Today Cincinnati Red Barry Larkin deservedly got inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He won a World Series, NL MVP, and the Gold Glove three times so he definitely earned it. Every year I go down the list to see who else gets votes and then I get to the “Others Receiving Votes” section. Sometimes this section will have a player that had a few elite seasons but not long or consistent enough to get many votes (ex. Juan Gonzalez) and sometimes it’ll have a player that has absolutely zero reason being considered for the Hall of Fame (ex. Jay Bell, David Segui) yet some how they have a vote or two. This year did not disappoint as four voters gave Bill Mueller a vote and two gave Brad Radke a vote. Eric Young getting a vote is bad but it’s nothing compare to these two getting multiple votes.
Lets start with Bill Mueller. For his career Mueller hit .291, 85 HR, 493 RBI, and 20 SB’s. He won the 03′ AL Batting Avg title and one World Series with the Red Sox. Three times he was the top five in the AL/NL in errors for a season (on the bad end) and he made zero All Star teams. Yep, that resume gets you four Hall of Fame votes. Are you freaking serious? Players with 493 HR’s none the less 493 RBI’s aren’t getting in. In case you want to put a lot of weight on winning a batting title here are some names of other players that have won a batting title: John Olerud and Freddy Sanchez. Are we to believe that these players will one day get votes? God I hope not. (I just checked and John Olerud actually got four votes one year). I’m going to have a hard time sleeping tonight knowing that there are four people in this world that think that Bill Mueller deserves to be said in the same sentence as Babe Ruth (.342, 714 HR, 2213 RBI) and Ted Williams (.344, 521 HR, 1839 RBI).
As for Brad Radke, I almost had a seizure when I read that he received two votes. I wouldn’t want Brad Radke on my fantasy baseball team none the less be associated with Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, and Sandy Koufax. For his career Radke was 148-139 with a 4.22 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 1467 K’s, 37 Complete Games, and 10 Shutouts. He made one All Star team and was third in the AL Cy Young voting once. His best season was 97′ when he went 20-10 with a 3.87 ERA , 1.19 WHIP, and 174 K’s. In case you want to put some of these numbers into perspective, Cy Young went 511-316, Sandy Koufax had a career 2.78 ERA, Nolan Ryan had a 5715 K’s. Yep, Brad Radke, Hall of Fame hopeful.
Radke may not be a Hall of Famer but he can at least entertain us with this old school Sega commercial the he was in.
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