Should Jim Kaat be in the Hall of Fame? Kaat pitched in 25 seasons from 1959-1983 and had a career record of?

Question

283 wins - 237 losses, 3.45 ERA and 2,461 K's. Also, he won an incredible 16 gold gloves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Kaat

Answer 1

Oh, heck yeah. Kitty Kaat was a starter of better than average presence and a good reliever for years. A 5 tool pitcher -- pretty rare -- with over 280 career wins, he is in company with Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris and Tommy John as a great pitcher who somehow got on the wrong side of the writers. Should have been sure fire.

Answer 2

No. NEVER had a great season, though if there had been separate league CYAs in 1966 he'd have gotten the AL edition.

Some folks like to accuse various actual HOFers of being "accumulators" -- like this is some sort of indictment, I suppose -- men like Sutton and Perry, I've seen named, or hopeful Blyleven. Want to see an accumulator who is not Hall class? Kitty is example #1. His career delivered a lot of value, but essentially never within the season-sized manner at the level that makes winning pennants and championships so much easier to do. And his ERA+ peaked at 131 over a full season, with a couple of other times in the 120-130 range (and a very good half-season at 156), plus a whole lot of mediocre results -- some a bit above average, around league average, or below average.

But no greatness.

As for the string of Gold Gloves -- if that wasn't enough to convince the writers, and for the full 15 ballots it wasn't, I don't see how it makes him any more compelling now than then.

Sorry, Kitty.

Answer 3

Jim Kaat fell short of 300 wins, and stretched out his career well into his 40's without much success.

Kaat basically falls under the same category as someone like Tommy John.

Maybe when the time comes that there are newer and more progressive members of the veteran's committee, that will be the point in which a Jim Kaat will be a more viable candidate for a HoF berth.

Answer 4

No. He was good, but not that good. He played for 25 seasons, so of course he has a lot of wins and K's (and subsequently losses). His ERA isn't bad, but not spectacular. But let's look at his averages over a 162 game schedule.

Wins: 12
Losses: 10
Starts: 27
Complete Games: 8 (that's incredible)
Innings: 202
Strikeouts: 109

Really his only real good stats right there is complete games and innings pitched. People mention him a lot, because of his career stats and of course the Gold Gloves, but when you look at the averages, they are mediocre.