However, rather than spend countless words arguing about the voting public of the HOF, the Baseball Writers Association of America, let's take some time to congratulate Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux.
Greg Maddux is surely one of the best pitchers of all time and given the environment he played in, one could make a compelling case for him as the best pitcher of all time. Maddux owns four Cy Young Awards, lead the league in ERA four times, won 355 games and has a career ERA (3.16) and WHIP (1.14) that would make fantasy owners drool. Maddux's longevity is obviously well known but take a look at his numbers from 1992-1998:
127-53, 2.15 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 0.4 HR/9, 1.4 BB/9
Over a seven year stretch Greg Maddux averaged 18 wins with a 2.15 ERA over 239 innings pitched. Everyone appropriately talks about Pedro's peak, but that's essentially just as good. Plus he also threw over 5,000 innings. I'd say that is Hall of Fame worthy, although there are a few numskulls who decided not to vote him in with some very flawed logic.
Tom Glavine is certainly deserving as well and it's fitting that he goes into Cooperstown with his former teammate. Glavine didn't always look pretty on the mound, walking batters and nibbling on the corners but 305 wins later, Glavine finds himself going to Cooperstown. Glavine's FIP based WAR is an impressive 64.3 (41st all time) but his RA-9 based WAR paints a more accurate portrayal of his skills at 88.0 (29th all time).
Frank Thomas always had a hall of fame nickname (The Big Hurt) and now he has a hall of fame career to go along with it. We all know about Albert Pujols, but Thomas was essentially Albert before Albert. From 1991-1997 Frank Thomas averaged .330/.452/.604, for a 182 OPS+, winning two MVPs. Thomas wasn't consistently as good as that for the rest of his career but he still hit 265 homers from that point on along with two top-five MVP finishes. For his career Thomas hit .309/.419/.555 with a 154 wRC+ and 521 home runs. For comparison's sake, Miguel Cabrera has a career 152 wRC+ and that's without his decline phase. The Big Hurt could really rake.
Unfortunately I only have to talk about three players here but that's a conversation for another day. Congratulations to these deserving players and here's to hoping the 2015 class will be larger as there are certainly many deserving players left.
