Why aren't there any middle relievers in the Hall of Fame?

I've been thinking about middle relievers a lot lately. The red-headed stepchildren of Major League Baseball, relievers are often little more than an afterthought when it comes to discussions of the game's greats. The general sentiment is, if he's such a great pitcher, then why isn't he a starter, or at least a closer? To examine the game's best middle men and to see if perhaps any of them might merit, at the very least, some HOF consideration, I turned to BBref's Play Index.

So, what makes a successful relief pitcher? I decided, rather arbitrarily (yet conservatively) that a relief pitcher can be said to have had a successful season if he were to relieve at least 50 games, and record an ERA under 4. Who do you think has the most seasons in his career fulfilling these criteria?

                  From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
Jesse Orosco      1982 2002 25-45      15 Ind. Seasons                  
 Lee Smith         1982 1996 24-38      14 Ind. Seasons                  
 Trevor Hoffman    1993 2007 25-39      13 Ind. Seasons                  
 Hoyt Wilhelm      1952 1970 29-47      13 Ind. Seasons                  
 John Franco       1984 2000 23-39      12 Ind. Seasons                  
 Kent Tekulve      1976 1988 29-41      12 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mariano Rivera    1996 2007 26-37      11 Ind. Seasons                  
 Dan Plesac        1986 2003 24-41      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Gary Lavelle      1975 1985 26-36      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Gene Garber       1974 1986 26-38      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Sparky Lyle       1969 1979 24-34      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Rollie Fingers    1969 1982 22-35      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Ron Perranoski    1961 1970 25-34      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Roy Face          1956 1967 28-39      10 Ind. Seasons                  
 Billy Wagner      1997 2007 25-35       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Troy Percival     1995 2004 25-34       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Bob Wickman       1994 2007 25-38       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mike Timlin       1991 2007 25-41       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mike Jackson      1988 2002 23-37       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Paul Assenmacher  1986 1998 25-37       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Craig Lefferts    1983 1991 25-33       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Jeff Reardon      1980 1992 24-36       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Clay Carroll      1966 1977 25-36       9 Ind. Seasons  

An interesting list, but it is polluted with closers. Let's add the criteria that the pitcher may have had no more than 15 saves in the season - taking over as closer for a few weeks is probably not enough to bump him into closer status, but much more than that and he's a closer.

Voila!

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
Jesse Orosco      1982 2002 25-45      11 Ind. Seasons                  
 Paul Assenmacher  1986 1998 25-37       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Hoyt Wilhelm      1952 1970 29-47       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Steve Kline       1998 2006 25-33       8 Ind. Seasons                  
 Steve Reed        1994 2004 29-39       8 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mike Jackson      1988 2002 23-37       8 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mike Stanton      1991 2006 24-39       7 Ind. Seasons                  
 Rick Honeycutt    1988 1996 34-42       7 Ind. Seasons                  
 Dan Plesac        1986 2003 24-41       7 Ind. Seasons                  
 Kent Tekulve      1976 1988 29-41       7 Ind. Seasons                  
 Gary Lavelle      1975 1985 26-36       7 Ind. Seasons                  
 Darold Knowles    1966 1978 24-36       7 Ind. Seasons  

What do you notice about this list?  I see a bunch of LOOGYs.  Let's pare it down to strictly right-handers:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
Hoyt Wilhelm      1952 1970 29-47       9 Ind. Seasons                  
 Steve Reed        1994 2004 29-39       8 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mike Jackson      1988 2002 23-37       8 Ind. Seasons                  
 Kent Tekulve      1976 1988 29-41       7 Ind. Seasons                  
 Dave Weathers     2000 2006 30-36       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Julian Tavarez    1995 2005 22-32       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Jeff Nelson       1992 2003 25-36       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mike Timlin       1991 2007 25-41       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Mark Eichhorn     1986 1993 25-32       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Larry Andersen    1984 1993 31-40       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Gene Garber       1974 1985 26-37       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Clay Carroll      1966 1977 25-36       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Bob Locker        1965 1972 27-34       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 Don McMahon       1959 1967 29-37       6 Ind. Seasons                  
 LaTroy Hawkins    2000 2007 27-34       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Jim Mecir         1998 2005 28-35       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Scott Sullivan    1997 2003 26-32       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Paul Quantrill    1997 2003 28-34       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Dave Veres        1995 2002 28-35       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Jeff Parrett      1988 1996 26-34       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Gene Nelson       1986 1993 25-32       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Greg Harris       1985 1993 29-37       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Ron Reed          1976 1984 33-41       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Randy Moffitt     1973 1978 24-29       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Pedro Borbon      1972 1976 25-29       5 Ind. Seasons                  
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
Eddie Fisher      1964 1971 27-34       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Lindy McDaniel    1959 1969 23-33       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Don Elston        1958 1963 29-34       5 Ind. Seasons                  
 Turk Farrell      1957 1968 23-34       5 Ind. Seasons      

Hoys Wilhelm is a Hall of Famer, but because of his exploits as a closer - he just pitched so damn long, he was just able to have so many other seasons in which he didn't save a lot of games. So there you have it - there are no HOF middle relievers, because none of them were ever able to string together as many as ten "good" seasons as middle relievers.

