What's next for Biggio, Schilling, Bonds, and Clemens?

Jack Morris, the Tea Party, and WOW THE INTERNET

Dealing with Hall of Fame fatigue

It would be good if the Hall of Fame could reverse course and matter again, but if not, eh

Baseball Prospectus: The Best Jack Morris Article You'll Read This Year

I mean, it's not the only Jack Morris article you'll read this year. This very StoryStream™ has something I did, as well as something from some guy named Neyer. But if you had to pick just one, it might be this one from Jonathan Bernhardt.

It seems some sort of bizarre performance art: one of the most respected national baseball writers currently working asserts that having a moustache and being gruffly confident is the secret sixth tool of baseball; will anyone call him on it?

Bernhardt uses logic, stats, and narrative to pop the Morris balloon -- something that others have done before, but this essay feels more comprehensive than what's come before. And it even goes as far to suggest that Morris is a candidate for the Hall of Fame because Lonnie Smith ran the bases like he had a burlap sack over his head.

In the absence of any other compelling reason, a Hall of Fame bust should not be awarded because Lonnie Smith lost his helmet.

Even if you're suffering from Morris fatigue, this is still the article to bring to Mars when we leave the Morris supporters behind, set up a colony, and build robots to play our spectator sports.

Jack Morris Just Might Not Have Been The Pitcher Of The '80s

It all started so innocently. And by "innocently", we mean "not innocently." Jon Heyman woke up in a rankling mood, and he felt like rankling people. So he tweeted this:

i love the folks who never saw jack morris pitch who are certain he isnt hall of famer bec their stat guru said so

Dustin Parkes has a plausible scenario up about how Heyman spends his day. Makes perfect sense. If riling people up is your thing, Jack Morris is a great go-to tool. Heyman did beautifully.

But it's also the kind of thing that spawns some nice research. And over at Baseball Prospectus, Colin Wyers took a quick peek at who really might have been the "pitcher of the '80s", that oft-repeated point that's often used to argue for Morris. You can go to BP for the exact methodology -- which has to do with the writers' perception of Morris at the time instead more than statistical analysis -- but you can get a pretty good idea of how it went just by looking at the company Morris is keeping:

Steve McCatty - 0.600
Tom Seaver - 0.558
Jack Morris - 0.543
John Tudor - 0.542
Mario Soto - 0.533

If you're thinking, "Say! Tom Seaver!", remember this had to do with the '80s, a decade that began with Seaver as a 35-year-old.

(As an aside: Have you stared at Seaver's Baseball-Reference page lately? It's never a bad time to do so.)

If the argument is that the younger generation just can't pick up on the nuances of Jack Morris because they weren't there, Wyers uses the BBWAA's own Cy Young voting history to suggest that the writers might not have been there either.

Will 2013 Be Jack Morris's Year?

Jack Morris will be the top holdover on next year's Hall of Fame ballot, which bodes well for his candidacy. But what about all those superstars who will join Morris on the ballot?

Making An Argument For The Argument For Jack Morris

No, no. It's okay. One more article about Jack Morris and the Hall of Fame won't hurt you.