The first table below presents Lee Smith's career as measured by Player won-lost records.

Lee Smith Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
1980	CHN	22	18	0.6	0.7	0.462	-0.1	0.0	0.8	0.6	0.565	0.1	0.2
1981	CHN	23	40	3.1	4.2	0.424	-0.5	-0.1	3.6	3.8	0.486	-0.1	0.4
1982	CHN	24	72	6.1	5.6	0.524	0.4	1.0	6.2	5.5	0.531	0.5	1.1
1983	CHN	25	66	8.7	5.1	0.628	1.8	2.7	8.1	5.7	0.585	1.2	2.1
1984	CHN	26	69	9.6	5.5	0.639	2.2	3.1	7.8	7.3	0.517	0.3	1.2
1985	CHN	27	65	10.2	6.0	0.629	2.1	3.2	8.7	7.5	0.537	0.6	1.7
1986	CHN	28	66	8.7	6.9	0.559	0.9	1.9	8.3	7.3	0.533	0.5	1.5
1987	CHN	29	62	7.5	5.7	0.568	0.9	1.7	7.2	5.9	0.549	0.7	1.4
1988	BOS	30	64	7.7	5.3	0.593	1.2	2.0	7.0	6.1	0.535	0.5	1.2
1989	BOS	31	64	5.1	3.7	0.583	0.7	1.3	4.8	4.0	0.543	0.4	0.9
+– 1990		32	64	8.7	4.2	0.677	2.3	3.1	7.2	5.7	0.556	0.7	1.5
	BOS		11	1.4	0.7	0.673	0.4	0.5	1.2	0.9	0.583	0.2	0.3
	SLN		53	7.3	3.5	0.678	1.9	2.6	6.0	4.9	0.551	0.6	1.2
1991	SLN	33	67	8.5	5.3	0.618	1.6	2.6	7.4	6.4	0.534	0.5	1.4
1992	SLN	34	70	7.1	4.7	0.604	1.2	2.0	6.2	5.6	0.523	0.3	1.0
+– 1993		35	62	6.0	4.6	0.566	0.7	1.4	5.3	5.4	0.492	-0.1	0.6
	NYA		8	0.5	0.2	0.775	0.2	0.2	0.5	0.2	0.649	0.1	0.1
	SLN		54	5.5	4.5	0.551	0.5	1.1	4.8	5.2	0.481	-0.2	0.4
1994	BAL	36	41	4.7	3.2	0.592	0.7	1.3	4.2	3.7	0.536	0.3	0.8
1995	CAL	37	52	5.5	3.8	0.589	0.8	1.5	5.1	4.2	0.549	0.4	1.1
+– 1996		38	54	2.4	2.5	0.493	-0.0	0.3	2.5	2.4	0.509	0.0	0.4
	CAL		11	0.3	0.3	0.517	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.2	0.620	0.1	0.1
	CIN		43	2.1	2.2	0.490	-0.0	0.2	2.1	2.2	0.494	-0.0	0.3
1997	MON	39	25	0.8	1.2	0.394	-0.2	-0.1	0.9	1.1	0.464	-0.1	0.1
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,021	111.3	78.2	0.587	16.9	28.6	101.2	88.3	0.534	6.8	18.6
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			4	0.3	0.9	0.262		-0.2	0.3	0.4	0.398		-0.0
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			1,025	111.6	79.1	0.587		28.4	101.5	88.7	0.534		18.6

This is Lee Smith's twelfth year on the Hall-of-Fame ballot. In my 2013 Hall-of-Fame ballot series, I looked at how Smith ranked among all relief pitchers in career pWins over positional average and replacement level. Smith actually ranked very high (top 5) on both lists (among players for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records - although I have complete records since 1951, so that's probably an unnecessary caveat for relief pitchers).

The last relief pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame was Goose Gossage. This article compares Lee Smith to Goose Gossage for their careers.

