Surprise
surprise, the year where Mike Trout was robbed of MVP, the BBWAA totally missed the boat on the Hall of Fame
induction. In a season where if I had a
vote I would have voted for the maximum 10 players possible, somehow no players
were inducted. Not arguably the two
greatest players most people have seen, Bonds and Clemens, gritty guys, Biggio,
or sabermetric darling, Tim Raines. A
bunch of deserving players were left out of the Hall of Fame, and if I had a
vote here would be the 10 I would choose:
Here are a
couple of main statistics I used in the piece (all courtesy of Baseball Reference)
WAR- Wins
Above Replacement Player, basically how many more wins a player is worth than
an average triple A replacement player
WAR7- The 7
best seasons of a player’s career in regard to WAR, not necessarily in order
OPS+ OPS that adjusts for what park and what league
the player played in, is on a 100 point scale, 105 means they are 5% better
than league average, 95 means 5% worse than league average
ERA+ Like
OPS+, it is ERA adjusted for park affects and the strength of the league, also
on a 100 point scale
Jeff Bagwell
Currently
there are 18 first basemen in the Hall of Fame; right now Jeff Bagwell has the
7th highest career WAR of any first basemen ever. He also has the 5th highest 7 best
seasons WAR of all time, which would constitute excellence, and not just
longevity. He was the best slugging 1st
basemen in the steroid era, that offensive swoon. His career BA/OBP/SLG line is .297/.408/.540,
which happens to be quite excellent. In
the strike shortened 1994 season he earned a well-deserved MVP, so really the
strength of any Bagwell argument rests on the idea he might have used
performance enhancing drugs. The
evidence he did this, he was huge and could work out a lot. There have been no whispers and no positive
tests, but is being kept out of the Hall of Fame because of accusations other
players have faced, disgraceful.
Craig Biggio
Honestly,
I’m quite confused as to why Craig Biggio didn’t make the Hall of Fame. He has never been connected to steroid use,
and for what it’s worth doesn’t seem to look like a user. He has over 3000 hits, something that almost
guarantees 1st year induction.
He was seen as a tough gritty player, who played multiple positions and
seemed to be high on intangibles. All of
those things cloud the fact that he is a player greatly deserving of
induction. He had a batting line of
.281/.363/.433, a great line considering he played catcher and second base for
most of his career, and those numbers were depressed by a few late career
seasons going after 3000 hits. Of the
current 19 2nd basemen in the Hall of Fame, only 9 rank ahead of him
in career WAR, and 11 rank ahead of him in WAR7. He is clearly a Hall of Famer who only didn’t
make it because of some writers’ idea that he isn’t a “1st ballot
Hall of Famer” which is just stupid; if you are a Hall of Famer then you are a
Hall of Famer it doesn’t matter when you get in.
Barry Bonds
It’s pretty
comical that Barry Bonds isn’t a Hall of Famer.
As I detailed in my previous piece he is one of the greatest players in the history of baseball. He has the highest career WAR by a
considerable margin of any Left Fielder, o and 2nd place is Ted
Williams, who Bonds is considerably higher than. Let’s go over the argument quickly he was the
best player in baseball during the 90s then starting in 2001 put together
arguably the best 4 year run of any player in the history of baseball. Ok now let’s get to why he isn’t in the Hall
of Fame, his almost definite steroid use.
Question why do people feel the need to get on their high horse and
decide what is cheating. As multiple
baseball writers have pointed out, many hall of famers including Hank Aaron
used amphetamines which at the time weren't against league rules but are now
considered so. This is very much like
steroids and really in my mind if you say Bonds doesn’t deserve to get in then
you are saying that Hank Aaron doesn’t as well.
Roger Clemens
You know
everything I just wrote about Barry Bonds; well now imagine that for a
pitcher. A quick rundown, there are
currently 58 starting pitchers in the MLB Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens is higher
than all of two of them in WAR. Those
two pitchers happen to be Walter Johnson and Cy Young pitchers who played
between 1890 and 1927. He is a legend
and a freak that totally dominated baseball for 24 years, and totally dominated
the sport in both longevity and dominance.
He is 9th all-time in wins, 7th in ERA+, and 3rd
all-time in strikeouts. The only
argument he doesn't deserve to get in is the same as the Bonds argument from
above, so I won’t rehash it, and he clearly deserves to get in.
Edgar Martinez
If you are
ever going to let a DH into the Hall of Fame, then this is the guy. He currently has a career WAR of 64.4, only 6
first basemen in the Hall of Fame have a higher career WAR than that. He had a batting line of .312/.418/.515, and
a career OPS+ of 147, only 4 Hall of Fame first basemen are higher. Clearly if he was a first basemen he would
deserve to get in but what about as a DH?
I think first base is the best point of comparison first of all because
it is by far the least important position defensively and usually the team’s
worst fielder plays there anyway.
Martinez thus wasn't hurting his team with his defense like some Hall of
Famers do. He has clearly merited
induction, especially with no steroid suspicions surrounding him, but it seems
like he won’t be inducted because he was a DH, a poor reason considering WAR
makes positional adjustments.
