Baseball Hall of Fame voters overlook Edgar Martinez, are still inept at judging designated hitters

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• Milos Raonic, Denis Shapovalov and Eugenie Bouchard all went home early, but Canada could still celebrate an Australian Open title this weekend. Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her mixed doubles partner, Mate Pavic of Croatia, are two wins away from the trophy in Melbourne after beating Johanna Larsson and Matwe Middelkoop 6-3, 7-6 (0) overnight in the quarter-finals. They’re scheduled to play Ekaterina Makarova and Bruno Soares in the semis at 3:20 a.m. ET on Friday. Dabrowski is pursuing her second career Grand Slam mixed doubles title; she won the 2017 French Open with Rohan Bopanna.

Roger Federer and Hyeon Chung are set to take the court at 3:30 a.m. ET Friday for the right to face Marin Cilic in Sunday’s men’s singles final. Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki will meet in the women’s final on Saturday. Telecast info for all this weekend’s action can be found in the TV listings below.

• Elsewhere in tennis, it was announced that Serena Williams will return to competition at Indian Wells in March. Williams’ last tournament was the 2017 Australian Open, which she won when she was eight weeks pregnant with her first child. Her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, was born on Sept. 1. She had hoped to compete in Australia but decided against it because she didn’t believe she was ready to compete for the title yet.

• Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk are the headlining stars of Russia’s Olympic men’s hockey team, which was revealed earlier today. The former NHL titans are teammates on SKA St. Petersburg, a KHL powerhouse that is 46-4-4 with two games left in its season. The team is supplying a whopping 15 players to the neutral Russian roster. Eight of Russia’s 10 other players are from CSKA Moscow, the KHL’s second-place team at 43-10-1. That blend of pedigree and familiarity should make them early favourites for the gold medal.

Other notable names on the roster include former Sabres first-round pick Mikhail Grigorenko; Vadim Shipachyov, who lasted just three games as a free-agent signing in Vegas this season and has 25 points in 21 games since rejoining SKA; and Nikita Gusev, the SKA forward who’s second in KHL scoring with 62 points, one behind Kovalchuk. Defencemen Nikita Nesterov and Vyacheslav Voynov are former NHLers, but longtime Canadiens blueliner Andrei Markov was omitted from the team.

• Rogers Communications doesn’t intend to sell the Blue Jays, executives said on the company’s fourth-quarter conference call today. Rogers’ chief financial officer, Anthony Staffieri, floated the possibility of a sale last month when he told a media and communications conference that the telecom giant is hoping to free up capital for other investments. But Staffieri said on the call that management has consistently voiced its intent to maintain ownership in the team, which Rogers purchased for US$160 million in 2000.

• The Kansas City Royals added Ryan Goins to their roster yesterday, signing him to a minor-league deal with an invitation to the big club’s spring training camp. The Blue Jays cut ties with Goins, the 29-year-old infielder, this off-season after nine seasons in the organization.

• Brad Marchand will get to represent the Bruins in the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, even though the league suspended him for five games last night for elbowing Devils winger Marcus Johansson in the head. Marchand knocked Johansson out of the final two minutes of a 3-2 Boston win on Tuesday night by bumping him in the side of the head during a goalmouth scramble. Marchand wasn’t penalized, but the NHL cited his repeat offender status — this is his sixth career suspension — in imposing the ban.

• Flames goaltender Mike Smith received a late call to join the All-Star festivities in Tampa this weekend. He was added to the Pacific roster today in place of injured Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. Smith has a .926 save percentage and a 15.86 Goals Saved Above Average figure over 41 appearances this season.

• Wrestling mogul Vince McMahon is expected to kickstart his second attempt at forming a rogue professional football league this afternoon. Alpha Entertainment, a company McMahon established in December to make sports and entertainment investments, said it will stream a “major sports announcement” from McMahon on its website and social media pages at 3 p.m. ET. The 72-year-old WWE chairman’s first foray into football was the XFL, a gimmicky would-be challenger to the NFL that flopped after just one season in 2001.

Nutritional analysis

Where once the Baseball Hall of Fame was a generally unquestioned bastion of the game’s greatness and virtues, new ways of evaluating the game coupled with a group of hidebound Hall voters from the Baseball Writers Association of America has made the enterprise something of a laughingstock.

There is no end of commentary on what’s wrong with the process. Here, today, the focus will be narrow: on the electors’ decision to favour Trevor Hoffman over Edgar Martinez. The results of the Class of 2018 were announced last night, with Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero and Jim Thome selected along with Hoffman, the longtime Padres closer.

Closers and designated hitters offer weaker than normal Hall of Fame resumes because of their part-time nature. The closer, especially the modern ones, generally pitch one inning two to four times a week, on average. Designated hitters don’t play defence. Their part-time status is the chief complaint against both.

But which of these types of players is more part-time than the other?

