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Hall of Merit— A Look at Baseball's All-Time Best
Sunday, November 16, 2008
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1. JoeD has the Imperial March Stuck in His Head Posted: November 16, 2008 at 10:48 PM (#3010316)DanR says my rankings are too favorable to modern pitchers whose careers lasted long, but his peak is outstanding, he was probably the best pitcher in the majors in the early 1990s that was not named Clemens or Maddux.
Very interesting candidate - do not dismiss him without doing your homework.
He didn't last as long, but should look very good to peak/prime guys. His losing the 1993 Cy Young to McDowell was explainable (McDowell won 20 and his team made the playoffs for the first time in 10 years), but still an awful choice.
His closest comp in my system is Frank Viola, who has more top 10 IP finishes (8 in consecutive seasons, if you don't allow his cross-league trade in 1989 to drop that season out of the picture) and top 10 ERA+ finishes (6, four of them in top 10 IP seasons) than Appier (2 and 5, respectively, with both top 10 IP finishes occurring in years in which he led in ERA+).
Viola has not gotten anywhere as a candidate.
Hippo Vaughn is also a close comp in my system. Undoubtedly a fine pitcher and the best his league had to offer after Pete Alexander for a couple of seasons, but there's not enough for him to be a HoMer.
I love Taco Bell so much. Wish I had Appier's doc.
His daughter was in my son's 5th grade class. I used to question my son about that, since Appier would have been a father at age 18/19, but according to imdb (of all places), they list a daughter Britney born in 1987. Whadya know.
I don't know if that was our greater brush with fame in KC or if having Derek Alexander's mistress and their son live on our street or knowing the Fox News Anchor (John Holt) was the bigger deal. :)
Bob Gibson on that list, through 1966, only difference is that Appier's ERA+ is 134 and Gibson's 126.
Beside its better known flaws, "Similar Pitchers" is a career measure only, so it does not see Bob Gibson putting together the similar career in six seasons, Kevin Appier in eight seasons, and Jose Rijo in 12 seasons, namely age 19-30 including a short season at age 30. (I exaggerate, but the caricature is true.)
Anyway Bob Gibson is number one on Jose Rijo's list, so Bob Gibson's own list (together with Kevin Appier's that JoeD linked just above) provides some flawed perspective on Jose Rijo.
Bob Gibson "Similar Pitchers" thru age 30
Appier 134 and Gibson 125 are the two ERA+ > 118 among the "Similar Pitchers" for Jose Rijo thru age 30.
Age at end of "baseball age 30" season --October, although Rijo pitched only 69 inns, Appier only 15 inns, Gibson 280 inns.
30.5 yr.mo, Rijo
30.10, Appier
30.11, Gibson
Because the point is to illuminate Rijo and Appier with the brilliant fame of Bob Gibson, and Bob Gibson doesn't yet show up so high on their age 29 lists. Which is more impressive: your pitching career is superficially most similar to Bob Gibson's thru age 30, or superficially most similar to Don Wilson's thru age 29?
(Poor Don Wilson pitched 0 innings at age 30, r.i.p.)
My only point was to say that yeah, Kevin Appier was pretty similar to Bob Gibson before the injury, except he was better, which is pretty impressive that's all. I do realize it's a selective endpoint thing, etc.. Gibson does show up on plenty of Appier's lists though.
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