2025 retirements

[stevejrogers]

Surprised the no doubt member of the HOF Class of 2031, so far, Clayton Kershaw hasn’t been mentioned yet.

Will ride out the Dodger postseason run, then will bid adieu to his playing days.

 

And he’ll get a ring as well!

[stevejrogers]

I don't remember Rizzo ever being touted as a future Hall of Famer. He was a top-100 prospect prior to his call-up but nothing resembling a can't miss.

Plus anyone who touts anybody as a HoF early in a career should be ignored, or at least made to calm down for a few years. And by 'few' I mean at least eight.

 

Not a tout, but anyone getting HOF hype before a debut makes me think of the bizarre reasoning Warner Wolf used to say he thought Joba Chamberlain should have made his debut in the starting rotation!

He’s on his Sunday morning ESPN radio show in the summer of 2006, and touted Yankee prospect Joba Chamberlain is expected to get a call up.

Due to him being drafted straight out of college there was discussion among Yankee fandom about how he’d be handled (Joba Rules becamr a meme, and a shirt based on how the organization wanted to slowly move him along).

So, Wolf is discussing this, and says Chamberlain should be inserted into the starting rotation right off the bat. Okay, it was a fair opinion, though it’s not what the Yankees ended up doing when he was called up in August of 2007.

What wasn’t fair, and very odd was his reasoning. To that point he claimed, ALL PITCHERS in the baseball Hall of Fame were starters first! 😳🤨🤣

Okay, now doing some research, this actually makes absolutely ZERO sense, at all. Chamberlain was drafted in 2006, legendary 1980s (Cubs, Cardinals) closer Bruce Sutter, who never started a single game in the majors was finally elected to the Hall in January of 2006, inducted in July.

I mean sure the point was more “the path too Cooperstown is rare for full time closers from the start of their careers” but it wasn’t ZERO when Chamberlain was being hot shorted through the Yankee organization.

Anyway, suffice to say, the reasoning is pretty dumb. Like anyone is genuinely thinking about a prospect’s eventual induction into Cooperstown, and how to fast track it, is in ANY ONE involved in an organization’s player development, managerial and coaching staffs!

FWIW, Chamberlain did have a decent enough 10-year career, though as a long reliever.

Never appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot!

The other point is, it’s clear research wasn’t put into the assertion about the amount of starting pitchers in the Hall of Fame being starters from their debut forward.

It is, and has been possible since the late 1990s with sites like RetroSheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com but it is still time consuming to put in to see if, like the three pre-Sutter relievers in Cooperstown, if they all were clearly starters right away, or eased into it for whatever reason (ie Nolan Ryan split his pitching time in 1969 for the Mets as a spot starter and long reliever).

So the point is still more how Wolf pulled the assertion out of his ass. With no regard for any facts to back it up beyond the three closers already in the Hall at that time being well known for being used as starters primarily for the first few years, at least, of their careers.

[MFS62]

That reminds me of when I was a counsellor at summer camp. An eight year old asked me if I thought Joe Pepitone would make the Hall of fame. I told him that since he only hit .239, he'd have to improve a lot to make the Hall.

Ruined the kid's day.

Later

[Cowtipper]

With the 2025 World Series now in the rearview, all-time great Clayton Kershaw is officially retired.

Very few players truly awe me, but Kershaw was one of them.

[Cowtipper]

Erik Swanson retired.

David Fletcher has retired.

The quietly very excellent Kyle Hendricks has retired.

Travis Jankowski has retired.

Max Stassi has retired.

Fraser Ellard retired.

[Cowtipper]

Austin Nola has retired.

[Cowtipper]

David Dahl retired.

Jake Lamb, a forgotten 30-homer guy from way back in 2017, retired.

[Cowtipper]

Jose Martinez has retired.

[Cowtipper]

Jae-gyun Hwang has retired.

Andrew Heaney has retired.

[Cowtipper]

Right before the year ended, reliever Joe Kelly retired.