Monday, January 16, 2017

Grand Slams by Hall of Famers off of Hall of Famers

I emailed David Vincent of SABR (and probably the expert on home runs) if he had a list of cases like this. Below is what he sent me.

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I had been to a game in Montreal in 1997 and saw Chipper Jones hit a grand slam off of Pedro Martinez. As you can see from the list below, the last case was in 1995 (and the last one before that was in 1985). That ten year gap is interesting.

Maybe it has been happening less in recent years or decades as the number of teams expanded, possibly making it less likely for future Hall of Famers to face each other. Now it probably takes time for cases to make the list since it can take years for players to get into the Hall, so that might be the reason why it has not happened in twenty years. Of course, it also depends on the writers and any selection committees that choose players. Roger Clemens, for example, allowed grand slams to Mike Piazza and Frank Thomas. Without a PED issue, Clemens would be in and we would have some more recent cases

Just a few interesting points that I saw without looking too closely. Bobby Doerr did it three times. It looks like no one did it more than three times (Simmons, DiMaggio and Foxx also have three) One case was a pitcher, Bob Gibson (off of Gaylord Perry). Ted Lyons was victimized six times.

07/30/1892 Hugh Duffy off Tim Keefe
08/29/1896 George Davis off Cy Young
07/28/1898 Honus Wagner off Amos Rusie
08/19/1918 Edd Roush off Rube Marquard
05/12/1921 High Pockets Kelly off Jesse Haines
08/17/1921 High Pockets Kelly off Rube Marquard
06/16/1924 Harry Hooper off Walter Johnson
07/28/1925 Rogers Hornsby off Burleigh Grimes
05/07/1927 Lou Gehrig off Ted Lyons
06/15/1927 Al Simmons off Ted Lyons
09/27/1927 Babe Ruth off Lefty Grove
07/25/1928 Al Simmons off Ted Lyons
07/03/1929 Babe Ruth off Red Ruffing
09/17/1929 Kiki Cuyler off Dazzy Vance
08/04/1930 Charlie Gehringer off Ted Lyons
08/14/1931 Earl Averill off Red Ruffing
08/29/1931 Lou Gehrig off Lefty Grove
04/21/1932 Mickey Cochrane off Red Ruffing
06/21/1932 Goose Goslin off Red Ruffing
09/22/1932 Jimmie Foxx off Lefty Gomez
06/27/1934 Al Simmons off Lefty Gomez
09/19/1934 Jimmie Foxx off Ted Lyons
07/18/1937 Joe DiMaggio off Bob Feller
08/01/1939 Bobby Doerr off Bob Feller
09/14/1941 Jimmie Foxx off Ted Lyons
08/04/1946 Bobby Doerr off Hal Newhouser
06/21/1947 Bobby Doerr off Bob Feller
07/22/1948 Joe DiMaggio off Bob Feller
05/21/1950 Joe DiMaggio off Early Wynn
06/07/1953 Yogi Berra off Satchel Paige
04/22/1956 Stan Musial off Warren Spahn
07/30/1956 Mickey Mantle off Bob Lemon
06/29/1958 Hank Aaron off Don Drysdale
07/29/1958 Ted Williams off Jim Bunning
08/29/1959 Ernie Banks off Warren Spahn
07/16/1960 Yogi Berra off Jim Bunning
09/19/1961 Willie Mays off Warren Spahn
08/14/1963 Hank Aaron off Don Drysdale
08/22/1963 Joe Torre off Juan Marichal
08/25/1963 Frank Robinson off Gaylord Perry
05/20/1965 Eddie Mathews off Warren Spahn
09/29/1965 Bob Gibson off Gaylord Perry
09/05/1966 Bill Mazeroski off Phil Niekro
07/02/1972 Willie McCovey off Don Sutton
05/06/1979 Gary Carter off Gaylord Perry
05/07/1985 Gary Carter off Bruce Sutter
06/16/1995 Kirby Puckett off Randy Johnson

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Vladimir Guerrero, MVP Award Shares And The Hall Of Fame

Click here to see the MVP Award Shares rankings at Baseball Reference.

Guerrero  ranks 39th. He won the award once and had 5 other top 10 finishes including 3 in the top 5. So he was well regarded by the writers while he played (although not the exact same set of writers who will vote for the Hall).

If we look at those guys ranked 40-80, we see that 26 are in the Hall. That is 63.4%. Here are the ones who are not in the Hall

Jeff Bagwell (1 win)
Derek Jeter
Juan Gonzalez (2 wins)
Andrew McCutchen (1 win)
Ryan Howard (1 win)
Gary Sheffield
Steve Garvey (1 win)
Sammy Sosa (1 win)
Chipper Jones (1 win)
Albert Belle
George Foster (1 win)
Joey Votto (1 win)
Dale Murphy (2 wins)
Pedro Guerrero
Adrian Beltre

It looks like 6 of these 15 have not yet become eligible. So that means 26 out of the next 35 guys ranked lower than Guerrero are in the Hall, good for 74.3%. And he is 125th in career WAR among position players, which is very good.

Yahoo Sports has an article about his case