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Originally Posted by JustinD
I would disagree as Hershiser's noise was made from 84' to 89' and then somewhat averagish after. He never really turned it back after the 90' season to his prior skillset. Without the shoulder injury, I would say it would be likely he would have a member of the hall.
Morris, while a completely different pitcher due to what Sparky wanted, had a far more complete career with not a 6 year arc, but far more accomplishments over time and was even grabbing CYA and MVP votes in 92 with 21 wins 16 years in. There are many short burst stories in the history of MLB, avoiding injury and a long career is hard. They both played 18 years, but Jack faced more than 3k more batters and 650+ innings and still has a fractionally better w-l. Those stinkers in 89 and 93 kill his W-l also.
That said, Orel's career was still pretty darn good and either argument is sound. I just think the injuries ruin the argument for Orel.
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At over 3000 IP Hershiser isn't exactly short on career duration, but obviously it splits into two different eras for him. But even with the mediocre portion of his career his ratio numbers pretty thoroughly trounce Morris.
+1 to Stieb and Cone
I picked Hershiser because he was significantly better in the postseason for his career than Morris in similar exposure, yet everyone makes the argument for Morris base on the postseason.
Hell If you want a better pitcher than Morris with more impressive post season credentials who isn't in the hall you don't even have to leave the Tigers. I'd take Mickey Lolich over Morris any day.
The list could get pretty extensive actually even if you stick to pitchers who at least briefly overlapped Morris's career. You can make an argument for:
Lolich, Stieb, Cone, Dennis Martinez, Steve Rogers, Saberhagen, Kevin Brown, Rick Reuschel, Andy Messersmith, David Wells and that's just off the top of my head.