If Howard is worth 25 million then Adam Dunn is worth 22 Million!!!!

What I take from Howard's contract is that Adam Dunn is apparently worth 20-25 million dollars, or the Phillies drastically overpaid. The Nationals are getting Dunn on a two year 20 million deal, and I think they are getting the far better deal. Firstly, to spoil the popular impression of people saying that Howard is worth 25 million because of his age, he is not a young player. For some reason it seems that he is, but he is not. He is 30 years old. Adam Dunn is also 30 years old. It seems like he should be much older, but he is not, he just started young. I keep bringing up Dunn because they are excellent comparisons. Dunn is also a first basemen now, and they are both slow, poor fielding first basemen, who strikeout about 200 times a year. In fact Dunn was the perennial leader until Ryan Howard burst onto the scene and wrestled first place from him with a 199 strikeout performance. No doubt they would be battling out for first every year now, but of course Mark Reynolds is in fact in the league and the reigning strike out king. Alas, but I digress, back to the subject at hand. To take a look over the last three years, Howard and Dunn's offensive numbers are incredibly similar. In 2009 Howard put up percentage numbers of .279 .360 .571 for an OPS of .931. Dunn put up a .267 .398 .529 for a .928 OPS. That’s 3 points different and Dunn played in a park that was much, much less hitter friendly than Howard. To abbreviate a little in 2008 Howard put up an .881 OPS to Dunn's .898. In 2007 Howard had a .976 and Dunn had a .940. Howard's 2006 was much better than Dunn's as that was his MVP year. Howard does have an MVP which I guess is worth something, but Dunn has 5 more years proving that he is good for a .900 OPS pretty much every year. This players are nearly identical with Howard having a slight edge in percentage numbers, and a huge edge in RBI's. But folks, RBI's are a stat dependant on your teams offense, and looked out with little value in today's baseball. And Howard has played in the middle of the lineup for an EXCELLENT offensive team. And I am not advocating that Dunn is a better player than Howard. But it’s a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE contract by Howard. At best he is a worth 2-4 million more a year than Dunn, and NOBODY in baseball believes Dunn is worth 20 million. Then why in the heck does Philly think that Howard is worth 25 million?

The Season in Review - April

AHHH, the long wait is over, baseball is back and all is right with the world. So far we have put about 15 games underneath our collective belts and in the relatively small sample sizes there have been a few surprises although none of them earth shattering.

Firstly, Ubaldo Jimenez is good. I don't think anyone is surprised he pitched the years first no-hitter. The kid has some absolutely filthy stuff and when he is on he is practically unhittable. He followed up his no-hitter with another dominate start. His name should be in the mix at the end of the year for the Cy Young even though he pitches half his games in Coors.

I wonder if the Cardinals increased strikeouts and higher reliance on home runs is a side effect of Big Mac being the new hitting coach. Honestly, I don't really know what wisdom he has to impart, he wasn't a very good hitter honestly. He swung as hard as he could at pitches in the strike zone and missed them at a fairly high rate. I am not sure that his approach to hitting works for anyone without super human strength or a super soldier serum running through his veins. If his work was in evidence throughout that 20 inning exercise in futility then its going to be a long year for the Cardinals with runners in scoring position.

Anybody surprised by the Rays being good? I am not, they have a ton of talent. Nor am I surprised by the fact the Nats can at least play .500 ball. I am equally not surprised that the Mets are terrible. How much longer can Omar blame Steve Phillips? The Mets are just lucky that they fired Steve Phillips before the got Kris Benson. I am sure the Steve Phillips Anna Benson combo would have been tabloid worthy. Also is there any question that the Padre's aren't pretenders?

Jim Edmonds can still hit boys and girls. His Gold Glove certainly has some tarnish on it, but his swing is looking pretty sweet after sitting out a year. My guess is that he wants to play at a decently high level for this year and maybe one more so that he can eclipse the 400 career homer mark. He is 17 homers short and although it is a relatively minor thing it would increase his chances of making the Hall of Fame. His percentage numbers are excellent with a career OPS of .906. Oh yea, and this just in, the Brewers may not have any class, but they sure can hit the baseball.

