The Worst Pitcher in the Hall of Fame

The most recent Hall inductee, Bruce Sutter, has the distinction of winning the fewest games (68) and earning the lowest winning % (.489) among all Hall of Fame pitchers. Sutter, however, was inducted as a relief pitcher and his 300 saves are supposed to outweigh the flaws that kept him from starting (though the stat didn’t seem to help Lee Smith—career save leader—or Goose Gossage who also edges out Sutter’s save number, both pitchers were on the ballot this year). Sutter is also the first pitcher in the Hall to have never started a major league game; Rollie Fingers had the previous low at 37. Dennis Eckersley and Hoyt Wilhelm are the other two pitchers who got in primarily for their relief work.

The definition of a Hall of Fame relief pitcher is up for grabs right now, and Sutter’s selection marks the current low-end of the spectrum (Wilhelm has fewer saves, but also has 143 wins to mark it up). It will be interesting to see who the voting puts in over the next decade. There are 18 guys above Sutter on the career saves list and only two of them are in the Hall. John Wetteland, who compares favorably to Sutter, was dropped off the ballot after receiving only 4 votes this year. It is hard to see Jose Mesa (12^th on the saves list) in the hall, much easier to see Hoffman (2^nd) there.

In Sutter’s defense, it would be hard to spot him as the worst pitcher in the Hall… There are 8 inducted pitchers that don’t fit into the top-100 career wins list or the top-100 Win % list. 4 of them are the relievers we have been discussing (Fingers, Eckersley, Wilhelm and Sutter) here are the other four (there are 65 non-negro league pitchers in the hall, one of them is Ruth):

Jack Chesbro – 2.68 ERA, 198 Wins .600 W%

Rube Marquard – 3.08 ERA, 201 Wins, .532 W%

Dazzy Vance – 3.24 ERA, 197 Wins, .585 W%

Rube Waddell – 2.16 ERA, 193 Wins, .574 W%