Rox Pile’s Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Part Seven

Chipper Jones

Players like Chipper Jones sort of get lost in the shuffle in a time where much of the media was dominated by the big boys chasing single-season home run records. However, there was no denying his talent from the get-go.

Chipper was a first overall pick in the 1990 draft. The switch-hitting third baseman played for the Braves for 18 seasons putting together a career average of .303, a .930 OPS, and 468 home runs. He is only one of two players in the modern era of baseball to hit .300 from both sides of the plate.

Mike Mussina

Mike Mussina’s career numbers don’t scream Hall of Fame at first glance. Go ahead and take a second glance at his Baseball-Reference.com profile. Hopefully, you would notice that Mike Mussina was the epitome of stalwart. Throughout his 18 season career, he hit or surpassed 200 innings eleven times. He hit double digits wins every season with the exception of his rookie season. He wasn’t just a reliable work horse though.

Despite his above-average career ERA of 3.68 (which could be argued is slightly higher due to pitching his entire career in steroid-era AL East), Mussina is sporting the second best career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.58-1 amongst pitchers with at least 3000 innings. In addition, if you look at his ERA+, which adjusts for parks pitched in, Mussina’s is 123. For comparison, Hall of Famer Tom Glavine, who got in with nearly 92 percent of the vote on the first ballot, had an ERA+ of 118 and Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and John Smoltz have a career ERA+ of 123 and 125. Marichal got in on his third ballot and Smoltz on his first.