Now this is a hall of fame class! No "pretty good". All greatness. The coolest thing is Maddux and Glavine going in together. They started their careers 1 year apart, finished in the same year, started over 1,400 games combined, pitched over 9,000 innings, won 660 games and 6 Cy Young awards, and never over-powered a single batter between them. Throw in Frank Thomas and this class ranks with the all-time best.
Maddux - won at least 15 games 17 years in a row, won 4 consecutive Cy Young awards, led the league in ERA 4 times, had ERA's of 1.56 and 1.63 in back to back years in the steroid era, had a 3-year run with 96 starts and 71 total walks, finished 128 games over .500, 355-227. Maddux likely had the greatest command of his pitches in the history of baseball. In his prime he simply did not allow pitches to hit while never walking anyone. A top-10 all-timer.
Glavine - in the age of vanishing 20-game winners, won 20 five times, leading the league in wins each time, 2 Cy Young awards, 102 games over .500, pitched a 1-hitter to clinch a World Series, finished 305-203. Like Maddux, he just put the ball where he wanted for over 20 years and never gave in.
Thomas - after being passed on by the Rangers as too 1-dimensional in the draft, Thomas ripped apart the American League hitting over .300 his first 8 years and 10 times total, pounded out 521 homers and over 1,000 extra-base hits, won back to back MVP awards, led the league in OBP and OPS 4 times each, and finished with this incredible career line: .301 avg., .419 obp, .555 slug, .974 ops.
S
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It truly was a great class.
Unlike you, I never appreciated Glavine as much as I should have. In my defense, I thought Maddux and Clemens were in a class for such a long period of time, that it was just him that I wanted to watch on that team.
Thomas, I was never as fond of as you either. His numbers speak for themselves for his credentials.
I enjoyed going over the classes historical numbers.
J.
Post a Comment