Hall of Fame Poll: Billy Wagner

We’ve made it to the end of the list (please Blue Jays, let’s make some news soon).

I’m skipping Barry Zito. He had a good 15 season MLB career. He had a 165-143 record, a 4.04 ERA in 433 games, 421 starts. He finished with 33.1 bWAR. His peak was great. He had a streak of 6 seasons of 200+ innings and 33-34 starts all for the A’s.

Zito spent his whole career in the Bay area, 8 years with the A’s and 7 with the Giants. With the A’s he went 102-63 with a 3.58 ERA. With the Giants he was 63-80 with a 4.62 ERA.

He won a CY Young, going 23-5 with a 2.75 ERA in 2002. He made 3 All-Star teams and got MVP votes twice.

But, while the peak was good, it didn’t last long enough and he didn’t build up the bulk numbers that will get you on a lot of ballots.

Billy Wagner’s on the Hall of Fame ballot for the sixth time. He was on 31.7% of the ballots last year, doubling his vote from a year before. He’s still a long way from 75%.

He pitched for 5 different teams in his 16-year career, spending most of it with the Houston Astros.

Wagner sits 6th on the all-time saves list. He made 7 All-Star teams, won 1 reliever of the year award, got MVP votes twice, and Cy Young votes twice.

He pitched in 853 games, had a 2.31 ERA (terrific career number) with 422 saves. He averaged 11.9 strikeouts per 9 innings (that’s a pretty great career number).

Billy pitched in the playoffs 7 times but never made it to the World Series. He has terrible numbers in 14 playoff games, a 10.03 ERA, allowing 21 hits in 11.2 innings.

Comparing him to Hoffman (who made it to the Hall last year), he has about 150 fewer innings, he about half a run better ERA, he has about 60 more strikeouts (in the 150 fewer innings) and 7 fewer walks (in 150 fewer innings). Hoffman’s argument over Wagner is all the save count (601 for Hoffman, 422 for Wagner). Wagner had 69 blown saves for an 86% save percentage. Hoffman 76 for an 89% save percentage. So the difference in the Writers vote is all the save total.