NFL HoF

[slotdirt]

Obviously, we disagree on the relative value of Catfish Hunter's career. I think you could have transported Bill Gullickson circa 1991 into Catfish Hunter's body for his 15 seasons and Bill Gullickson would have won 224 games and had 21 wins in 1973. Hunter just wasn't special in so far as MLB pitchers go at the end of the day.

[slotdirt]

Really thinking about a peer of Catfish Hunter's who was, generally speaking, his relative equal in career peak and ability, and I think I've figured it out:

Frank Tanana.

Frank Tanana for HOF!

[horseofcourse]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Really thinking about a peer of Catfish Hunter's who was, generally speaking, his relative equal in career peak and ability, and I think I've figured it out:

Frank Tanana.

Frank Tanana for HOF!

HOly crap, frank tanana and catfish hunter showing up on a NFL HOF thread. That is pretty much awesome. They might be better than Willie Roaf I guess, but not likely.

[slotdirt]

Frank Tanana, the man who threw in the 90's in the 70's and in the 70's in the 90's.

[slotdirt]

I caught this recent article and thought Cannon would appreciate the Catfish Hunter reference:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/ey...hall-of-famers

Starting pitcher - Catfish Hunter (1987, BBWAA)

In addition to the obvious cool nickname factor here, we have the overvaluation of pitcher wins. Catfish won at least 20 games in five consecutive seasons. Of course, four of those five teams made the playoffs and three of those teams were World Series champions. They were great teams. Great teams win games and when a workhorse pitcher (Hunter was an animal, averaging 294 innings pitched in those five seasons) pitches, he's bound to rack up wins. And Hunter still amassed only 224 wins in his 15-year career while basically being a league-average pitcher in terms of run prevention (104 ERA-plus). You can argue Hunter was a Hall-of-Fame caliber pitcher for five seasons -- and I'd agree -- but other than that, he was either average or below average. Is five years enough peak? Or rather, if Tim Lincecum had one more great season followed by eight league-average seasons, he'd have a similar resume to Hunter.