The treatment of these two pitchers continues to befuddle me.

In Wood's case, we're talking about a guy who topped 200 innings twice in an era in which it generally took 250 innings to crack the top ten in the American League. Smokey Joe Wood is like a rate-stat worse case scenario - which of course means Keith is always on board.

Spud Chandler, of course, is the winning percentage king (unless you count Al Spalding, which I don't). Chandler is a tough situation because, unlike Wood, who debuted at the age of 18 and then got hurt, Chandler didn't debut until 29, the only pitched 19 innings at the age of 31, before catching on for good at the age of 32, just in time to miss two seasons due to World War II, before returning for to dynamite - if not short - seasons at the age of 38 and 39 before retiring.

It could be argued that if Chandler had been brought up for good at the age of 25 (his 156 ERA+ as a rookie supports the notion that he would have been ready) and had not missed two seasons due to war, we would be talking about a guy with 3000 innings, a 125-130 ERA+, and over 200 wins with a winning percentage in the .650 range.

That player would be worthy of the Hall of Fame. But that is not who Spud Chandler was, and 1500 innings in the 1930s and 1940s does not make a Hall of Famer.

City Philadelphia

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After reading this, I suddenly feel regret that I am the one responsible for putting George Sisler in the Hall of Fame.

Yes - Sisler, Chandler, Wood, Cravath, Keller, and now Groh. It's all the same conversation.

City Philadelphia

Favorite Team Cubs

And by the way, if either Wood or Chandler had put together SEVEN seasons as one of the best pitchers in major league baseball, I would see a slghtly stronger resemblence to George Sisler.

City Philadelphia

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How about if they each put up a bunch of crap seasons at the ends of their careers? Would you see more of a resemblance then?

Keith, do you realize that Wood and Chandler each had only THREE full seasons? Even then, it is only arguable that they enjoyed THREE full seasons (Wood with his 198.2 innings in 1910 when he was a reliever in 18 of 35 games, Chandler with his 200.2 innings in 1942), but neither of them could be considered a full time pitcher for more than three seasons.

THREE SEASONS!!!

City Philadelphia

Favorite Team Cubs

No I don't, Asher. Why didn't you ever mention this before? I also don't realize that George Sisler had two distinct halves to his career. You should consider writing two 1,000 word essays on the subject.

While we're on the subject of witholding information, I wish Scott would have told me that Paul Molitor played more games as a DH than at any other position. It might have affected my ranking of him.

That's pretty funny.

I'm trying to think of one for you, but I can't.

City Philadelphia

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I don't like repeating myself. It actually doesn't make any sense that I enjoy acting.

Or, on the contrary, when You point out where Scott and I are clearly wrong, we accept defeat graciously, whereas when we point out where you are wrong, you stubbornly refuse to admit it, forcing us to repeat our points ad nauseum.

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Maybe you should consider another approach, because when I viewed Sisler outside of your ridiculous reasoning for him, I voted him a 2. Re-reading your past articles on him and this laughable thread makes me like him less.

Yeah. Sisler was one of the best players in baseball in 1916. Sure.

Right. Any time a pitcher throws fewer than 200 innings in a season we throw that season away. In fact, any pitcher who hasn't reached 4,000 innings in his career is worthless, as I recall.

Know what I just realized? Mark McGwire was far better in 1991 than in '95 and '95 because those weren't Full Seasons. And I don't know why everyone pisses and moans about Barry Bonds when he misssed 32 games in 2003, negating everything else he might have done that season.

I am just posting here to show an example of the plus ( ) symbol having worked in the forum before.

Plus Symbol

+

Showoff.

+

I don't get it...

+

City Philadelphia

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