The AL East could be the most exciting division in baseball this year. There are three high quality teams in that division, with only two possible playoff spots. A good team is going to get left out in the cold. And yes folks, the Red Sox aren't going to struggle like this all year, they just haven't started hitting yet.


The Astros may not have the best team in the world but few teams would end up with a winning record after running through Lincecum, Cain, Wainwright, plus others. They aren't going to be a contender in the Central but they aren't nearly as bad as their 0-8 start indicates. Carlos Lee has been terrible and Lance Berkman has been injured so the middle of their lineup will only get better from here on out.

The Final Hall of Fame Blog, here are the 1930's.

Here it is, finally the last decade of my year my year Hall of Fame evaluations. I have kicked a lot of players out of the Hall of Fame. The 30's are pretty much a formality. All of these guys were amongst the first elected and some of the games greats of all time.

1939. George Sisler, Lou Gehrig, Eddie Collins.

George Sisler-Yes- The man hit .420. Yes I think he is overrated, yes I think pure batting average is overrated. Yes the man couldn't walk. But he is still a Hall of Famer.

Lou Gehrig- Yes, emphatically- Where as Cal Ripken was a slightly above league average player during large portions of his streak, Lou Gehrig was in the lineup everyday, and one of the greatest ballplayers of all time everyday. His career percentage numbers are .340 .447 .632. Yes folks that’s a career OPS of 1.080. He is constantly overshadowed by the fact he played on a team with Babe Ruth, so as amazing as it is it’s a possibility he was slightly undervalued as a player.

Eddie Collins- Yes- Cocky Collins is on pretty much every top five second basemen of all time list. The conversation generally goes around him, Lajoie, Hornsby, Gehringer, and thanks to sabermetrics, Joe Morgan, Oh and Just for Andy's sake I will toss in Craig Biggio. Collins was a fantastic defensive player and a fantastic hitter. He also stole 741 bags to go along with 3315 hit. His career numbers were a salty .333 .424 .429. He is a no doubt Hall of Famer.

1938. Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander- Yes- I recommend the book Wicked Curve to anybody who likes baseball. Grover is a sad figure. His most famous moment was probably as a Cardinal while he was a drunk nearly washed up reliever. But he rose to glory one last time in the 1926 World Series when the lowly Cardinals beat the mighty Yankee's to win their first ever World Championship. (Sorry we were late to the party Cubs fans, but at least we didn't duck out early) Grover was a pretty phenomenal 373-208 and is unquestionable one of the great pitchers of All-Time.

1937. Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie

Cy Young- Yes- Probably not a good idea to kick the guy whom the pitching award is named after from the Hall of Fame. Most well known for being the career leader in wins with 511. Of course he is also the career leader in losses with 316. We won't hold that against him though since he had a career winning percentage of .618. All in all he was perhaps slightly overrated, but still one of the greatest pitchers of All-Time.

Tris Speaker- Yes- Spoke has the distinction of being one of the few guys that called Ty Cobb a friend. He also sadly has the distinction of being tied to a gambling rumor with Cobb (they were very likely innocent) and having to give up managing to finish up their playing career A's. (By the way I don’t know another team that had more future Hall of Famers the 1928 A's team. Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, and Lefty Grove were all on that team) Tris was a great player, a historically great centerfielder, and a great hitter. He was a career .345 hitter with a .428 OBP and .500 SLG. Yea, this guy could play.

Nap Lajoie- Yes- Lajoie was generally not a nice man while he was a Philly. He had a lot of problems with drinking, and was generally a world class insubordinate ass. However, he could play. He was not the greatest defensive second basemen of all time by any stretch but he was one of best offensive players of his time.

1936. Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson

Honus Wagner -Yes- Of course Honus is in the Hall of Fame, he is the greatest shortstop of All-Time. He was without a doubt far and away the best player in the National League during his playing days. He brought home 8 batting titles in his career. He was a career .328 .391 .467. He was leaps and bounds better than any other shortstop defensively during his time in baseball.

