Jack Morris has a 3.90 career ERA, and yet he is in the Hall of Fame. What? He pitched in a relatively easy era for pitchers, and still had an ERA of almost 4.00 and an adjusted ERA of 105. I don't even need to go through his career, his case is so obvious. To have an ERA that high and still be deserving of the Hall of Fame means that one has to put up a similar or better record during the 1920's and 1930's. Morris, who went 254-186 (.577) from 1977 through 1994, was basically an average pitcher who stuck around for a long time.
The reason why the 3,000 strikeout and 300 win cutoffs are in place is to keep Morris's type out of the Hall. Not only would a 300-186 pitcher with a 3.90 ERA in Morris's time be far in the lower tier among Hall of Famers, Morris doesn't even approach either of those two milestones (he has 2,478 strikeouts).
Here is the link to an interesting article that tries to defend Morris's case.
My opinion: Jack Morris is not a Hall of Famer.
A 3.90 ERA is not a Hall of Famer's ERA, unless there's something big to offset it.
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