Afternoon Baseball

Rich "Goose" Gossage...Original post and complete player list
We dismissed the pretenders and spelled out the contenders. Here, we analyze each with a mix of stats and baseball POV from a dedicated fan.
Rich "Goose" Gossage, RP, Chicago (AL) (1972-1976), Pittsburgh (1977), New York (AL) (1978-1983, 1989), San Diego (1984-1987), Chicago (NL) 1988, San Francisco (1989), Texas (1991), Oakland (1992-1993), Seattle (1994)
This year: Outside chance.
Deserving: Even if you hate relievers, he belongs.
Will writers think he's deserving?: Possibly.
Stay on ballot: Yes.
Veteran's Committee: If not through the ballot process.

Goose Gossage has big stats, even for a reliever. 1002 games, 1809 1/3 innings, 1502 strikeouts, 310 saves, 16 complete games in the 37 games he did start, 681 games finished, 124 wins -- four times in double-digits as a reliever, and a 3.01 ERA with a adjusted ERA of 126. While relievers have a different game situation, his 29th-all-time rank of Hits/9 inn is surely impressive. Thrice did Gossage lead the league in saves, as well.

Gossage was a multi-inning reliever all year, someone almost never seen outside the postseason, and even then rarely seen outside of Mariano Rivera since 1996 or Brad Lidge in 2004. Gossage bounced around, surely, playing for nine teams, but the bulk of his career was spent with the Chicago White Sox, the New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres.
What it comes down to is: does a reliever do enough do deserve enshrinement with the greats?

I, personally, feel yes, but that the reliever must be especially great because of the limited, however important, role that they play in the game. Simply amassing saves is not an automatic -- there's no 3,000 hits or 500 HR parallel (and given who's reached those plateaus lately, those milestones may soon mean little). Postseason greatness takes on additional weight, as does absurd ERA, K/9 and H/9 totals. Gossage has all of the above, and he was not the simple specialist that a closer is today (whether they choose to be or not, to be fair). He still amassed 310 saves without the chance to save 40 or 50 in one shot.

Without Gossage and Rollie Fingers, the closer doesn't evolve quite the way it has. As important as people like Dan Quisenberry and Bruce Sutter were to the relief-pitching system, they too owe Gossage and Fingers. And since Fingers is already in the Hall, doesn't that make this choice that much easier?

Labels: HOF