Hall of Fame Poll: Lee Smith
Would you vote Lee Smith into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
By Tom Dakers@bluebirdbanter Dec 1, 2013, 12:58pm EST
Share All sharing options for: Hall of Fame Poll: Lee Smith
I don't remember Lee Smith smiling, he tried to look scary.
I'm planning to finish these polls today. Then maybe the Jays will do something worth discussing tomorrow. A guy can dream.
I'm skipping Rickie Sexton. He was a really good player, hit .261/.344/.507 with 306 home runs and 943 RBI, over a 12 year career. If he played longer he'd likely have a stronger case. His top years were quite good. He hit 45 home runs twice, and 30 or more homers 6 times. He drove in 100 runs 6 times. He was an All-Star twice. I'd put him in the Hall of very good.
Lee Smith is number 3 on the all time saves list, which is his strongest argument for the Hall. And he was a closer in the old sense of the word, he'd close out games pitching 2 or 3 innings, if needed.
He was an intimidating guy out on the mound. 6'5" and 220, maybe not as scary looking as Jon Rauch but a much better pitcher. He played on 7 All-Star teams, won 3 reliever of the year awards and came in second in the 1991 Cy Young voting.
Right now there are only 5 relief pitchers in the Hall: Goose Gossage, Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter and Dennis Eckersley. Smith might not be quite as good as those 5 but he's close.
This is his 12th time on the ballot. Last year he was on 47.8% of the ballots. He's been running between 40 and 50% the last 6 years. I doubt he'll get any more of the vote this year.
1980 22 CHC 2 0 2.91 18 0 6 0 21.2 21 9 7 0 14 17
1981 23 CHC 3 6 3.51 40 1 12 1 66.2 57 31 26 2 31 50
1982 24 CHC 2 5 2.69 72 5 38 17 117.0 105 38 35 5 37 99
1983 25 CHC 4 10 1.65 66 0 56 29 103.1 70 23 19 5 41 91 AS,CYA-9,MVP-18
1984 26 CHC 9 7 3.65 69 0 59 33 101.0 98 42 41 6 35 86
1985 27 CHC 7 4 3.04 65 0 57 33 97.2 87 35 33 9 32 112
1986 28 CHC 9 9 3.09 66 0 59 31 90.1 69 32 31 7 42 93
1987 29 CHC 4 10 3.12 62 0 55 36 83.2 84 30 29 4 32 96 AS
1988 30 BOS 4 5 2.80 64 0 57 29 83.2 72 34 26 7 37 96 MVP-21
1989 31 BOS 6 1 3.57 64 0 50 25 70.2 53 30 28 6 33 96
1990 32 TOT 5 5 2.06 64 0 53 31 83.0 71 24 19 3 29 87
1990 32 BOS 2 1 1.88 11 0 8 4 14.1 13 4 3 0 9 17
1990 32 STL 3 4 2.10 53 0 45 27 68.2 58 20 16 3 20 70
1991 33 STL 6 3 2.34 67 0 61 47 73.0 70 19 19 5 13 67 AS,CYA-2,MVP-8
1992 34 STL 4 9 3.12 70 0 55 43 75.0 62 28 26 4 26 60 AS,CYA-4
1993 35 TOT 2 4 3.88 63 0 56 46 58.0 53 25 25 11 14 60 AS
1993 35 STL 2 4 4.50 55 0 48 43 50.0 49 25 25 11 9 49
1993 35 NYY 0 0 0.00 8 0 8 3 8.0 4 0 0 0 5 11
1994 36 BAL 1 4 3.29 41 0 39 33 38.1 34 16 14 6 11 42 AS,CYA-5,MVP-14
1995 37 CAL 0 5 3.47 52 0 51 37 49.1 42 19 19 3 25 43 AS
1996 38 TOT 3 4 3.74 54 0 24 2 55.1 57 24 23 4 26 41
1996 38 CAL 0 0 2.45 11 0 8 0 11.0 8 4 3 0 3 6
1996 38 CIN 3 4 4.06 43 0 16 2 44.1 49 20 20 4 23 35
1997 39 MON 0 1 5.82 25 0 14 5 21.2 28 16 14 2 8 15
18 Yrs 71 92 3.03 1022 6 802 478 1289.1 1133 475 434 89 486 1251
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/1/2013.
Follow @bluebirdbanterFollow @SBNationMLB
Hall of Fame Polls
Hall of Fame Poll: Larry Walker
Hall of Fame Poll: Curt Schilling