Babe Ruth-Yes- Babe Ruth was ridiculous. Other than possibly his teammate Lou Gehrig Babe was a man playing amongst boys. Anyone that thinks Barry Bonds is a better player than Babe Ruth is deluded. (and that has nothing to do with his steroids allegations, just his stats) Sure some of Bonds stats may be comparable, but you can't compare stats straight against each other generation to generation. You have to look at how much better that player was than the people he was playing with. Bonds was better than everybody else, but not ridiculously so. Ruth was in a league of his own. There just weren't people doing what he could do. Hitting for average, hitting more homeruns than entire teams. He was a legend, Bonds will continue only to be a legend in his own mind. .342 .474 .690 were his career percentage numbers.

Ty Cobb-Yes- 11 batting titles. .366 career average. 897 Stolen bases. World class ass. Great Hitter.

Walter Johnson-Yes- He is a frontrunner in the conversation for greatest pitcher of all time. 417 wins to only 279 losses, pretty damn good considering the Senators were not a top flight team. He lead the league in wins 5 times and in ERA 4 times. He also garnered two MVP awards, one at the ripe old age of 36. He was the premier strike out artist of his time and lead the league in K's 11 times.

Christy Mathewson-Yes- He is one of my All- Time favorite players in history. He was an educated man, he went to Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, which was an extreme rarity at this early and rowdy stage in baseball history. He was a good man, an American Hero kind of guy, who was an officer in World War I. He died early in 1925 because of a lung complication due to his being gassed during WWI. Ty Cobb narrowly missed being gassed in the same incident, he got his mask on a second quicker than Matty. His career record was an amazing 373 and 188 for a very robust .665 winning percentage. His career ERA was a very low 2.13. He had a pitch called the "fadeaway" which has generally been thought to have been a screwball, but very likely could have been an early version of a changeup.

Here come the Forties. 1940's Hall of Fame Blog

The 1940's was an interesting decade for the Hall of Fame. Most of the candidates were actually elected by the Old Timer's Committee, which was the first iteration of the Veteran's committee. The committee seemed to have issues with separating a playing career from a managing career, and elected some players in as managers that couldn't possibly have been elected solely on their playing stats without the help of their managing career as well.

1949- Kid Nichols, Charlie Gehringer, Mordecai Brown

Kid Nichols- 1800’s player. He only spent 3 or 4 season past the 1900 decade. I am efforting greatly to improve my ability to judge players before 1900 but I am still lacking so I am still not voting yay or nay on this players. I will live it to the old tyme scholars.

Charlie Gehringer- Emphatically Yes- Charlie inevitably makes it into any conversation of the greatest second basemen of all time. He makes it into this discussions because of course, he was damn good. He ended with a solid career hit total of 2839 and over 1400 RBI’s. He was an excellent Gold Glove type defender and his percentage numbers are very, very good. He racked with a .320 .404 .480 line. Without question this man could play and belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown- Yes- I will always lament the fact that Mordecai’s rookie season was spent as a Cardinal and that he was traded to the Cubs for a bag of peanuts. He was possibly the greatest fielding pitcher of all time, and definitely the best at fielding the bunt. He spent hours working on this, even when a lot of people at the time neglected fielding practice for pitchers all together. But he knew he was a control pitcher, and that he was not going to strike a ton of guys out. He knew that limiting base runners was key, and that his ability to get them out with the glove would be an advantage. He was a great pitcher, he pedigree is not in question and who am I to kick a man with Three-Fingers out of the Hall of Fame?

1948-Pie Traynor, Herb Pennock

Pie Traynor-Yes- Pie Traynor is incredibly overrated. That being said he is still tough to kick out of the Hall of Fame. He gets some publicity as being the greatest defensive thirdbasemen. He was great defensively, but I think it’s a stretch to say he is the best. Jimmie Dykes, Clete Boyer, Brooks Robinson, and Scott Rolen are all very likely his equal or superior. A good part of his reputation was built on fond remembrances of his playing days by teammates, and that is a bit of a biased source of course. From what we have its hard to extrapolate that he was the greatest of all time, but its pretty clear that he was an excellent defender. He gets credit as a great hitter too, but that’s a bit inflated as well. He was a singles hitter that didn’t walk. Which leads to a career .320 batting average, but a pretty weak .797 OPS. I am including him, but he is definitely a marginal inclusion.

