Add this to the list of reasons to dislike Joe Buck

Joe Buck. You hate him, I hate him, almost every sports fan I know hates him. He handled broadcasting duties this past Sunday during the Red Sox/Reds contest and was speaking about Mario Soto's influence on some of the Reds young pitchers.

"If he [Soto] was on better teams, he'd be walking into the Hall of Fame."

So me, being a picky jerk, decided to look up Mr. Soto's numbers.

About that walk into the Hall...

W/L - 100/92
So this is probably where Buck is on point. With a career 3.47 ERA (which is pretty good) he could have had more than 100 wins with better run support. In a season where he had a 2.79 ERA, his W/L was 14-13. Point for Buck.

ERA/WHIP - 3.47/1.18
The WHIP is actually pretty good, better than HOFers like Gibson and Spahn. Granted, those guys pitched for longer than Soto's 12 seasons, but, oh well. The ERA is tied with a lot of people for 392 all-time. Looking around the 390+ range, I only see Glavine as someone who has a similar ERA and is in (when the time comes) the Hall. We split this one.
Buck: 2 Me: 1.

K/BB - 1449/657
His K's are good for 185 all-time, which is pretty solid considering the 12 seasons. Ahh but that bugaboo known as the walk hurts Soto. He's ranked 806 in BB/9IP, behind studs like Kid Gleason, Johnny Allen and Bobby Bolin. Again, split decision.
Buck: 3 Me: 2.

ERA+ - 108
League average is 100. Yeah, 108 is not that good. He's tied with many others for 353 all-time including Tim Wakefield, David Wells and Mike Boddicker. That's one for me.
Buck: 3 Me: 3.

Cy Youngs/All-Star games - 0/3
He finished 5, 9, 2, 6 in Cy voting over his career. Now however dumb award voting is, that's not very good. Sure, wins are a big part of it (as are better pitchers who pitched the same time as him), but I'd counter with the all-star appearances. He was only good enought to be voted to three ASGs? And he's going to walk into the Hall?
Buck: 3 Me: 5.

HOF Standard/Monitor score - 15/27
The average HOFer has scores of about 50 and 100, respectively. So like four Mario Sotos would just barely be a HOF pitcher. Good to know.

Remember Glavine, who has a higher career ERA than Soto? His HOF Monitor score is 176. Pitchers with a 27: Danny Graves and Mike Meyers.
A billion points for me.
Buck: 3 Me: 1,000,000,005.

Winner!