StevieY-Mlb HOF Question
Ronbets
Senior Member
Stevie,
Can you make a case for Dennis Martinez getting into MLB HOF? How would you compare his stats to current inductees like Jack Morris and Catfish Hunter? T/Y
Can you make a case for Dennis Martinez getting into MLB HOF? How would you compare his stats to current inductees like Jack Morris and Catfish Hunter? T/Y
Comments
Yes and no. Compared to Jack Morris career yes. The difference between them in voters eyes are the two dominant WS years by Morris. Martinez didn't have the same opportunity to play on dominant teams like Jack did. Just comparing numbers, Martinez had every bit the case as Morris. Now the question is does Morris deserve in? Living in Michigan, I can't really say that out loud, like that I believe Whitaker deserved in before Trammell. Catfish is a little harder for me. He did all his work before he turned 30. He never had a full season past 30. If he played a decade later, he probably would have tried to stick around longer. Both Martinez and Morris had that little downward trend in the middle or toward the end that they battled thru and reinvented themselves for a few extra good years to add to their case. Salaries started jumping at that time so it made it smart to stick around. Catfish just hung it up at 33 so I think voters treated him more for doing a lot in a short time frame(obviously wins were big back then) like they did with Koufax.
The comparison I like to throw out to people is Koufax and Johan Santana. Both retired in their early 30's because of injuries, Johan tried to come back after missing a year. Numbers are so similar, especially the advanced metrics. Koufax was an easy HOF'er and Santana wasn't close. I thought the saber people would make a push for Johan using Koufax as a comparison but nothing.
Probably. If his prime years were with the Jays WS teams in the early 1990's, he probably gets the same recognition Morris gets. If you move his years into the saber era, I bet he wins a couple CY Youngs as well.