Mark McGwire
As a
baseball player, Mark McGwire had two skills, hitting for power and getting on
base, he was exceptional at both of those skills but not very good at anything
else, is that deserving of induction, I say yes. To me here is the best argument, only 3
current Hall of Famers have an OPS+ higher than that of McGwire, his is 163,
making him 63 % better than the average major leaguer. This is a player with 583 Homeruns, and an
OBP of .394 he was one of the best players in the game of baseball despite
having only those 2 obvious skills.
However considering those are probably the two most important skills a
major leaguer can have, and he was one of the best in the history of his
position at them, and one of the best in baseball during his time he deserves
enshrinement. Also the same argument
with regards to steroids that applies to Clemens and Bonds apply to
McGwire.
Michael Piazza
I honestly
don’t understand the argument that Mike Piazza isn’t a Hall of Famer. This guy is probably the greatest hitting
catcher of all time. He is the all-time
leader in homeruns, SLG, OPS and OPS+ among qualifying catchers. He is 5th all-time in WAR and 3rd
all-time in WAR7. Really the only
weakness his game had was that he was a subpar defense player. In all reality he wasn’t as bad as his
reputation and his offense way more than made up for any difficulties
defensively. Also he is a player without
any steroid accusations. While he was
strong and muscular the only “argument” I have heard that he has taken steroids
is that he has “bacne”. Also if he did
use, and there is no evidence he did, then again it shouldn’t stop the greatest
hitting catcher of all time from being a Hall of Famer.
Tim Raines
I’m pretty
sure the only reason Tim Raines isn’t a Hall of Famer is because the BBWAA has
a personal vendetta against my favorite baseball writer Jonah Keri, considering
Raines is his favorite player and most ardent Hall of Fame supporter. Really that’s the only logical reason to keep
Tim Raines out of the Hall of Fame. Why
else would they keep out a baseball player who played a position where 19
players reached the Hall of Fame and ranks above all but 4 of them in WAR and
all but 7 in WAR7. He reached base 3977
times, more than Tony Gwynn, ranks 5th all-time in steals with 808
steals which he stole at a 84.7% success rate, good for 11th
all-time. He has a career batting line
of .294/.385/.425 which compares favorably to Rickey Henderson’s
.279/.401/.419. Really he probably isn’t
in already because he fell short of 3000 hits, but honestly he got walked so
much the point is irrelevant. Also if
anyone is keeping him out because he did cocaine, Ty Cobb is in the Hall of
Fame. He was a very good hitter and an
all-time great base stealer who clearly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and
his exclusion makes Jonah Keri sad, something I can’t see any reasonable human
being wanting.
Curt Schilling
His
exclusion from the Hall of Fame is another one that baffles the mind. There are 58 starting pitchers in the Hall of
Fame; only 18 have a higher career WAR than him. This is a pitcher who had dominate seasons in
Philadelphia, Arizona and Boston. He 6
times finished with an ERA+ higher than 140 making him 40% better than all
other pitchers in baseball at the time.
He won 216 games for those that consider something like that important,
which while not the highest total ever is still quite impressive. Also he was one of the greatest post season
pitchers of our lifetime adding even more so to the resume. In 19 post season starts he had an ERA of
2.23 threw 130 innings, struck out 120 batters, walked only 25 and finished
with a record of 11-2. This is a man who
regular season accolades alone warrant Hall of Fame induction, but adding
postseason play to the table brings it to another label. Also the obligatory no steroid suspicions and
even if he did so it wouldn’t matter.
Alan Trammel
The basic
crux of voting Alan Trammel into the Hall of Fame is that he was an above
average hitter throughout his career at the 2nd toughest defensive
position, while playing amazing defense there.
His value at shortstop is incredibly important to the value of the team,
and he provided offensively considerably helping his case even more so. Only 7 of the 21 shortstops in the Hall of
Fame rank above him in WAR while only 6 rank above him in WAR7. He had a solid .285/.352/.415 batting line,
which was deflated by a weak last few seasons, and provided solid value
offensively. The main part of his
argument was defense, and often overlooked aspect that got Ozzie Smith elected
and should hopefully get Trammel in.
Now here is
one player who is quite close to being inducted but under no circumstances
deserves to get in:
Jack Morris
Yes that’s right
254 game winner and 3 time World Series Champion Jack Morris doesn’t deserve to
be in the Hall of Fame. He was a
slightly above average pitcher who pitched a lot of innings for a lot of very
good teams and thus won a lot of games.
He had a career WAR of 39.3, the average starting pitcher in the Hall of
Fame has a WAR of 68.1, the likes of Jamie Moyer, Brad Radke and countless
others are higher. His WAR7 is 30.8, far
below the average Hall of Famer starters 47.7.
He had a career ERA+ of 105, making him just 5% better than the average
starting pitcher. He had a career ERA of
3.90 which would be the highest of any pitcher to ever make the Hall of Fame. The arguments in his favor can be easily
dispatched. He pitched to the score, a laughable argument that has easily been disproved. He was an ace and the best pitcher in baseball
for a while and everyone knew it, yet he never finished higher than 3rd
in Cy Young balloting. He was a dominant
post season pitcher. Yet despite won
awesome game 7, his career post season ERA was just 3.80, not much different
from his career norms. The man threw a
ton of innings for a ton of very good teams but no way does that make him
worthy of the Hall of Fame.
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