Ken Gurnick: Professional Asshole

In Commentary And Analysis by myles41 Comments

I'm not going to link it, because that would be giving him publicity he doesn't deserve. Instead, I'll just copy and paste Gurnick's "reasoning" behind his HOF ballot.

KEN GURNICK, Dodgers beat reporter
Morris

Morris has flaws — a 3.90 ERA, for example. But he gets my vote for more than a decade of ace performance that included three 20-win seasons, Cy Young Award votes in seven seasons and Most Valuable Players votes in five. As for those who played during the period of PED use, I won't vote for any of them.

Let that ballot sink in for a second. Let the stupidity wash over you like a tsunami. 59 words, each stupider than the last. This crime against intelligence is going to be observed by alien civilizations, likely, as the apex of human stupidity. Let's dive into it. First, let's note who Mr. Gurnick left off. To start with, we have the admitted steroid users. You can make arguments to keep people that were actually caught using steroids off the list. Some of those arguments hold more water than others. To that end, I can buy the argument on keeping Mssrs. Bonds and Clemens off the ballot. However, how on Earth do you exclude Greg Maddux? "As for those who played during the period of PED use, I won't vote for any of them." What a piece of shit. This isn't even guilty until proven innocent – this is just guilty even if innocent. The only thing this proves is that Ken Gurnick is an asshole.

So, Gurnick won't vote for anyone who played after 1998 (note, however, that his courageous stand against even the innocent players of the PED era did NOT extend to him refusing to write about the sport for the MLB). Who will he vote for, then? Let's assume that Raines is the last player he is eligible to vote for (and in that case, hopefully Gurnick will turn in his voting rights in 8 years when he'll be eligible to vote for nobody). That leaves 5 people he could vote for:

Jack Morris (67.7% last year)
Tim Raines (52.2%)
Lee Smith (47.8%)
Alan Trammell (33.6%)
Don Mattingly (13.2%)

The insane criteria for Gurnick's vote are simple: Cy Young votes when applicable (7 times, woo), MVP votes, and a "decade of ace performance with 20 wins". Let's see who qualifies under that criteria.

Tim Raines had 7 years in which he garnered MVP consideration, with a 5th place, 6th place, and 7th place finish. From '83 to '92, he had 51.6 WAR (an average of 5.2 a year), which is definitive "ace" performance. Wins are a meaningless stat, but they are a way that pitchers are measured. SB work as a relatively misleading substitute; Raines led the league 4 consecutive years. He also had 30+ doubles for 6 consecutive years. He also had more MVP shares (0.99) than Morris has Cy shares (0.73) By Gurnick's criteria, Raines is at least as accomplished as Morris is. 

Alan Trammell had 7 years in which he garnered MVP consideration, with a 2nd place and 7th place finish among them. From '83 to '93, he had 54.9 WAR (an average of 4.9 a year), which is borderline "ace" performance. Even though he played shortstop, Trammell had plenty of pop, hitting 185 HR in his 20 years, including 105 during his age-25 to age-30 seasons. He has a good hitter at a premium defensive position, and he was a very good defender as well. I might also mention his 1.300 OPS during the 1984 World Series, or his 1.318 OPS during the 1984 ALCS. He also has more MVP shares (1.22) than Morris has Cy shares (0.73). By Gurnick's criteria, Trammell is at least as accomplished as Morris is.

Lee Smith had…well, we'll move right along (though I might note that Smith's career ERA+ is 132 and Morris' is 105).

Don Mattingly…this is where the full idiocy of Ken Gurnick really shines. Mattingly was an MVP candidate 7 times. He actually won the MVP in one of those seasons. He led the league in meaningful stats like doubles and SLG. He was a great hitter. Donnie Baseball is more or less what Jack Morris' candidacy would be like if Morris wasn't on good teams. While I'll agree that Mattingly didn't have the prolonged dominance that a traditional MVP had, you actually can't find a stretch of X years were Mattingly was worse than Morris. Mattingly is not a HOF-caliber player, and he's probably a better choice than Morris, even by Gurnick's criteria.

Let's wrap it up. Ken Gurnick takes the immoral, un-American, and frankly idiotic stance to exclude any player who played after 1998 (even ones that could presumably be PROVED INNOCENT, which of course can never happen). That then leaves him with 5 choices, and he selects a single player that would by his own metrics be a worse choice than we'd expect if he just chose one at random. We are left only with the conclusion that Ken Gurnick is a professional asshole. 

 

 

 

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  1. dmick89

    You know, I don’t care one bit whether Jack Morris gets into the Hall of Fame or not. If the bar is set at Jack Morris and above then all those better should be in. Maybe a few who were worse should be too. If they want to set the bar at Ryan Theriot, I’m perfectly happy with that. I really don’t care where that threshold is.

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  2. mikeakaleroy

    Calcaterra had a good point about this asshole too:

    Jack Morris played through 1994. His career overlapped with nine of Greg Maddux’s seasons, including three of his four Cy Young seasons. So that either means that Gurnick thinks Maddux actually used PEDs while Morris did not or he has zero grasp on the concept of eras or what “the period of PED use” actually was.

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  3. Rice Cube

    In contrast, here’s Carrie Muskat’s ballot:

    CARRIE MUSKAT, Cubs beat reporter
    Biggio, Bonds, Clemens, Glavine, Maddux, Raines, Thomas, Trammell

    It was so satisfying to check Maddux’s name, having covered him in both of his stints with the Cubs. I just wish he was going into Cooperstown with a Cubs cap on his plaque. Other newcomers — and no-brainers — on my ballot were Glavine and Thomas. You didn’t want to miss the Big Hurt’s at-bats.