Let’s compare the six relief pitchers who have elected to the Hall of Fame with the five players who had the most plate appearances in major league history while playing 50 per cent or more of their time at DH. First, let’s look at the number of pitcher-batter confrontations each player took part in. Then, let’s examine the number of innings each player spent on the field as a defender.

Eckersley has a big lead on the first chart because he was a starting pitcher for the first 12 of his 24 career seasons. Hoffman, the first of the true ninth-inning specialists to be elected to the Hall, barely has more batters faced than Bruce Sutter, who only played 12 years.

In the second chart, Martinez played more defensive innings than David Ortiz, who is likely a shoo-in when he’s eligible for the ballot in 2022. And Hoffman again is far outpaced by Martinez in the amount of time spent actually participating in the game.

Of the public ballots available at Ryan Thibodaux’s tracker spreadsheet, about 37 of the 255 voters appear to have selected Hoffman and not Martinez. There’s another school of thought that these new positions should still be recognized in the Hall of Fame because they are part of baseball and their greatest practitioners should be honoured nonetheless. Hoffman would qualify under that rubric without doubt.

But Hall electors seem to continue to hold the part-time penalty against designated hitters. Frank Thomas finally cracked through when he was elected in 2014, and Thomas was a more productive and valuable player than Martinez. But if there are now six relief pitchers in the Hall, there surely should be some recognition for the second-best DH in the history of the game.

This third chart compares the three flavours of Wins Above Replacement for these 11 players. Not only does Martinez outpace all the relievers, he has higher marks than Ortiz, whose Big Papi legend and season-defining moments will no doubt tickle voters in four years. But if Thomas is in, and Ortiz will get in, then Martinez should be in.

The Hall recently changed the ballot rules; players now only remain eligible for 10 years. Martinez has one more chance next year.

Photo of the day

January isn’t much of a golf month in Canada, but it sure looks pleasant in Dubai.

At nationalpost.com

• Even Vladimir Guerrero’s foul balls were spectacular. So remembers Jack Todd, the Montreal sportswriter who once watched a colleague nearly get beaned by a furious Guerrero foul tip back to the press box some years ago in San Francisco. As of yesterday evening, Guerrero is a Hall of Famer, and Todd wrote a heartfelt tribute to the man he considers the greatest Expo of them all — a player whose ability to hit any ball from his ankles to his ears was still secondary to his irresistible smile.

• If the Golden Knights have been the happiest surprise of the NHL season to date, the Avalanche have to be a close second. Michael Traikos detailed a few reasons why Colorado and Vegas aren’t jockeying with the Coyotes for last place in the league, from the play of Hart Trophy favourite Nathan MacKinnon and sophomore stud Mikko Rantanen to the work Gerard Gallant and George McPhee have done in shepherding an expansion team to the top of the Western Conference. (Also important: good old fashioned hard work.)

TV this weekend

All times Eastern

Thursday

3 p.m. Golf: PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open Golf Channel
6:22 p.m. Rugby sevens: HSBC World women, Canada vs. Fiji CBC.ca streaming
— Canada vs. Ireland, 9:06 p.m.
— Russia vs. Canada, 11:28 p.m.
7 p.m. NHL: Tampa Bay at Philadelphia SN One
7 p.m. CHL: Top Prospects Game SN 360, Sportsnet
7:30 p.m. NHL
— Carolina at Montreal TSN2, RDS
— Boston at Ottawa TSN5, RDS2
8 p.m. NBA: Washington at Oklahoma City TSN1
8:30 p.m. NHL: Toronto at Dallas TSN4
9 p.m. NHL: Calgary at Edmonton SN West
9 p.m. NBA: New York at Denver NBATV
10 p.m. NHL
— NY Islanders at Vegas SN One
— Buffalo at Vancouver SN Pacific
— Winnipeg at Anaheim TSN3
10:30 p.m. NBA: Minnesota at Golden State TSN1
11 p.m. Tennis: Australian Open, mixed doubles semifinals, women’s doubles final TSN2
11 p.m. Figure skating: Four Continents, pairs free program CBC.ca streaming

Friday

2:30 a.m. Golf: European Tour Omega Dubai Desert Classic Golf Channel
3:30 a.m. Tennis: Australian Open, men’s semifinal No. 2 TSN1,3-5
4:34 a.m. Rugby sevens: HSBC World men, Canada vs. Scotland CBC.ca streaming
5:30 a.m. Snowboarding: World Cup parallel giant slalom CBC.ca streaming
10 a.m. Diving: Winter senior national championships, men’s and women’s 1m, and men’s 10m synchro final CBC.ca streaming
11:30 a.m. Golf: Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic Golf Channel
2:55 p.m. Soccer: FA Cup fourth round, Yeovil Town vs. Manchester United Sportsnet
3 p.m. Golf: PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open Golf Channel
4:35 p.m. Figure skating: Four Continents, women’s free program CBC.ca streaming
7:30 p.m. NBA: Utah at Toronto Sportsnet, SN One
8 p.m. NFL: Pro Bowl Skills Showdown TSN1,4
8 p.m. NCAA Hockey: Notre Dame at Minnesota TSN2
9:30 p.m. Curling: Tournament of Hearts, wildcard game TSN1,3-5
11:30 p.m. Figure skating: Four Continents, men’s free program CBC.ca streaming

