Mariano Rivera: common sense reaction to his 100% Hall of Fame election.

Four players were just elected to the Hall of Fame: pitchers Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, Roy Halladay and DH Edgar Martinez. The only one that makes sense is Roy Halladay.

Rivera was a relief pitcher with fewer than 1,300 innings. Yogi Berra's backup catcher Charlie Silvera had about the same innings in his ten year career. The knee jerk reaction is that Rivera was a relief pitcher. So? Like so many relief pitchers, he was a failed starter. Just like almost all pitchers are failed baseball players. If pitchers could hit, they would. They can't, so they pitch.

The media people are having orgasms over Rivera being the first to get 100% of the votes. The next election will include Rivera's long time Yankee teammate Derek Jeter, whose playing time puts Rivera's into both into perspective and to shame. Jeter would have been a logical first to get 100%. But the knuckleheads just couldn't wait.

And why is 100% possible and why is it significant? It's possible because of a new orthodoxy, which had been determined to eliminate a red herring that probably has not existed this millennium: some old fart who does not vote for a worthy candidate to preserve what may have become an imaginary phenomenon: preventing any player from getting 100% because all are flawed. Really? Who has actually done that in recent decades? No, not left a player off the ballot, but actually done it for that reason?

So, those cheering Rivera's 100% are doing so to show how enlightened they are, even on such a dimwitted imaginary issue as this.

The other dynamic is that votes are public and deviants can be shamed into conformity. That's actually what they are celebrating. Replacing old orthodoxy with new.

Maybe they should spend a little time and effort explicitly defining qualifications and how many players they think should be elected. Right now there is nothing and cases made for candidates vary a lot and are far from the objective analysis the advocate tries to present. For instance, they will switch between OPS and OPS+ depending on which helps make their point.

In discussions after the election results Halladay and failed candidate Curt Schilling are described as lacking volume, i.e., not that many innings pitched. Say what? Both had way more innings than Rivera, who was not prevented or precluded from pitching as many innings as they.

It's basic stuff that the smaller the sample size, the easier it is to perform well.

All my posts on Rivera:

http://radicalbaseball.blogspot.com/search/label/Mariano%20Rivera

At the bottom, just click on the link Older Posts to cruise through them. Here is the one that is most pertinent:

Should Mariano Rivera be elected to the Hall of Fame? Tuesday, July 4, 2017