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  4. Author
    Myles

    Oh, don’t take this to mean that I don’t think Jack Morris belongs in the HOF or not. I mean, he doesn’t, as it’s instituted currently, but it’s an argument you could have. I only care that Gurnick clearly says one thing and does another, all the while taking a holier-than-thou approach to PEDs that (as Calcaterra and dmick have pointed out) doesn’t even make sense at face value.

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  5. Rice Cube

    I just don’t understand how you can’t choose ten names off this list. The ballot is loaded even if you exclude the PED guys as you said. That’s my quibble with Muskat’s ballot, she only picked 8.

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  6. dmick89

    @ Myles:
    Agreed. Based on where that current threshold is, Morris doesn’t belong.

    I wasn’t saying anything about your complaints here, which are good ones, but rather the endless complaints from others about why Jack doesn’t belong. Who cares? If he gets in, it just means more players are deserving and since I’ll never visit the HOF anyway, I don’t care how many plaques there are.

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  7. Like You Care

    Looks like they updated the mock simulator. SF goes first in today’s series of 4-round mocks:

    28 TE ERIC EBRON UNC
    56 WR PAUL RICHARDSON COLORADO
    60 CB E.J. GAINES MISSOURI
    77 S CALVIN PRYOR LOUISVILLE
    92 QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO EASTERN ILLINOIS
    124 OT JAMES HURST UNC

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  8. Like You Care

    GB’s:

    21 S HA’SEAN CLINTON-DIX ALABAMA
    53 DT EGO FERGUSON LSU
    85 G GABE JACKSON MISSISSIPPI STATE
    117 QB DAVID FALES SAN JOSE STATE

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  9. Edwin

    Probably could have seen this coming, with regards to Gurnick. He didn’t vote for Larkin or Alomar either. What a jackass. He’s basically decided never to vote for a single player from an entire era. That’s actually kind of offensive to me, since the era he’s excluding is basically the era I grew up cheering for as a kid.

    He did vote for Lee Smith, who pitched till 1997, but that seems to be the only case where he voted for someone who played much time during the steroid era, whenever that officially is.

    I must have missed the heroic job he did covering baseball in 1998 and warning about how steroids were ruining the game.

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  10. Author
    Myles

    EnricoPallazzo wrote:

    Myles wrote:
    Fun fact of the day: Matt Morris has a better career ERA+ than Jack Morris does.

    so does doug dascenzo.

    Highest Career QB rating, 10+ passing attempts…

    1. Antwaan Randle El
    2. LaDainian Tomlinson

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  11. Like You Care

    CHI’s:

    14 DE KONY EALY MISSOURI
    51 CB KYLE FULLER VIRGINIA TECH
    82 OLB DEE FORD AUBURN
    113 S DION BAILEY USC

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  12. Like You Care

    @ Myles:

    I’m not as caught up on their needs as the others, so correct me if I’m wrong. Defense and OLine?

    25 OT GREG ROBINSON AUBURN
    57 DE JACKSON JEFFCOAT TEXAS
    89 S AHMAD DIXON BAYLOR
    121 CB KEITH MCGILL UTAH

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  13. Like You Care

    Wasn’t there a MIN fan in the house?

    8 QB JOHNNY MANZIEL TEXAS A&M
    40 DE KONY EALY MISSOURI
    72 WR DONTE MONCRIEF MISSISSIPPI
    96 OG XAVIER SU’A-FILO UCLA
    104 TE ARTHUR LYNCH GEORGIA

    I don’t think there’s any way those first two players will be there, but that’s what the simulator gave me.

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  14. Like You Care

    @ Berselius:

    I’m just doing a simulation for each team individually. Until I see more of the players and everyone declares, I’m only using the simulator. And while I use it, I’m not changing values. For example, I don’t think there’s any way Kony Ealy is the 39th ranked player going into the draft. I mock him to CHI because it makes so much sense in terms of value, but if he’s available at MIN’s second rounder, I’m not passing on him just because I think he’ll go higher.

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  15. Like You Care

    I was tempted to just draft the fastest players for OAK, but I went ahead and did it for real:

    5 QB DEREK CARR FRESNO STATE
    36 OT CEDRIC OGBUEHI TEXAS A&M
    67 WR JARVIS LANDRY LSU
    103 DT DAQUAN JONES PENN STATE

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  16. Author
    Myles

    I live in Indianapolis, so Colts would be nice.

    As for the Chargers needs, it’s basically both lines, and then linebackers, then corners.

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  17. Mucker

    Is there anyway to get somebody’s HoF voting privileges revoked? How can somebody continue to have a vote when it’s clear he has a personal vendetta against these players?

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  18. sitrick

    Like You Care wrote:

    Wasn’t there a MIN fan in the house?
    8 QB JOHNNY MANZIEL TEXAS A&M
    40 DE KONY EALY MISSOURI
    72 WR DONTE MONCRIEF MISSISSIPPI
    96 OG XAVIER SU’A-FILO UCLA
    104 TE ARTHUR LYNCH GEORGIA
    I don’t think there’s any way those first two players will be there, but that’s what the simulator gave me.

    I hope I do get the chance to watch Johnny Football make a drunken mess of himself in a downtown bar some night.

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  19. Like You Care

    @ Berselius:

    That would be nice, but the website makes you pick one team. After declarations and the combine, I’ll start on my own big board/mock draft.

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  20. Joey b

    This guy shouldn’t be allowed to vote and hopefully he’ll get fired, but only if everyone abstains from reading anything he publishes in the future.

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