See my first post Rick Reuschel for the Hall of Fame .
Here is a brief summary (skipping the more advanced stats I used):
-His strike-out-to-walk ratio was 31% better than the league average
-He gave up 21.6% fewer HRs than average (pitching mainly in Wrigley Field!)
I am doing this again because when I looked at Halladay and the Cy Young award, I noticed that Reuschel is 30th in career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) among pitchers at Baseball Reference. His WAR is 66.3. That seems like a high enough rank in terms of career value. The Hall should have room for 30 pitchers. He had good longevity, pitching over 3500 innings in 19 seasons.
The only pitchers ahead of him in career WAR not in the Hall are: Clemens, Maddux, Randy Johnson, Bert Blyleven, Pedro Martinez, Mussina, Schilling and Glavine. Most, if not all, of them will make it. I counted about 26 Hall of Famers behind him, just in the top 100. He is ahead of Jim Palmer, Juan Marichal, Whitey Ford, Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning, just to name a few.
He had a pretty decent peak value, too. He was in the top 5 among NL pitchers in WAR each year from 1977-80 (1-5-3-4). He also had two other top 5 finishes in his career. He was the 2nd best pitcher in the NL over the 1977-80 period, according to WAR. Here is the top 10:
Phil Niekro 27.6
Rick Reuschel 24.8
Steve Carlton 20.6
Steve Rogers 19.3
J.R. Richard 18.1
Tom Seaver 17.4
Burt Hooton 16
Bruce Sutter 15.6
John Candelaria 15.3
Don Sutton 13.7
He beats Carlton, who had 2 Cy Young awards in those years.
These are the Hall of Famers I see behind him in career WAR:
ReplyDeleteBob Feller 66
Don Drysdale 65.7
Carl Hubbell 64.4
Juan Marichal 64
Jim Palmer 63.5
Amos Rusie 60.6
Jim Bunning 60.1
Ted Lyons 58.8
Dennis Eckersley 58.7
Vic Willis 57.2
Mickey Welch 56.5
Dazzy Vance 56.4
Hal Newhouser 56.3
Mordecai Brown 56.1
Whitey Ford 55.3
Red Faber 55.2
Ed Walsh 54.8
Sandy Koufax 54.5
Stan Coveleski 54
Joe McGinnity 53.7
Red Ruffing 53.6
Early Wynn 52
Eppa Rixey 51.2
Rube Waddell 50.2
Clark Griffith 49
Waite Hoyt 47
Lefty Gomez 43
Bob Lemon 42.4
Hoyt Wilhelm 41.3
Addie Joss 40.9
Rich Gossage 40
Dizzy Dean 39.6
Chief Bender 38.5
Burleigh Grimes 37.2
Herb Pennock 36.9
Jesse Haines 33.8
Jack Chesbro 33.2
Catfish Hunter 32.5
Rube Marquard 28.5
Monte Ward 25.4
Bruce Sutter 25
Rollie Fingers 24.4
I also have him at 91.5 wWAR (which gives extra credit for seasons above 3.0 and then more for seasons above 6.0). The Hall of Fame MEDIAN is 92, so he's right there.
These are the Hall of Famers behind him by wWAR:
Vic Willis 90.8
Dazzy Vance 89.8
Hal Newhouser 88.9
Don Sutton 87.9
Mordecai Brown 83.3
Stan Coveleski 83.3
Rube Waddell 80.5
Red Faber 75.7
Ted Lyons 75.2
Dennis Eckersley 74
Clark Griffith 70.7
Early Wynn 70.2
Whitey Ford 69.9
Red Ruffing 68.1
Lefty Gomez 65.7
Eppa Rixey 63.8
Dizzy Dean 60.8
Addie Joss 57.4
Waite Hoyt 56.2
Bob Lemon 56
Rich Gossage 50.2
Jack Chesbro 49.8
Herb Pennock 49.1
Chief Bender 48
Burleigh Grimes 47.9
Hoyt Wilhelm 47.8
Catfish Hunter 46.2
Jesse Haines 38.1
Rube Marquard 37.7
Monte Ward 36.1
Bruce Sutter 32.4
Rollie Fingers 26.2
Adam
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great info.
Cy