These two ariticles on the Keltner test are great, but my question is, are there more on the way? If not, why Sid Fernandez? On the Clutch Hits thread asking for Hall of Fame votes, he didn't get any. I was unaware that he was even close to Hall consideration, (which was the conclusion of this article but I thought we already knew that.) Apart from the obvious candidates, sentimental choices like Keith Hernandez and Fernando Valenzuela would seem much more interesting. Good article, just questioning the necessity.

Oh, just read the sidebar, never mind. Keep up the good work! :-)

One of my favorite players back when he was around - I would estimate that after Doc Gooden stopped being unhittable, Fernandez was as good as any of the starters in the Mets rotation, and that rotation was as strong as any in baseball. Guys like Gooden, Darling, Ojeda, Cone, Viola, Aguilera. Don't know why he didn't get as much publicity as the others (other than Gooden of course), he was an excellent pitcher and a lot of fun to watch.

A few other interesting points about El Sid, to add color to the story:

1. His Opposition Batting Average throughout his career was unusually low; for quite some time, he had the lowest Opposition Batting Average of any player in history with over 1000 IP.

2. Fernandez had an unusual throwing motion in which his arm followed his body forward. This had a tendency to throw hitters' timing off and cause his fastball, which only topped out around 90, to appear to explode out of his body and led to extremely high K rates. He was also rather, uh, heavy, a characteristic that combined with this odd motion to cause him to look like an elephant flopping his trunk over his head.

3. El Sid was an extreme flyball pitcher. He once went pitched an entire complete game without allowing a single ground ball. Dave Johnson used to play Howard Johnson, a bad third baseman, at shortstop when Fernandez pitched, since no one was ever going to hit a ball to him anyway.

Eric: Glad you caught the sidebar. If you think Fernandez is questionable, wait till you see the other guy I wrote about. ;-)

DSM: The weird/unlucky thing for Fernandez is that with the exception of 1989 and 1992, he was generally the second or third best pitcher on the staff. Beyond Gooden from 1985-1987, there was generally somebody who had a terrific season (Ojeda and Darling in 1986, Cone in 1988, Viola in 1990) that kept El Sid from getting his due.

Scott: Good points. Fernandez' hit prevention was pretty incredible. Three times he led the league in H/9, including 5.71 in 1985 (and three other times he was among the top 5); for his career, he's #4 among pitchers with 1000 or more IP at 6.851. Guys in front of him are Ryan, Pedro, and Koufax. That's it.

I remember that delivery well. I also remember being shocked when I learned he didn't throw harder than he did. I seem to recall also that he had a pretty good second pitch (slow curve?) that made the fastball look that much better.

Finally, I couldn't find GB/FB data for Fernandez, but it doesn't surprise me to learn that he was an extrememe flyball pitcher. Those home/road splits he had with the Mets suggest that a lot of his pitches were dying on the warning track at Shea.

Plus if you look at what happened when he left the Mets, he finished second in the AL in homers allowed (27) despite working only 115 innings in 1994. He served up 20 more homers the following year in just 93 innings (including 9 in 28 innings with the Orioles).

Thanks, all, for the comments!

If he had kept himself in condition, we might be taking this much more seriously. Possibly the best five-inning pitcher of the eighties in the NL. After that, close your eyes. He ran out of gas quickly.

Fernandez really must have been extremely lazy not to workout when the economic rewards were so great. It's amazing that he still was able to pitch for 15 seasons.

True, Sid isn't the right pitcher to make the point the HOF should include more pitchers than thirdbasemen.

For what it's worth, Baseball Magazine selected 7 regular players and a batter of 9 to each of the "teams" it honored in 1911 (one AL, one NL, one "All America" team). Within a few years, BBMag settled on a battery of 1 catcher and 2 pitchers. See the Annual Awards section of Deadball Era Resources, the cited website, which I maintain for the Deadball Era Committee, SABR.

Paul Wendt, Watertown MA