approaches, which seem to suggest a more moderate interpretation of Ford’s accomplishments. Whitey pitched for a dominant team, with some very good fielders behind him, and he did apparently pitch against a collection of hitters and teams that were not, on the whole, as competitive as the opposition many other top pitchers had to face over their careers. Exactly how much of an adjustment to make for these factors is open to debate, but Ford’s high standing in the realm of old-fashioned rate stats, such as win-loss percentage and ERA, remains extremely impressive, even if those stats measure reflect in part more than a purely personal accomplishment.

Highest Pitcher Career Win-Loss Percentage (min. 1,500 IP, debuted in the majors since 1900):
1. Whitey Ford .690 (236-106)
2. Pedro Martinez .687 (219-100
3. Lefty Grove .680 (300-141)
4. Vic Raschi .667 (132-66)
5. Christy Mathewson .665 (373-188)

Best Career ERA+ (min. 250 starts, debuted in the majors in the past 100 years):
1. Pedro Martinez 154
2. Lefty Grove 148
3. Roger Clemens 143
4. Johan Santana 136
5. Randy Johnson 135
6. Whitey Ford 133
7. Greg Maddux 132
T8. Sandy Koufax and Roy Halladay 131

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The Yankees won every single one of the first 22 starts of Whitey Ford’s career, actually 23 if you count the post-season. That may be as unlikely a streak in its way as DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak, if you think about what it means to come up to the majors and start winning immediately, without having the team lose even once. When I query the Baseball-Reference Play Index, the second-longest regular season streak I get of this type — team wins in pitching starts from the beginning of a major league career — is eight games, a level reached by eleven different pitchers but topped only by Whitey. So that’s a 22-game streak for the longest such streak and eight games for the second-longest such streak.

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–Ford appeared on 31 ballots. That’s nine more votes than he had received in any of his 24 previous rounds on the eligible list.

— This round was a good one for the guys who already had the most accumulated rounds of assured ballot eligibility. Ford has been the candidate with the largest stash of accumulated rounds — he’s now won the big prize. Harmon Killebrew has been second in terms of accumulated eligibility rounds, and he finished second this round, well over the 25% level that gives him another round of assured eligibility for his pile. Lou Boudreau and Joe Gordon have been tied for third in terms of most accumulated eligibility, and they were the other two candidates who mustered more than 25% support this round, further adding to their high standing.

–Dizzy Dean did not get a huge amount of support in his birth-year-based debut on the eligible list, but it was enough to remain eligible at least another round.

–With Ford, a longtime holdover, now safely in the Circle, with all the other holdovers generating at least enough support to remain, and with Dizzy replacing Whitey on the holdover list, the length of that list remains stable at fourteen players.

–The number of candidates “on the bubble”, at immediate risk of losing eligibility for the ballot should they fall below the 10% support level, is now up to six, as Dean joins Minoso, Eckersley, Tiant, Winfield and Medwick in this highest-risk group.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1910 Part 1 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.

Another COG data spreadsheet showing each season a COG member played in the majors, along with the team he played for that season and his baseball-reference WAR (overall WAR for everyday players, pitching WAR for pitchers) for the season, is here:
Circle of Greats Seasons