Back in the Friday Funday groove today, looking at the MLB players of the past with a critical and honest eye, we are. We’re in Vegas this weekend for some athletic fun, even though we are way past our primes as athletes. So be it: we get serious today about an overrated guy who should not be in the Hall of Fame, really. Yes, we’re talking about starting pitcher Jack Morris. You can read a glowing bio elsewhere, but we’re here to crunch numbers, and quantitatively so.

First, the qualitative stuff: Morris was a five-time All Star who won three World Series with three different teams, while also claiming a WS MVP vote win in the process—and we actually think he should have won another WS MVP, too. However, his regular-season career is problematic to us, statistically speaking. He ranks just 164th all time among starting pitchers, regardless of his postseason exploits while playing for very talented teams. Thus, we have dilemmas!

Morris earned just 43.5 WAR in his career, spread out across 18 seasons from 1977-1994. He never won a Cy Young vote, nor should he have. His big claim to fame was winning the most games in the 1980s, but comparative data like that for counting statistics is relatively worthless, as win totals often are dependent on the quality of team around the pitcher. His lifetime ERA (3.90) does not scream greatness, nor does his WHIP (1.296). Morris is quite the condundrum, really, eh?

He did lead the American League in wins twice (1981, 1992), and he somehow topped the AL in strikeouts once as well (1983) despite a mere 7.1 K/9 rate that year. In fact, his overall career K rate (5.8 per 9 IP) and his walk rate (3.3 per 9 IP) are downright pedestrian. His ERA+ (105) says a lot, too, in the sense he was only a little bit better than the average pitcher. So, how did he post 254 wins? Well, he did play for five division winners, and he did win three World Series, so … yeah.

However, outside those two WS MVP efforts, he never won another postseason game: he went 7-0 in the 1984 and 1991 postseasons combined while going 0-4 in the 1987 and 1992 playoffs put together. That’s some strange highs and some strange lows there. Morris was basically a slightly better-than-average pitcher who just happened to play for some good teams and do well sometimes for them in the playoffs while flaming out roughly at other times. We can’t forget the facts.

Was he ever even the “best player” on any of his teams? He pitched 14 seasons for the Detroit Tigers (1977-1990), one season for the Minnesota Twins (1991), two seasons for the Toronto Blue Jays (1992-1993), and one season for the Cleveland Indians (1994). Technically, he won four World Series, although he was so bad in 1993 at age 38, the Blue Jays left him off their postseason roster. Let’s break down all those seasons, in terms of his relevance to overall team quality:

  • Detroit: He was the best player on the 1979 Tigers with 5.8 WAR, but the team finished fifth in the AL East. That was only year of his career in Motown where he was the best player on his own team.
  • Minnesota: He finished fifth in WAR for the 1991 Twins at age 36, but he was the third-best starting pitcher overall with 4.3 WAR. Morris then gave up 35 hits in 36 1/3 IP during the postseason, while striking out just 22 batters. He went 4-0 with a 2.23 ERA in five starts, however, despite those pretty mediocre peripherals (thanks to defense?).
  • Toronto: With 2.8 WAR, he was the ninth-best player on the 1992 Blue Jays, and his minus-1.6 WAR in 1993 really was the end of his career despite the Cleveland franchise getting desperate before the 1994 season.
  • Cleveland: Despite a 10-win season for a team that went 66-47 overall, he earned just 0.2 WAR with a 5.60 ERA.

So, really, only once in his career was he the best player on his team, and he seems to have made the Hall of Fame based on those two postseasons (1984, 1991) and that fact that he won the most games of any pitcher in the 1980s—despite the fact he was never the best pitcher in the league and only was the best player on his teams just once. This is why he ended up being a backdoor Cooperstown guy, since he never was voted in by the writers—he was rewarded by the veterans vote.

They somehow overlooked his bad postseasons (1987, 1992) and all the other middling marks on his slate. Yet his presence weakens the credibility of the Hall of Fame in this way. We gave him our 1984 WS MVP nod, even though he didn’t win that vote, and we confirmed his 1991 WS MVP vote win, too, so we’ve already honored Morris for his legitimate achievements. Now we’re here to say he has no business being in the MLB Hall of Fame, and he really doesn’t belong.

Facts over feelings, people … always.