Saturday

1:15 a.m. Rugby sevens: HSBC World men, Canada vs. Australia CBC.ca streaming
— Canada vs. U.S., 4:26 a.m.
3:30 a.m. Tennis: Australian Open, women’s final TSN1,3-5
3:30 a.m. Golf: European Tour Omega Dubai Desert Classic Golf Channel
4:15 a.m. Alpine skiing: World Cup women’s giant slalom, first run CBC.ca streaming
— Second run, 7:15 a.m.
5:30 a.m. Tennis: Australian Open, men’s doubles final TSN1,3-5
5:30 a.m. Snowboarding: World Cup snowboard-cross sprint CBC.ca streaming
5:45 a.m. Alpine skiing: World Cup men’s downhill CBC.ca streaming
7:30 a.m. Soccer: FA Cup fourth round, Peterborough United vs. Leicester SN World
10 a.m. Soccer: FA Cup fourth round
— Wigan vs. West Ham Sportsnet
— Notts County vs. Swansea SN One
— Middlesbrough vs. Brighton SN World
10 a.m. Ski jumping: World Cup men’s large-hill team event CBC.ca streaming
11 a.m. Diving: Winter senior national championships, men’s 3m, women 10m and 3m synchro finals CBC.ca streaming
Noon NCAA Basketball
— Men: NC State at North Carolina CBS
— Men: Baylor at Florida TSN1
— Women: Michigan State at Ohio State TSN2
— Men: Texas Tech at South Carolina TSN3
2 p.m. NCAA Basketball
— Men: Virginia at Duke CBS
— Men: Oklahoma at Alabama TSN1
— Men: Mississippi at Texas TSN3
Noon Soccer: FA Cup fourth round, Newport County vs. Tottenham Sportsnet
2 p.m. Golf: PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open Golf Channel
2:30 p.m. Soccer: FA Cup fourth round, Liverpool vs. West Brom SN World
3:30 p.m. CHL: Regina at Swift Current Sportsnet
3:30 p.m. Golf: Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic Golf Channel
4 p.m. Golf: PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open CBS, Global
4:30 p.m. Horse racing: 2018 Pegasus World Cup NBC, TSN2
5 p.m. Curling: Tournament of Hearts round robin, draw 1 TSN1,3
5:30 p.m. NCAA Basketball: Utah at Arizona FOX
7:30 p.m. NHL: All-Star skills competition CBC, Sportsnet
7:30 p.m. NBA: Charlotte at Miami NBATV
8 p.m. Rugby: World Cup qualifying, Canada vs. Uruguay TSN1
8:30 p.m. NBA: Boston at Golden State TSN4
10 p.m. Curling: Tournament of Hearts round robin, draw 2 TSN1,3,5

Sunday

Midnight Tennis: Australian Open mixed doubles final TSN2
3:30 a.m. Tennis: Australian Open, men’s final TSN1,3-5
3:30 a.m. Golf: European Tour Omega Dubai Desert Classic Golf Channel
7 a.m. Snowboarding: World Cup parallel slalom CBC.ca streaming
8:30 a.m. Soccer: FA Cup fourth round, Chelsea vs. Newcastle United SN World
10 a.m. Ski jumping: World Cup men’s large-hill individual event CBC.ca streaming
11 a.m. Soccer: FA Cup fourth round, Cardiff vs. Manchester City SN World
11 a.m. Diving: Winter senior national championships, women 3m and men’s 10M finals CBC.ca streaming
Noon Curling: Tournament of Hearts round robin, draw 3 TSN1,3
1 p.m. NCAA Basketball
— Michigan State at Maryland CBS
— Villanova at Marquette FOX
1 p.m. CWHL: Calgary at Toronto Sportsnet
1 p.m. Golf: PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open Golf Channel
3 p.m. Golf
— PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open CBS, Global
— Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic Golf Channel
3:30 p.m. NHL: All-Star Game CBC, Sportsnet, NBC
3:30 p.m. NCAA Basketball: Purdue at Indiana FOX
3:30 p.m. NBA: Phoenix at Houston NBATV
4:30 p.m. Horse racing: Pegasus World Cup
5 p.m. Curling: Tournament of Hearts round robin, draw 4 TSN1,3
6 p.m. NBA: LA Lakers at Toronto TSN4,5
8 p.m. AHL: All-Star skills competition Sportsnet
10 p.m. Curling: Tournament of Hearts round robin, draw 5 TSN1,3-5

Early Monday

Noon Curling: Tournament of Hearts round robin, draw 6 TSN1,3-5

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