Elect Moose!

I was just looking at some career #s to see where my man Moose stacks up against the game's most elite pitchers. Right now a lot of people think Moose is on the bubble when it comes to being a HOFer. For my money, he is one. For those that are on the fence or think he's not, consider this:

Moose currently ranks 37th on the all-time wins list with 265, tied with Jim McCormick. 31 of the 36 pitchers ranked ahead of Moose are currently HOFers. I am including Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux in that list as they are all sure fire HOFers. The 5 that aren't are Jim Kaat, Tommy John, Bert Blyleven, Tony Mullane, and Bobby Mathews.

There are only 5 people ranked ahead of Moose in wins that have better career winning percentages. That's right. Only 5. And they're all HOFers. Which means 26 of the 31 HOF pitchers ahead of Moose on the all-time wins list have lower career winning percentages. The 5 that don't are Jim Palmer (.638), Randy Johnson (.650), Roger Clemens (.658), Christy Mathewson (.665), and Lefty Grove (.680). Moose's career winning percentage is .637. Incidentally, there are 8 pitchers in the HOF with fewer career wins than Moose but with higher winning percentages. Al Spalding, Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Mordecai Brown, John Clarkson, Dizzy Dean, and Pete Alexander.

There is only 1 HOFer that has a better career strikeout to walk ratio than Moose, and that's John Ward. 3.64 k/BB to Moose's 3.56 K/BB.

Moose ranks 21st on the all-time strikeout list. 15 of the 20 pitchers ahead of him are retired. 4 aren't in the HOF and one of them is Roger Clemens. So basically there are 3 guys with more Ks than Moose that aren't in the HOF that are eligible for election. Bert Blyleven, Mickey Lolich, and Frank Tanana. Tanana currently ranks 20th, 14 Ks ahead of Moose. Lolich ranks 18th, 59 Ks ahead of Moose. Moose will no doubt catch Tanana by the end of the year. Lolich will easily be passed if Moose pitches next year.

For all intents and purposes there are 75 pitchers in the HOF. 71 have been elected and 4 (Clemens, Maddux, Glavine, and Johnson) will certainly be joining them. I'm not going to argue semantics about Clemens and steroids. He'd be in if not for that. 75 HOF pitchers and Moose bests 44 of them in career win total, 70 of them in career winning percentage, 74 of them in strikeout-to-walk ratio, and 62 of them in total strikeouts. 41 of the HOF pitchers have thrown more innings than Moose.

And currently, every pitcher eligible to be elected to the HOF that has at least 100 more wins than losses has been elected. Moose's career record is 265-151. Swish.

Seems like a no-brainer. When it's all said and done, we'll see him in Cooperstown.

J-Boogie