MLB: What Might the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame Class Look Like?
Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling
Let’s get this out of the way right off the top: Curt Schilling’s chances of being elected to the Hall of Fame would be greatly improved if he stopped blogging, deleted his Facebook account and stayed out of the public eye for a little while. The incendiary statements he has made, and that got him fired from ESPN in April, will only hinder the voters’ perceptions of him and hold him back from being judged by his playing career.
And it was a good career. In 18 full big league seasons, Schilling put up a 3.46 ERA in nearly 3,300 innings, posted an ERA+ of 127 and an 80.7 bWAR, and amassed 3,116 strikeouts, good for 15th all-time. He was a three-time World Champion, six-time All-Star, and has favorable Gray Ink and Hall of Fame Monitor rankings. This will be Schilling’s fifth year on the ballot, as he came 100 votes short for the 2016 class (52.3 percent), and while he isn’t likely to make the 2017 class, either, should get in eventually.
Mike Mussina, a contemporary of Schilling’s, also seems likely to get into the Hall eventually, as he has progressed from just over 20 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot to 43 percent in his third. Moose was a six-time All-Star and a seven-time Gold Glove Award winner, with a lifetime ERA+ of 123 and 82.7 bWAR in 18 seasons. He came up just shy of the magic numbers in strikeouts (2,813) and wins (270) during his playing days, but his Gray Ink, Hall of Fame Monitor, and Hall of Fame Standards rankings all point to him someday reaching Cooperstown, though it may take a few more tries.
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