By Jon Weisman
It’s been a Hall of a day …
- As anticipated, Don Mattingly’s contract extension through the 2016 season as manager of the Dodgers became official today. Ken Gurnick of MLB.com has the details from Mattingly and Ned Colletti.
- Greg Maddux’s 3.94 ERA in 19 games with the Dodgers — as well as his 3.14 ERA in 4,894 innings with some other major-league teams — allowed him to sneak into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. (Craig Biggio missed election by a mere two votes out of 571.)
- Clayton Kershaw’s potential for the Hall of Fame, summed up by Dan Szymborski for ESPN Insider: “Only an injury or a severe case of writer myopia can derail Kershaw’s Hall of Fame run. A 79.7 WAR puts Kershaw just below Bob Gibson and Curt Schilling and just above Tom Glavine and Old Hoss Radbourn.”
- Here are some scouting reports of recently elected and would-be Hall of Famers, courtesy of Ben Lindbergh of Baseball Prospectus. The take on Mike Piazza in 1986, offered by scout Brad Kohler:
- At the Hardball Times, Frank Johnson writes about the improbability of Pee Wee Reese playing in seven World Series and having them all be against the New York Yankees. “Even given the Dodgers’ and Yankees’ proclivity for winning pennants in the ’40s and ’50s, that defies the odds,” Jackson says. “And there could have been three more matchups.”
- I continue to be fascinated by the story of Chris Cotillo, the high school senior who has been breaking major baseball transaction stories. He writes about the experience for MLB Daily Dish.
