Who's Next For the Hall of Fame?
PLUS: Are wild-spending New York teams built for Subway Series?
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HERE’S THE PITCH 2025
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The Baltimore Orioles can’t be serious that adding Japanese free agent right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano compensates for the loss of Corbin Burnes, last year’s ace . . .
A noted baseball artist is behind the new book The Art of Baseball: the Watercolors of James Fiorentino, which made its debut at The Philly Show last weekend . . .
Don Mattingly wrote the foreword of the handsome coffee-table hardcover . . .
The memorabilia collection of the late Larry Lucchino, who served as president of the Boston Red Sox, raised some $740,000 auctioned by Bonhams Skinner . . .
The Collection of Larry Lucchino included World Championship trophies won by the Bosox in 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018 . . .
After a 70-year hiatus, professional baseball for women is back: the Women’s Professional Baseball League will be a six-team circuit with playoffs and championships following its first regular season in 2026. A scouting camp and player draft will be held next spring.
Leading Off
The Next Players Who Could Belong In the Hall of Fame
By Paul Semendinger
Last week Dave Parker and Dick Allen were both elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Both had borderline cases. For this article, though I'm just going to focus on Dave Parker's career as a benchmark to see if other players whose careers were similar to Parker's also deserve to be considered for the Hall of Fame in upcoming years.
Dave Parker's career numbers do not overwhelm. Many experts believe that 60 WAR is a fair cutoff for the Hall of Fame. Parker's career WAR was just 40.1. That falls way short. Parker also didn't have the counting stats either. He didn't bat .300, didn't hit 350 homers, didn't have 1,500 runs batted in, and he also didn't have even 2,800 hits.
In Parker's favor are the facts that he did win an MVP. He was also a two-time World Champion and was a seven time All-Star.
Again, to be clear, this article is not intended to knock Dave Parker, one of my favorite players ever. Growing up, even though I was a Yankees fan, I was also a big fan of Dave Parker. In 1979, I convinced my fellow Boy Scouts to make our troop "the cobras" as a tribute to Dave Parker. In 2023, when I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon, I ran it in a Dave Parker jersey. Dave Parker is (again) one of my favorite players of all time.
Using him as a baseline though, opens the discussion for some other players
I decided to see what other players currently left out of the Hall of Fame have cases equal to or better than Dave Parker's. To do this, I searched for players whose career WAR was at least 40.1 who also had a least one MVP Award, numerous All-Star game appearances, as well as at least one World Championship. To keep this consistent with the era in which Dave Parker played, I considered only the years 1970 through 1999 in this quick study.
If we take the whole Parker statistical package outlined above, the following are players who could also be considered Hall of Fame worthy.
Keith Hernandez - 60.5 WAR, 1979 NL MVP, 5x All-Star, 2 World Championships
George Foster - 44.5 WAR, 1977 NL MVP, 5x All-Star, 2 World Championships
Thurman Munson - 46.1 WAR, 1976 AL MVP, 7x All-Star, 2 World Championships
Vida Blue - 44.9 WAR, 1971 AL MVP, 6x All-Star, 3 World Championships
In addition, there are three players who come up just short of Parker's 40.1 WAR, but deserve mention:
Kirk Gibson - 38.4 WAR, 1988 NL MVP, No All-Star Games, 2 World Championships
Steve Garvey - 38.0 WAR, 1974 NL MVP, 10x All-Star, 1 World Championship
Boog Powell - 39.1 WAR, 1970 AL MVP, 4x All-Star, 2 World Championships
Finally, there are three players who have not had Hall of Fame support for issues other than their on-field performances:
Jose Canseco - 42.5 WAR, 1988 AL MVP, 6x All-Star, 2 World Championships
Roger Clemens - 138.7 WAR, 1986 AL MVP, 11x All-Star, 2 World Championships
Pete Rose - 79.5 WAR, 1973 NL MVP, 17x All-Star, 3 World Championships
I wonder if (absent of Canseco, Clemens, and Rose, who belong in different discussions) writers will feel that any of the other players' Hall of Fame cases are now made stronger by Dave Parker's inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
To me, I believe Parker's election makes Keith Hernandez and Thurman Munson's cases much stronger. I also think that George Foster, who never received much Hall of Fame support, is now rightfully in that discussion. Finally, I was surprised Vida Blue's candidacy was as strong as it is.
