AJC: We Like to Show We're Idiots

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution bugs me. Beyond Dave O'Brien's inability to make a convincing argument, his colleagues are just retarded.

The latest evidence comes in the form of Carroll Rogers. I am not sure whether Carroll is a woman or a guy with a girl's name, but he/she (maybe it is a transvestite?) wrote an article titled "Does Smoltz have Hall of Fame credentials?"

Does he?

Here is a pretty easy way to establish that. No player in the history of the game has saved 150 saves and won 200 games. Nobody. Dennis Eckersley came close and he seems pretty convinced that Smoltzie is a Hall of Famer.

Smoltz is also going to become the 16th player in history to strike out 3,000 batters. Of those who have, six players have not been elected to the Hall of Fame. Five are active and of those five, four are easily in the Hall (Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, and Pedro Martinez). Curt Schilling may also be in. The only retired player who is not in the Hall is Bert Blyleven. It is a great argument that he deserves election. The only thing hurting Bly is the fact he never won a Cy Young, nor was even a Cy Young runnerup and only got real love from the baseball writers in 1984. Still, Bly should be in the Hall, especially when the Hall in 2000 put Tony Perez in the Hall. Perez was a good player, but a Hall of Famer? Please.

So, Smoltz has the numbers. Does he have the other accolades? Well, he does have a Cy Young Award and has been to seven All-Star games. He has also is the only player to win a Cy Young as a starter and a Rolaids Relief award as a reliever. Every other player who has both did both as relievers (Eric Gagne, Steve Bedrosian, Rollie Fingers, and Eckersley). The only thing Smoltz does not have that Fingers and Eck have is an MVP award. However, since the explosion of offense, especially after the juiced ball era, baseball writers are prejudice against pitchers. Johan Santana was the move valuable player in the game last year and he received 114 points, or seventh most. When Smoltz won his Cy Young with an amazing 24-8 record and 276 K's, he received 33 points (finishing 11th). Baseball writers just do not discount the amazing offense numbers that players now reach.

Beyond just the accolades, Smoltz has a huge postseason career to fallback on. In 207 postseason games, he is 15-4 with four saves and 194 K's. His postseason ERA is 2.65. Granted, the increase in postseason action makes it tough to really gauge Smoltz's place in postseason action, he does have 15 postseason wins, best in history. Not nearly as impressive as Whitey Ford's ten World Series wins, but still, impressive. With Tom Glavine and Andy Pettitte, Smoltz is one of a trio of players to reach 200 innings in the postseason. Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux could make it five if their teams get to the playoffs. Smoltz also leads Clemens by 22 K's for the most strikeouts. He ranks 8th in World Series only action. But unlike Glavine and Maddux, or even Randy Johnson, Pettitte, and Clemens; Smoltz is not even close to the most loses in the postseason. Glavine and Maddux combined have 30 postseason loses. The Big Unit and the Rocket? A combined 17 loses.

Smoltz? Four. If you buy into win-loss record, that is damn impressive.

Is Smoltz Hall of Fame bound? Do you really think you need to ask that?

EDIT: Only 14 people have struck out 3,000 batters, not 18. Smoltz would likely become the 16th if Pedro Martinez gets two strikeouts between now and the moment Smoltz reached 3K. I've edited it in the column, but it should be edited here to point that out.