Headline i'd like to see

Hopefully some day Chien-Ming Wang will be sidelined with a pulled groin muscle, so that we can see this headline:

Yanks' Wang yanks wang, out for season

Oh yeah, and also he'll be out for the season

A List of Every Major Leaguer Who's Played Every Position at Some Point in His Career

(except for DH)

Cnt Player              **PA**  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+---------+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
   1 Bert Campaneris      9625   1964 1983 22-41 2328  8684 1181 2249 313  86  79  646  618  15 1142  64 199  60 106  649 199  .259  .311  .342  .653 *6/57483921D KCA-OAK-TEX-TOT-CAL-NYY
    2 Cookie Rojas         6871   1962 1977 23-38 1822  6309  714 1660 254  25  54  593  396  30  489  20  87  59 181   74  68  .263  .306  .337  .643 *48/756D9231 CIN-PHI-TOT-KCR
    3 Cesar Tovar          6177   1965 1976 24-35 1488  5569  834 1546 253  55  46  435  413  23  410  88  73  34  58  226 108  .278  .335  .368  .703 87549/D6321 MIN-PHI-TEX-TOT
    4 Roger Bresnahan      5355   1901 1915 22-36 1438  4463  681 1246 218  71  26  527  713   0   99  67 112   0   0  212   3  .279  .386  .377  .763 *28/5934761 BLA-TOT-NYG-STL-CHC
    5 Frank Isbell         4483   1901 1909 25-33 1074  4060  484 1019 154  62  13  447  187   0    0  40 196   0   0  250   0  .251  .291  .329  .620 *34/9856712 CHW        
    6 Jose Oquendo         3737   1983 1995 19-31 1190  3202  339  821 104  24  14  254  448  58  376   5  50  32  65   35  33  .256  .346  .317  .663 *46/5937812 NYM-STL    
    7 Jack Rothrock        3719   1925 1937 20-32 1014  3350  498  924 162  35  28  327  299   0  312   6  64   0  12   75  33  .276  .336  .370  .706 987/645321 BOS-TOT-STL-PHA
    8 Sam Mertes           3504   1901 1906 28-33  826  3086  475  844 142  76  23  519  305   0    0  22  91   0   0  267   0  .273  .343  .391  .734 *74/8962315 CHW-NYG-TOT
    9 Steve Lyons          2388   1985 1993 25-33  853  2162  264  545 100  17  19  196  156   9  364   5  45  20  23   42  32  .252  .301  .340  .641 8543/79621D BOS-TOT-CHW-BOS
   10 Shane Halter         2109   1997 2004 27-34  690  1899  201  468  93  18  45  197  146   3  414  15  32  17  49   17  21  .246  .303  .385  .688 65/43798D21 KCR-NYM-DET-ANA
   11 Jimmy Walsh          1736   1910 1915 24-29  502  1571  178  447  84  14  25  212  101   0  197  10  54   0   0   45   0  .285  .332  .404  .736 *5/49768231 PHI-BAL-TOT
   12 Bill Pecota          1729   1986 1994 26-34  698  1527  223  380  72  11  22  148  160  11  216   9  28   5  36   52  20  .249  .323  .354  .677 564/397D812 KCR-NYM-ATL
   13 Bill Friel           1088   1901 1903 25-27  283   994  123  244  33  17   6   80   60   0    0   5  29   0   0   23   0  .245  .292  .331  .623 /459836721 MLA-SLB    
   14 Art Hoelskoetter     1024   1905 1908 22-25  299   952   59  225  21   8   2   53   40   0    0   5  27   0   0    9   0  .236  .271  .282  .553 /452361987 STL        
   15 Bobby Reis            330   1931 1938 22-29  175   301   32   70  10   2   0   21   25   0   35   0   4   0   5    5   0  .233  .291  .279  .570 /178953462 BRO-BSN    
   16 Scott Sheldon         310   1997 2001 28-32  141   285   34   67  16   0   8   33   15   0   84   2   4   4   5    1   1  .235  .275  .375  .650 /564372981D OAK-TEX