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Why haven’t the BBWAA elected the closer with the third highest saves total with 478? The only two guys ahead of him are still playing (Hoffman and Rivera) and former inductees whom are below him on the list are Eckersley, Fingers, Gossage, Sutter and Wilhelm. The next closest player is John Franco and he played longer than him and he bests Franco with 54 more saves and bests Eckersley by 88.
His career ERA was 3.03, he finished 802 games with a SO/9 ratio of 8.7which factors out to being 1251 K’s in 1289.1 innings pitched. To go along with that he was in 7 All Star games, got MVP and Cy Young Award votes in 4 years.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about former closer Lee Smith!
What do you think about the possible induction of Lee Smith into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
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3 Responses
Julio Franco was not a pitcher. He had zero saves in his career.
Without looking it up, the player you are most likely referring to is John Franco.
Right! I’m making that correction now. Welcome to the site & thanks for keeping me honest!