Is Jacob deGrom already a Hall of Famer?
daltex
Posts: 3,486 ✭✭✭✭✭
Hypothesize with me for a moment. If he were to get injured before his next start, come back for five innings each of the next two years, and that's it, does he make the Hall?
I have a profoundly negative feeling towards compilers, but there is one stat that is necessary to compile and that is ten "seasons". Now if he were effectively done as a pitcher today, he would (obviously) have to go in to the Sandy Koufax wing of the HoF, but that wing is not as sparsely populated as you might think. There are several pitchers with very short careers enshrined, probably because it is easier to reach Hall standards as a really good pitcher. Recall Dwight Gooden was as much as halfway there by his 22nd birthday. Of course no one is going to go 171-122 in a even year career like some guy named Ed Morris once did, but consider that deGrom's RAA is just three fewer than that of Koufax, so much higher than many HoF starters. His JAWS puts him between Jon Lester and Bartolo Colon, but I think it's fair to say that JAWS becomes less useful in these cases. I think few would attempt to argue that deGrom is a worse pitcher than Steve Rogers, Viola, Carlos Zambrano, or Koosman, for example.
Anyway, I say he's already done enough. Thoughts?
Comments
In your scenario, no. Just not enough body of work, even by modern SP standards. I think he would need a full Cy Young season this year for that to happen...then he probably would be.
as of today? no. he has only thrown 1200 innings in his career. not nearly enough for HOF standards. It is the same reason I cannot stomach modern closers being in the HOF. 60 or 70 innings a year doesn't do it for me.
Degrom has been fantastic so far, but he needs more. Body of work
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Too soon to tell. I used to think that Felix Hernandez and Adam Wainwright were on a HOF career path, until injuries befell both of them.
No. Way too few innings and starts. Four seasons with 30+ starts? No. Just no.