	Lee Smith						Rich Gossage
Age	Games	Wins	Losses	Win Pct.	WOPA	WORL	Games	Wins	Losses	Win Pct.	WOPA	WORL
20							36	4.4	4.1	0.519	0.2	0.8
21							21	1.8	3.8	0.324	-1.0	-0.7
22	18	0.6	0.7	0.462	-0.1	0.0	39	3.7	5.2	0.416	-0.7	-0.2
23	40	3.1	4.2	0.424	-0.5	-0.1	62	12.1	6.8	0.640	2.7	3.8
24	72	6.1	5.6	0.524	0.4	1.0	31	12.8	13.8	0.481	-0.5	0.7
25	66	8.7	5.1	0.628	1.8	2.7	72	11.1	7.3	0.605	2.1	3.2
26	69	9.6	5.5	0.639	2.2	3.1	63	10.3	8.3	0.554	1.0	2.2
27	65	10.2	6.0	0.629	2.1	3.2	36	4.2	2.9	0.595	0.7	1.1
28	66	8.7	6.9	0.559	0.9	1.9	64	9.0	4.5	0.669	2.3	3.1
29	62	7.5	5.7	0.568	0.9	1.7	32	4.7	2.4	0.665	1.2	1.6
30	64	7.7	5.3	0.593	1.2	2.0	56	8.7	4.8	0.645	2.0	2.8
31	64	5.1	3.7	0.583	0.7	1.3	57	8.8	6.2	0.589	1.3	2.3
32	64	8.7	4.2	0.677	2.3	3.1	62	9.5	5.8	0.620	2.0	2.9
33	67	8.5	5.3	0.618	1.6	2.6	50	7.3	3.1	0.700	2.2	2.8
34	70	7.1	4.7	0.604	1.2	2.0	45	6.8	6.5	0.509	0.2	1.0
35	62	6.0	4.6	0.566	0.7	1.4	40	4.0	3.3	0.548	0.4	0.8
36	41	4.7	3.2	0.592	0.7	1.3	46	3.1	3.7	0.453	-0.3	0.1
37	52	5.5	3.8	0.589	0.8	1.5	42	1.5	2.0	0.424	-0.3	-0.1
38	54	2.4	2.5	0.493	-0.0	0.3
39	25	0.8	1.2	0.394	-0.2	-0.1	44	2.0	2.7	0.423	-0.4	-0.0
40							30	1.5	1.6	0.481	-0.1	0.1
41							39	2.2	2.1	0.509	0.0	0.3
42							36	1.5	0.8	0.654	0.3	0.5
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	1,021	111.3	78.2	0.587	16.9	28.6	1,003	131.2	101.8	0.563	15.2	29.1
CAREER RECORDS (common rows)	967	108.8	75.7	0.590	16.9	28.4	841	119.8	89.3	0.573	15.7	28.1

That's a remarkably close statistical match. You can certainly build an argument around those numbers that Goose Gossage had the more valuable career: his 1975 season was better than any season in Lee Smith's career, he had somewhat more career pWORL. But, it's almost just as easy to build an argument that Lee Smith had the more valuable career: more career pWOPA, higher career pWinPct, more seasons with at least one pWORL (13-10). It's very hard to see how one could plausibly draw a statistical line between these two that puts Goose Gossage in the Hall of Fame and leaves Lee Smith out of it.

But here's the catch. Statistically, if you compare relief pitchers to other players at other positions, they basically all end up falling short. The best relief pitcher of all time is almost certainly Mariano Rivera. His career statistics match up extremely well with his long-time teammate and borderline, at best, Hall-of-Fame candidate, Andy Pettitte. Heck, on this year's Hall-of-Fame ballot, Lee Smith has fewer career pWins over replacement level than Kenny Rogers.

Which means that if you're going to build a purely statistical Hall of Fame, you're going to end up with essentially no relief pitchers in the Hall of Fame. And if you believe the statistics and are looking at pure value, well, that's probably fair enough.

But if, on the other hand, you think that the best relief pitchers deserve their place in the Hall of Fame - and that's pretty much what the actual Hall-of-Fame voters have decided (as well as the Hall of Merit, actually) - then it seems to me that Lee Smith has a very strong case.