Cooperstown Choices: Jose Mesa

With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Jose Mesa

Jose Mesa
Mesa’s 19 year major league career spanned eight teams, most notably the Cleveland Indians. While in Cleveland he would be selected to two All Star rosters, finish second in the 1995 Cy Young Award voting and fourth in the 1995 Most Valuable Player voting.

Year	Tm	W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA+	SO/9
1987	BAL	1	3	6.03	6	5	0	0	31.1	38	23	21	15	17	73	4.9
1990	BAL	3	2	3.86	7	7	0	0	46.2	37	20	20	27	24	99	4.6
1991	BAL	6	11	5.97	23	23	0	0	123.2	151	86	82	62	64	67	4.7
1992	TOT	7	12	4.59	28	27	1	0	160.2	169	86	82	70	62	86	3.5
1992	BAL	3	8	5.19	13	12	1	0	67.2	77	41	39	27	22	77	2.9
1992	CLE	4	4	4.16	15	15	0	0	93.0	92	45	43	43	40	94	3.9
1993	CLE	10	12	4.92	34	33	0	0	208.2	232	122	114	62	118	88	5.1
1994	CLE	7	5	3.82	51	0	22	2	73.0	71	33	31	26	63	123	7.8
1995	CLE	3	0	1.13	62	0	57	46	64.0	49	9	8	17	58	418	8.2
1996	CLE	2	7	3.73	69	0	60	39	72.1	69	32	30	28	64	130	8.0
1997	CLE	4	4	2.40	66	0	38	16	82.1	83	28	22	28	69	195	7.5
1998	TOT	8	7	4.57	76	0	36	1	84.2	91	50	43	38	63	99	6.7
1998	CLE	3	4	5.17	44	0	18	1	54.0	61	36	31	20	35	92	5.8
1998	SFG	5	3	3.52	32	0	18	0	30.2	30	14	12	18	28	116	8.2
1999	SEA	3	6	4.98	68	0	60	33	68.2	84	42	38	40	42	100	5.5
2000	SEA	4	6	5.36	66	0	29	1	80.2	89	48	48	41	84	86	9.4
2001	PHI	3	3	2.34	71	0	59	42	69.1	65	26	18	20	59	182	7.7
2002	PHI	4	6	2.97	74	0	64	45	75.2	65	26	25	39	64	131	7.6
2003	PHI	5	7	6.52	61	0	47	24	58.0	71	44	42	31	45	62	7.0
2004	PIT	5	2	3.25	70	0	65	43	69.1	78	26	25	20	37	132	4.8
2005	PIT	2	8	4.76	55	0	48	27	56.2	61	30	30	26	37	88	5.9
2006	COL	1	5	3.86	79	0	26	1	72.1	73	32	31	36	39	128	4.9
2007	TOT	2	3	7.11	56	0	21	1	50.2	53	48	40	25	29	65	5.2
2007	DET	1	1	12.34	16	0	8	0	11.2	19	16	16	6	9	38	6.9
2007	PHI	1	2	5.54	40	0	13	1	39.0	34	32	24	19	20	83	4.6
19 Yrs		80	109	4.36	1022	95	633	321	1548.2	1629	811	750	651	1038	100	6.0
162 Game Avg.		5	7	4.36	62	6	39	20	94	99	49	46	40	63	100	6.0
		W	L	ERA	G	GS	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA+	SO/9
CLE (7 yrs)		33	36	3.88	341	48	195	104	647.1	657	305	279	224	447	116	6.2
PHI (4 yrs)		13	18	4.05	246	0	183	112	242.0	235	128	109	109	188	102	7.0
BAL (4 yrs)		13	24	5.41	49	47	1	0	269.1	303	170	162	131	127	74	4.2
PIT (2 yrs)		7	10	3.93	125	0	113	70	126.0	139	56	55	46	74	108	5.3
SEA (2 yrs)		7	12	5.18	134	0	89	34	149.1	173	90	86	81	126	92	7.6
COL (1 yr)		1	5	3.86	79	0	26	1	72.1	73	32	31	36	39	128	4.9
SFG (1 yr)		5	3	3.52	32	0	18	0	30.2	30	14	12	18	28	116	8.2
DET (1 yr)		1	1	12.34	16	0	8	0	11.2	19	16	16	6	9	38	6.9

AL (13 yrs)		54	73	4.53	540	95	293	138	1077.2	1152	581	543	442	709	97	5.9
NL (8 yrs)		26	36	3.96	482	0	340	183	471.0	477	230	207	209	329	108	6.3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/12/2012.

Why He Should Get In
His 321 saves ranks him 14th in major league baseball over his career. For a good portion of his career, he was considered one of the best closers in baseball.

Why He Should Not Get In
Closers are still not getting into the Hall Of Fame easily and Mesa would have a hill to climb to get there. With players ahead of him with more than 400 saves, he will be hard pressed to force his way in to Cooperstown.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorized | Cooperstown Choices 2013, I-70 Baseball Exclusives