Johnson, Martinez, Smoltz, Biggio elected to Hall of Fame

A trio of dominant pitchers – Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz – and 3,000-hit second baseman Craig Biggio will comprise baseball's first four-man Hall of Fame class in 60 years.

In results announced Tuesday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the pitchers were landslide choices in their first year on the ballot -- Johnson earning a near-record 97.3% -- and Biggio got in after falling two votes short a year ago.

It's the first time BBWAA voters have selected this many players since 1955, when Joe DiMaggio, Dazzy Vance, Ted Lyons and Gabby Hartnett got in.

And it's the first time three pitchers have been elected in the same class.

Biggio got past the magic 75% of ballots cast in his third year of eligibility.

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Catcher Mike Piazza takes over Biggio's next-in-line status, moving to 69.9% this year, his third on the ballot, from 62.2% a year ago.

Only once have the writers chosen more than four players – in 1936 when Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson formed the Hall's initial class.

Seven-time MVP Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens fell well short of election in their third year on the ballot, Bonds getting 36.5% of the vote and Clemens 37.8%.

There has never been a unanimous selection – not for any of the legends chosen in 1936 or anytime since.

The record remains 98.8% by Tom Seaver in 1992 and Nolan Ryan in 1999. Cal Ripken was on 98.5% in 2007 and Cobb led the first group with 98.2%, a number matched by George Brett in '99.

Players become eligible five years after retirement and can remain on the ballot for 10 years – down from 15 years in changes made this year – as long as they show up on at least 5% of ballot.

Jeff Bagwell, Biggio's teammate who hit 449 home runs, basically treaded water in his fifth year on the ballot. He received 55.7%, up from last year's 54.3% but down from his high of 59.6%, achieved before the past two years produced the half-dozen blue-chip candidates who earned first-ballot inductions.

This year's quartet made it through easily.

Martinez was not far behind Johnson, earning 500 votes, or 91.1% of the 549 ballots cast. Smoltz and Biggio were neck-and-neck, earning 455 (82.9%) and 454 (82.7%) votes, respectively.

After his near-miss in 2014, Biggio had a solid firewall among the electorate, exceeding the plateau by a solid 42 votes.

He joins a Hall of Fame class that could mow down most any lineup in the hitter-friendly 1990s and 2000s.

There wasn't a more feared pitcher in the majors during his heyday than Johnson – known as the Big Unit – who came after batters with a nasty disposition, throwing howling fastballs from a 6-10 frame with a three-quarters-to-sidearm motion.

In the 10-year period that started in 1993, Johnson went 175-58 with a 2.73 ERA, averaging 293 strikeouts and 219 innings a season and finishing in the top three in the Cy Young Award voting eight times. He won pitching's top prize in both leagues.

Johnson was the most recent pitcher to win 300 games – in his final season of 2009, with the San Francisco Giants – and might hold that distinction for a long time. His five Cy Young Awards – four of them in a row, from 1999 to 2002, with the Arizona Diamondbacks – rank second all time behind Clemens' seven. Johnson also is second on the career strikeout list behind Ryan with 4,875, and led his league in that department nine times.

"The Hall of Fame was never something that I surely ever thought about," Johnson said.

He threw a perfect game in 2004 at age 40 and was co-MVP of the 2001 World Series with Curt Schilling, when they led Arizona to victory against the New York Yankees.

Martinez had 219 victories and a 2.93 ERA over his 18 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. But his dominance if underlined by one of greatest peak periods of pitching in the game's history.

From 1997 to 2003, in the heart of the steroid era, Martinez finished in the top three in the Cy Young voting six of seven times, going 118-36 with a 2.20 ERA, averaging 5.6 strikeouts per walk and posting a 0.94 WHIP.

Martinez's 1999 season, when he won the pitching Triple Crown while going 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts against 37 walks in 213 1/3 innings, has been cited as one of the greatest since the inception of the DH.

But 2000 was even more historic.

He lowered his ERA to 1.74 and had an unheard-of WAR of 11.7, along with a WHIP of 0.737. His ERA-plus that year, the number that compares a pitcher's performance with league averages, was 291.

That's the highest post-1900 number for a season. Martinez, Greg Maddux and Walter Johnson are the only pitchers with two of the top-10 single seasons in ERA-plus. But Martinez has five of the 34 post-1900 seasons of 200 or better – something nobody else can match.

His career ERA-plus is 154, the best all time for a starter and second only to Mariano Rivera among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings.

Smoltz was the one constant in the Atlanta Braves' run of division titles and playoff appearances but he produced plenty of individual achievements – a Cy Young Award in 1996, eight All-Star selections and two NL strikeout titles.

During his final season with the Braves, Smoltz became the 16th and most recent member of the 3,000-strikeout club. Not only do his 213 wins and 154 saves make him the only pitcher with as many of both, but he and fellow Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley also are the only pitchers to have a 20-win season (Smoltz had 24 in 1996) and a 50-save season (Smoltz had 55 in 2002).

Smoltz missed his age-33 season because of an arm injury, but that merely led to his three-plus-year detour to the bullpen. In his four seasons before the injury, Smoltz had collected 67 victories, so his career total could have been closing in on 300 had he not become a reliever.

Biggio's landmark accomplishment is his 3,060 major league hits, but he also ranks among the most versatile players of any era.

He played three premium positions in his career, starting out as a catcher before moving to second base then taking a brief turn in center field before returning to second for his final years. He also ran the bases well, swiping 414 bags in his 20-season career.

That was part of a steady, consistent career at a high level that produced a .281/.363/.433 line as well as six postseason appearances as he and Bagwell sparked the most successful stretch in Houston Astros franchise history.

Courtesy of BBWAA, Baseball-Reference.com

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