In a balloting round heavy with famous pitchers, voters considered Tom Seaver the crème de la crème, and chose him as the 30th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats (COG). More on Tom Terrific and the voting after the jump.
The era of 16-team major league baseball lasted exactly 60 seasons, from 1901 through 1960. Among all pitchers born during that sixty-year period, here are the highest career Wins Above Replacement numbers (the numbers listed here represent combined pitching and hitting WAR numbers, baseball-reference version, for these guys):
1. Tom Seaver 110.5
2. Warren Spahn 100.1
3. Phil Niekro 96.6
4. Bert Blyleven 95.4
5. Gaylord Perry 91.0
Indeed, among all players, pitchers and position players combined, born during that 1901-1960 period, only Seaver among pitchers falls within the top 10 most valuable according to baseball-reference WAR:
Most Overall WAR, MLB players born from 1901 through 1960:
1. Willie Mays 155.9
2. Hank Aaron 142.3
3. Stan Musial 128.2
4. Ted Williams 123.2
5. Lou Gehrig 112.6
6. Rickey Henderson 110.6
7. Tom Seaver 110.5
8. Mickey Mantle 109.7
9. Mel Ott 107.8
10. Frank Robinson 107.2
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Seaver had a great peak period as a pitcher, but he was also astoundingly steady in his ability to produce highly valuable seasons as a pitcher year after year after year.
Most Seasons of 4 or more pitching WAR, MLB history (1876-2013):
17 seasons, by Walter Johnson and Cy Young
16 seasons, by Roger Clemens
15 seasons, by Tom Seaver
14 seasons, by Grover Cleveland Alexander, Warren Spahn and Bert Blyleven
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Thanks to Tom Seaver and Randy Johnson, there was a former USC Trojan who was also a future COG inductee pitching in the major leagues for 42 of the 43 seasons from 1967 through 2009.
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Commenter “Hartvig” did a nice summary of the voting as it stood near the end of this round, which can be found in the comments on the 1944 round voting post. All I need to do is a summary of Hartvig’s summary:
— For the six big-name pitchers on the ballot, the results came in six different flavors. Seaver appeared on nearly 90% of the ballots, a very high level of COG support. Steve Carlton, born about a month after Seaver, couldn’t match Tom in votes but did receive heavy support, earning four rounds of guaranteed ballot presence, if he needs it. Nolan Ryan continues to receive solid support, and earns two more rounds of ballot eligibility for his growing trove. Jim Palmer received enough votes to maintain his eligibility status quo, but not more than that. John Smoltz fell below the 10% threshold, so he will have one fewer guaranteed round in his horde next time. Don Sutton also dropped below the 10% threshold, but Don had no surplus eligibility to protect him, so he falls off the ballot. You’ll be able to vote to bring Sutton back in the next “redemption round” if you choose.
— Graig Nettles got enough support in his debut on the ballot to join the holdover list, although not enough to avoid the bubble next round. With Carlton replacing Sutton among the holdovers, and Nettles joining in too, the number of holdovers will increase from 12 in the 1944 round to 13 next round.
— Roberto Alomar, who has been on every one of our 30 induction ballots, fell under the 10% level of support this round, and loses his only surplus year of eligibility. So Roberto is back on the bubble next round, joining Nettles, Eddie Murray and Ryne Sandberg . Lou Whitaker and Bobby Grich also fell below 10% this round, but each has extra rounds of eligibility to spare so neither is in immediate danger of falling off the ballot, or even arriving on the bubble.
As usual, you can check out the complete voting record for this past round at Google Docs. The link is here: COG 1944 Round 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 (based on an observation by commenter “mosc”, Paul Molitor is now listed below as INF/DH instead of DH):
Bert Blyleven, P
Roger Clemens, P
Tom Glavine, P
Randy Johnson, P
Greg Maddux, P
Mike Mussina, P
Curt Schilling, P
Tom Seaver, P
Johnny Bench, C
Gary Carter, C
Carlton Fisk, C
Mike Piazza, C
Jeff Bagwell, 1B
Rod Carew, 2B
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
Paul Molitor, INF/DH
Rickey Henderson, LF
Tim Raines, LF
Barry Bonds, LF
Tony Gwynn, RF
Reggie Jackson, RF
Larry Walker, RF
Frank Thomas, DH
