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[mizzourah615]

I heard tonight, when I was watching the Cardinals vs. Mets game, that there are no pitching coaches in the Hall of Fame. Dave Duncan is a man who sits in Tony LaRussa's shadow, but I think LaRussa wouldn't have the amazing record he does without duncan. Duncan is a man who won a World Series with names like, Jeff Weaver, and Anthony Reyes. This year he may be preforming his finest work. Right now the Cardinals starting Rotation consist of, Kyle Loshe, Todd wellemeyer, Braden Looper, and Mitchell Boggs. As of right now the Cardinals have the second best record in the NL,  He is a master at taking mediocre pitchers and turning them into big game winners. He gets them to make really good purpose pitches, and keep the ball low. LaRussa is a slam dunk for the hall of fame, but without Duncan he would not enjoy the success he has today. Personally I think he should be in, if broadcasters and Umps are in there.

[tribesman]

I guess they should allow coaches into the hall of fame but isn't that really for accomplishments as players ?

[bostonabstract]

no. he definitely should not.

it is impossible to tell how many wins a given manager/coach is worth to a team, but given that guys like lance berkman, who has been probably the best overall player this season, has given the astros something like 7 or so wins as opposed to the average replacement player (according to his WARP1), i doubt it is any really significant number. these guys don't play the game. they sit on a bench and watch it. as far as the cardinals pitchers this year, i don't really know what warrants giving their coach hall of fame consideration.

kyle lohse - 4.14 dera
todd wellemeyer - 4.24 dera
braden looper - 4.88 dera
mitchell boggs - 4.54 dera

those numbers are pretty bad. and in the case of looper and lohse, they're actually underperforming this season in comparison with their career averages. if dave duncan is helping them to keep their pitches low or pitch well in big games (which is totally circumstantial and provides a much, much too small sample size for any accurate conclusion of anything to be made anyway), it certainly isn't showing up on the stat sheets.

as far as the world series things go, i don't think the chances are really that low that a mediocre pitcher like anthony reyes or a headcase like jeff weaver could put together one above average start. in fact, it happens all the time. it isn't like they were consistently great over some huge span of time. dave duncan never pitched in that world series, and i very seriously doubt that he has taught the guys that did any kind of techniques to help them suck over a large number of innings pitched, but only pitch well in a world series game.

[tribesman]

todd wellemeyer has been a big disappointment to me this year. I picked him for my fantasy team but had to drop him because a number of bad outings.

[mybaseballcardspace]

I think the hall of fame should recognize accomplishments to the respective game.  If the voters feel that he contributed as much as other hall of famers, then by all means he should be in.