Afternoon Baseball

Jack Morris...Original post and complete player list
We dismissed the pretenders and spelled out the contenders. Here, we analyze each with a mix of stats and baseball POV from a dedicated fan.
Jack Morris, SP, Detroit (1977-1990), Minnesota (1991), Toronto (1992-1993), Cleveland (1994)
This year: Doubtful.
Deserving: If I stay strictly consistent. Probably just short. But if I want a man who is the essence of the Hall of Fame competitor, I go with Jack.
Will writers think he's deserving?: Outside shot.
Stay on ballot: Yes.
Veteran's Committee: Very possibly, especially if someone like Curt Schilling ever gets in.

Jack Morris was a man's man of pitchers. 175 complete games, including at least 9 each year from 1979-1991, and the most clutch complete game since Don Larsen's perfect game -- I'm speaking, of course, of his 10-inning, 1-0 shutout win to win the 1991 World Series.
Guys who get labeled as winners always seem to have a knack for being around winners. Morris was one of those guys: 19-11, 3.60 ERA, 9 CG, 240.3 innings for the 1984 WS-winning Tigers, 18-12, 3.43 ERA, 10 CG, 246.7 innings for the 1991 WS-winning Twins, 21-6, 240.7 innings despite a 4.04 ERA for the 1992 WS-winning Blue Jays. Even in 1993 and 1994, when he endured major struggles, he ended up a combined 17-18 and on a WS-winning club (1993 Toronto) and a team about to push to the next level (the strike-bitten 1994 Indians).

You often hear how Morris was the winningest pitcher of the 1980s. What you don't hear is that of the other great pitchers of that decade, Seaver and Carlton didn't pitch (well) in the second half of the decade, Clemens, Gooden and Saberhagen didn't pitch in the first half of it, Mike Scott was a few-years wonder, Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine all appeared at the tail-end, Guidry didn't make it through the decade, which left Morris' chief competition as Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser.
So while a nice trivia question, ignore that stat (although 160 wins is nice).

5-time All-Star. Top 5 in Cy Young voting 5 times. Twice the leader in wins. Never higher than 5th in ERA, but he outlasted you, he didn't overpower you. Only led in complete games once despite his impressive year-by-year total.
Jack Morris has all the intangibles. But his 3.90 ERA, however unmasked that stat may be nowadays, is still awfully high. But there is no doubt that from about 1981 to 1992, there was no better pitcher year in and year out in the American League than Morris. Maybe the league was a little weak in pitching, but I don't think that's all of it. I think he just was good.

Jack Morris may not quite be a Hall of Famer, but he's Hall of Fame-worthy. It's a judgment pick on my part, but that's how it goes. His image is strong enough, and his highlights true enough to push his record over that of similar, but less clutch, less dominating, less relevant pitchers.

Labels: HOF