Leading up to the Baseball Hall of Fame class announcement on Jan. 21, we’ve been examining the cases of notable candidates every week. We’ve already covered Félix Hernández, CC Sabathia, Andruw Jones, Francisco Rodríguez, Ichiro Suzuki and a trio of second basemen in Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia and Ian Kinsler. Our final case analysis revolves around Billy Wagner, who’s in his 10th and final year of BBWAA eligibility.
The primary objective of pitching is to suppress hitting. Over the past 105 years, Billy Wagner is one of the best pitchers at the most elemental definition of the craft—while pitching mostly with the game on the line.
