There is at least one good example, Stephen Drew was convinced to hold out in 2014 and went from his $10m salary with the Sox to $5m with the Yanks. I think there are more examples, but that one I remember.
Addendum to my post mentioning the accident. ESPN is now reporting that the crash was caused by bandits, who then robbed the former ball players.
That’s not what happened, though. Drew refused a qualifying offer from Boston after the 2013 season and held out… and ended up signing with Boston, not New York, for a salary about equal to a pro rated qualifying offer. He was traded to New York later that season. It was the year AFTER that he took a $5 million deal, and I’m amazed he got that much because he hit .162 in 2014 so, hey, good on him even getting a contract at all.
J.D. has a good incentive to have another big year, seeing as his contract includes an opt-out provision after 2 years (allowing him to re-sign for more money with any club).
Looks like Harold Baines and Lee Smith have been elected to the Hall of Fame by the committee formerly known as the veterans’ committee.
Good for them. I don’t know that I’d have voted for Smith myself, but I get the reasoning. I have to say I’m surprised by the election of Baines.
Dreadful choices. Baines is a TERRIBLE choice. He was a good player for a long time but was never a great one, ever. There are at least two hundred players better than Harold Baines who aren’t in the Hall of Fame.
Baines is immediately in competition for worst Hall of Famer. Holy crap!
Lee is below border line but at least worthy of the conversation, Baines? Baines? What the hell?
BTW: his Hall of Fame Votes:
2007 BBWAA ( 5.3%)
2008 BBWAA ( 5.2%)
2009 BBWAA ( 5.9%)
2010 BBWAA ( 6.1%)
2011 BBWAA ( 4.8%)
Baines’ selection has to be good news for Fred McGriff.
Fred McGriff, sure. John Olerud, too. Obviously, Don Mattingly is a no-brainer now. Dale Murphy is overqualified, as is Dwight Evans. Bobby Abreu will be a shoo-in. Jose Bautista will be an easy choice, Tony Oliva should have been in ages ago, and get Dave Parker’s plaque ready. Larry Walker, duh. What the hell is Gil Hodges waiting for? Norm Cash? Bill Freehan? We’re putting in Adrian Gonzalez now, right?
That’s why these selections really make the HOF debate less fun; Baines lowers the bar so far that the bar doesn’t mean anything anymore, because if he is the standard, you have to put in Mark Teixeira, and even Mark Teixiera doesn’t think he’s a Hall of Famer but there’s no logic in him being out and Baines being in. So you have to either
-
Argue that the standard is… something else, some Keltner List argument that applies only to some candidates but not “Committee” picks, or
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Increase the size of the HOF from ~250 players to about a thousand.
I
Great for Lee Smith! I’ve been championing his inclusion forever.
Harold Baines, on the other hand…wow. Wow. Even Baines himself did not expect to get into the HOF. I liked Baines as a kid, but there are soooo many better and more worthy players who haven’t sniffed the HOF. What about…I don’t know…Dwight Evans? Or Dale Murphy? Heck even Jack Clark or Chili Davis have at least as good a case as Baines.
As a Blue Jays fan I look forward to the inductions of Carlos Delgado, Dave Stieb, Tony Fernandez, and Jimmy Key, all better players than Harold Baines.
It’s as if this committee of a dozen players who actually played with and against Baines, and managers who did similarly, had no idea how bad he really was, unlike some pseudonyms on a message board. Imagine that.
Only two people on the committee played against Baines. One - one of the same players - played with him.
If you know the two players I’m referring to, can you tell us if they voted for him?
Blyleven and Alomar (Alomar played with him in Baltimore). There are others with ties to Baines. La Russa managed him. Gillick was GM in Baltimore when Baines was there. Jerry Reinsdorf, obvious White Sox connection. And others who were NL contemporaries of Baines.
Baines got 12 of 16 votes, just sneaking in with the 75% minimum. Lee Smith was unanimous. Lou Pinella was just shy, with 11 votes. Don’t know what anyone else on the ballot got. Can’t believe Baines got more votes than Orel Hershiser, though.
Not too many Dodger owners on the committee. The problem with a small committee is that one person can have an outsized influence.
Given that professional baseball journalists never seriously considered Baines a candidate, this isn’t an outsider/insider thing.
I’ve criticized HOF picks before but this is the least defensible one I can think of. Jack Morris? The guy won the World Series MVP once, maybe should have won it another time, too. He played for champions; Baines did not. Indeed, every other marginal choice I can think of has some argument in favor of them Baines doesn’t:
- Champion (Morris, Tony Perez)
- Won a major individual award or two (Catfish, Jim Rice)
- Plays at an underrepresented position or pitching role (All relief pitchers, some catchers)
- Achieved some statistical milestones or records (Lou Brock)
- Was extremely highly regarded in his time, suggesting their contemporaries knew something we do not know (Rabbit Maranville)
Some guys of course have more than one. Lou Brock was not just a guy with some notable career numbers, he was also a two time WS champion AND played brilliantly in the World Series.
Harold has none of that. I feel bad for him, though, in that he’s going to notice most of the baseball world is baffled by this.
RickJay:
Well, he sort of fits into this category - he’s the closest thing to a career DH that has yet been inducted into the Hall (sorry, Edgar), and at the time he retired, he held pretty much every DHing record, didn’t he?
Let’s leave aside the overall, general DH debate. DHs have existed in Major League Baseball for 45 years, like it or not, and no one genuinely representing the position is (until now) in the Hall of Fame. So the factor above is in play here, perhaps.
Frank Thomas played most of his career games at DH.
I guess it’s as simple as the 2,866 hits. It must have been the metric used by these voters because nothing else makes sense. He is 46th all-time. Among the Top 50, all are in the Hall, except:
Ineligible
Pete Rose
Not on the ballot yet
Derek Jeter
Adrian Beltre
Ichiro Suzuki
Albert Pujols
Alex Rodriguez
**Still on the ballot **
Barry Bonds
Omar Vizquel
Other
Rafael Palmeiro
So things are looking good for Johnny Damon (54th) and Vada Pinson (55th).
RickJay:
Why, so he did. I wonder why I think of him as a first baseman more than I think of Baines (or Hal McRae) as an outfielder? Perhaps because those two held DH-position records for a decent period of time, so I associate the position with them more than with Big Hurt.
Percentage of Plate Appearances as DH:
Frank Thomas 57%
Harold Baines 60%
Edgar Martinez 72%
David Ortiz 88%