Bruce Bochy: HOFer?

Was looking at the list of career wins by managers and saw that Bochy is approaching 2000 career wins. Everyone ahead of him on the wins list is already in the Hall of Fame. Bochy has 3 World Series titles, yet surprisingly he has a sub-.500 career winning percentage, .498.

If he gets to .500, there'd really be no argument against his induction. But what if he stays below .500 and what if he even drops further? Will that be enough to overcome his 3 rings? I don't think so. That's as many rings as John McGraw, Tony LaRussa, Sparky Anderson and Miller Huggins. Besides, Connie Mack and Bucky Harris both had records that were below .500 and they're enshrined.

So he seems like a good bet. But who else of active or recently active managers?

I'd wager than Francona, Scioscia and Piniella make it, but Dusty Baker doesn't because he doesn't have a ring.

 

And took the Padres to the series.

In.

 

He is a lock.

11th in wins. Every manager with at least three titles is in. Every manager with 4 pennants is in.

Scioscia won't make it unless he gets back into managing. The one title/pennant and win total isn't going to be enough, not for a guy who had 7 losing seasons out of 19 and missed the playoffs five other times.

Piniella and Leyland will be the next two managers to get inducted.

Francona is the only active manager who will be inducted. Maddon still has work to do and Roberts is laying a strong early foundation.

 

Yes. Didn't have to think about it.

Will love the day Jim Leyland is inducted.

 

Is Ralph Houk appropriately left out?
3 pennants, 2 WS. 20th all time wins

 

Bochy seems like a no-brainer HOFamer to me.

 

Of course he is.

 

BTW, your avatar reminds me of something I was thinking about: There's a real possibility that Jeffrey Leonard was the first player who was committed to wearing a cap with a flat brim. I know, important stuff. But seriously, I can't remember ever seeing someone prior to him who rocked it.

 

Houk I think is the dividing line for a couple of reasons -- the biggest being he is viewed as inheriting a dynasty and his biggest three seasons, the two titles and the pennant, are those three seasons. He managed 18 more seasons and never won another pennant. Nine of those were losing seasons and he only won more than 90 games once in that span.

There's 13 guys with 2 titles. Francona is one and not in obviously and Frank Chance is in as a player. So of the other 11, five are in. The others not are Houk, Kelly, Murtaugh, Gatson and two guys who managed seven and nine years respectively, so they obviously are not candidates at all.

The guys around him with less than three titles have at least one more pennant -- Lasorda, Williams, McKechnie -- or circumstances that are easily explained, like Al Lopez.

If Houk got in I don't think there would be an outcry, but if he leads a level with Mauch, Baker, Davey Johnson, Murtaugh and for now Piniella and Leyland as guys on the outside I think that's a fair arguement.

 

I feel a duty to mention Billy Martin, who I believe deserves enshrinement. He was a Hall of Fame asshole, too.

 

This is a silly question. The real question is how overwhelmingly will the vote be

 

Who you calling silly, peckerwood?

jk.