There might be a day in the future where all four of those players are in Cooperstown.
Paul Semendinger runs the Yankees site Start Spreading the News. A retired principal, Paul is an educational consultant, author, baseball player (still!), marathon runner, husband, father... and now a grandpa! His email is drpaulsem@hotmail.com.
Cleaning Up
New York Teams Still Need Lots of Help
By Dan Schlossberg
Fans who assume this fall’s free agent frenzy assures a Subway Series next October are dead wrong.
Although both New York teams spent more than the Gross National Product of Honduras, they still need lots of work.
The New York Yankees added Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, and Devin Williams but lost Juan Soto and Clay Holmes. They still need help at the infield corners (assuming Jazz Chisholm Jr. will succeed Gleyber Torres at second) and in the bullpen.
In Flushing, the Mets are the Kings of Queens but maybe not of the National League East. They can still expect robust challenges from the Braves, recuperating from their ravaging injury wave of 2024, and the Phillies, who finally ended Atlanta’s streak of six straight division crowns.
Soto will hit second, behind MVP runner-up Francisco Lindor, but the latter is the only sure thing in the infield, especially with popular Pete Alonso still unsigned.
Mark Vientos will play third if the team can tolerate his erratic defense but first if Alonso signs elsewhere, becomes a full-time DH, or if third baseman Alex Bregman signs as a free agent.
In the outfield, Jose Siri is a good-field, no-hit addition in center field, squeezed between Soto and Brandon Nimmo.
Behind the plate, Francisco Alvarez is a good-hit, no-field backstop who believes painting crosses on his cheeks helps him.
But there’s the rub: Mets pitchers don’t adhere to that formula.
Entering spring training, the team plans to present a Front Five of Kodai Senga, injured most of last year; David Peterson, a lefty who finally showed some potential last summer; ex-Yankees Frankie Montas and Holmes; and Canning Griffin, most recently with the Angels. Three 2024 mainstays — Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Jose Quintana — are history.
The Mets have tons of time to sign but also an adversarial audience of opponents more desperate than ever to stop them. That’s especially true of Philadelphia’s Dave Dombrowski, the ardent deal-maker who did nothing more than sign Max Kepler (one year, $10 million) since the season ended.
Thinking about a Mets-Yankees Subway Series, it happened only once, in 2000. Before that, the last one occurred in 1956, with the Brooklyn Dodgers facing the Yankees.
The Mets have won only two World Series, in 1969 and 1986, while the Yankees have won 27, most recently in 2009. But Major League Baseball keeps adding wild-card teams and extra playoff series, reducing the odds the best teams will reach the final round.
The odds against that happening are just too great.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and other outlets. He writes books too (42 of them). Dan’s email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Remembering Eddie Mathews
Before Mike Schmidt hit 48 home runs in a season, the record for home runs by a third baseman was owned by Eddie Mathews (47 in 1953) . . .
Mathews was such a matinee idol that he was fingered as the man most likely to break Babe Ruth’s home run records before Hank Aaron came along . . .
Aaron and Mathews hit a record 863 home runs during the time they were teammates and homered in the same game 75 times, another two-man record . . .
When the Braves acquired Clete Boyer from the Yankees, they traded Mathews to the Astros — but neglected to tell him, leaving him to learn of the trade through a phone call by an inquisitive reporter . . .
The only man to play for the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta, Mathews was also the only Brave to serve as player, coach, and manager for the franchise . . .
He was managing the Atlanta Braves on April 8, 1974, when Aaron hit his 715th home run — topping Ruth’s career record of 714.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
One glaring omission from your story is Dwight Evans with a 67.2 career WAR.