2015 Hall of Fame Induction

[chancellor]

Pedro is one of the top 10 pitchers of all time, not just on a given ballot, in my opinion.

That was a far calmer response than I expected.

But, hell yeah. Let's review:

7-season peak, from '97 season through the '03 season, traditional view: 3 Cy Youngs, 2 2nd places, no season with a winning % under .680, 2 20-win seasons, 1 19-win season, and 1 18-win season. Two seasons with 300+ Ks, 1 season with 280+ Ks. One 2nd place in MVP voting, one 5th place in MVP voting.

More sabermetric view: 5 of 7 seasons with a 200 ERA+. One of them with a 291 ERA+. Know how many times Sandy Koufax had an ERA+ of over 200? Yeah, none. How about Greg Maddux? Twice. Randy Johnson? None. Lefty Grove? Once. Over 200 is amazing. 291....dang, that's near incomprehensible.

5 of 7 years with a WHIP under 1.0, including a peak of 0.frigging737. 5 of 7 years with K rates/9 above 10..with the other two being 9.9 and 9.7. Worst K:BB ratio in that time was 3.75, with two years above 8.0.

Two years of ERAs under 2.00. Four more years ERA under 2.30. While pitching during the peak of the steroid era.

And some darn fine years around that peak, too.

[Pogues]

What gap?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_P.shtml

If I was looking at the very best of the best, I'd look for both a span of dominance and also superior lifetime statistics.

Like I said, it's basically irrelevant, since I'd have voted for Pedro on this ballot...if given a chance to vote.