Herb Pennock-No- To be honest when I saw his name on the list I had to think about it a second. I really couldn’t remember much about him at all other than he pitched on some of the great Yankee’s Murderers Row teams. Then I looked up his stats and realized that that’s about his only redeeming quality and claim to fame. His career ERA is a less than impressive 3.60. Very high for a Hall of Fame level pitcher. His win-loss record was 241-162 for a very nice .598 winning percentage. But giving the fact that he played on mostly great teams in his career, that’s about where it should be, actually maybe a little low. He was an above average pitcher that benefited from playing on historically great teams. He has no place in the Hall of Fame.

1947-Carl Hubbell, Lefty Grove, Frankie Frisch, Mickey Cochrane

Carl Hubbell-Yes-Carl threw a screwball and is most often remembered for two things. Throwing at guys and striking out a zillion matters in a row in an all-star game that’s lineup looked like an All-Time greats list. Hubbell was a great pitcher. He lead the league in ERA 3 times and wins 3 times. He sported ERA’s of sub-3 and sub-2 in the early part of the 1930’s when even good pitchers were getting rocked for about five runs a game. His winning percentage was an excellent .622. I have no problems including him.

Lefty Grove-Yes- Lefty may be the greatest pitcher of all time, so obviously I am putting him in the Hall of Fame. 4 time leader in wins, 9 time leader in ERA. He won exactly 300 games with 141 losses for a spectacular .680 winning percentage. In 1931 he went 31-4. Winning 30 games when people didn’t really do that anymore. That season he tossed up a 2.06 ERA in a season when most teams hit over .300 as a team. This may very well be the most impressive season of all time.

Frankie Frisch-Yes- An excellent player and a good manager. He did a variety of things well, and he was an educated man. That’s where he got the nickname “The Fordham Flash.” He was an excellent defender, and excellent hit and run man, a good hitter, had great speed, had a little pop in his bat, and could steal some bases. He hit .316 for his career with a .369 OBP and .432 SLG. He stole 419 bags in his career and garnered 2880 hits. Not the greatest secondbasemen ever by a long stretch, but still one of the best there has ever been.

Mickey Cochrane-Yes- One of my favorite players of all time he was one of the greats. He has a shortened career due to injury, but since he was a catcher it is about the same as all the others. Mickey was a rarity, even back then, he was a catcher with some good speed. He didn’t really steal bases, but he could scoot around the basepaths pretty well. He was an excellent defensive catcher and one of the best throwers of his time but where he truly excelled was as a hitter. His percentage numbers are a very solid .320 .419 .478. It is kind of funny that his numberes are nearly identical to Charlie Gehringer’s career numbers, they teammates in Detroit.

1946- Ed Walsh, Rube Waddell, Joe Tinker, Eddie Plank, Joe McGinnity, Johnny Evers, Jack Chesbro, Frank Chance, Jesse Burkett.

Ed Walsh-Yes- Big Ed was pretty ridiculous. He had an ERA of 1.82 and won 40 games once. Yep that’s 40 games. Also had the misfortune to go 18-20 while leading the league in losses AND ERA. That is one hell of a tough luck season. He lost 20 with an ERA of 1.27. Ridiculous.

Rube Waddell-Yes- Known primarily for being one of the premier strikeout artists of his generation. He led his league in k’s 6 years in a row with some very respectable totals. He was hard to hit, because players just didn’t strike out that much back then. He was a quality pitcher, who didn’t put up many big win totals, but nonetheless was a great pitcher.

Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance- Tinkers, Evers, and Chance all went into the Hall of Fame in the same year, all elected by the Veteran's Committee. Part of the reason, I believe, they were all elected is because it is hard to separate them from each other. They are associated together more than any 3 players in history, and Tinkers and Evers is the most famous double play combo by far. So the question is do all three of them belong in the Hall of Fame? I am going to analyze these guys all under the same column, because it just seems appropriate. First up is Joe Tinker. Tinker was the less fiery of the double play combo, and apparently much easier to get along with than Evers, whom wasn't particularly popular amongst anybody who knew him. However, putting him into the Hall of Fame is a stretch at best. He really just didn’t hit very well. His percentage numbers were a paltry .262 .308. .353 for an incredibly anemic .661 OPS. That is pretty terrible, even for the time. He had one very good year, but also a good half of his years were just pretty darn terrible. He was a plus defender, being above the league fielding percentage for his position pretty much every year, and had marginally above average range. By the subjective accounts he was an excellent defender, and there is no real evidence to dispute that that is possible. However, with anemic hitting, and less than 1700 career hits, his defense does not seem anywhere near enough to merit inclusion in the Hall. Joe Tinker DENIED. Next up is Johnny Evers Evers is probably best known for being the one who recovered the ball and got the umps attention to get the force out in the famous Merkle's Boner play versus the New York Giant's. Evers is similar to Joe Tinker, not quite as good a defender, and quite a bit better hitter. The other numbers are similar but Evers could get on Base quite a bit better with a career .356 OBP. He could also steal you a base pretty frequently. The difference between Tinker and Evers though is this. Evers had some pretty damn good years. One was truly great and another was very good, oddly, he won an MVP award in his second best season. The fact he has an MVP award and was generally a much better player than Tinker, I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Johnny Evers ACCEPTED Frank Chance Known as the peerless leader because he was the team leader turned manager for the great Cubs teams in the early part of the 20th century. He started out as a catcher, he was pretty terrible at it, and was smart enough to realize he needed to move himself to first base when the team got Johnny Kling. The question is, I believe Chance got in as a player. Which is just preposterous. He played in less than 1300 games, which is just not enough time to be a Hall of Famer as a player. As a player he was a good defensive first basemen and a much better hitter than either of the other two. He his .294 with a .394 OBP. These are damn fine numbers for the time, and in one season he had an amazing .450 OBP. But the career is just not long enough or distinguished enough to merit being in the Hall of Fame. If you give him credit as a manager then perhaps you can include him, he was the manager for some legendary teams as well as playing for them. So my final verdict Chance as a player DENIED Chance as a player manager ACCEPTED. Poor Joe Tinker, I guess that leaves him as the odd man out.

Eddie Plank-Yes- Eddie plank was a hell of a pitcher. When I think of him, the first thing that pops into my mind has absolutely nothing to do with his playing career, its that his card is the second most valuable in the T-206 set, second only to the famous Honus Wagner card. That probably is an injustice to Mr. Plank. He put up a 326-194 record for his career, for a very nice .627 winning percentage. He also had a career ERA of 2.36. With that amount of wins, with such a good winning percentage, it would be hard for anybody to rationalize him not being in the Hall of Fame.

Jack Chesbro-No- I have a hard time including Jack Chesbro because he only played for 9 seasons. Two of those 9 seasons were fantastic, legendary even. But the rest was merely good, not great. He never won an ERA title. Which I think is telling, as he was never truly the best, which I believe you need to prove if you are going to get in with a tiny sample size.

"Ironman" Joe McGinnity-Yes- This guy is known primarily for his ability to pitch a ridiculous number of innings a year. Perhaps if he hadn’t pitched so many innings his career would have lasted longer than ten years. Actually that’s not really fair, because he got a late start to his career. I am inclined to take him where I didn’t take Chesbro because he pitched about twice as many innings in the same span. Ok that is an exaggeration, but he really did start a ton more game than any pitcher during that time. He lead the league in wins 5 times of his ten years in the league. This would not be impressive given the number of innings he pitched except for the fact that he did it with a good winning percentage. At time with a GREAT winning percentage.

Jesse Burkett-Yes- I generally don't judge players before the turn of the century, but with this guy I am making an exception. He like Delahanty, is a sure thing, because this guy could just knock the cover off the ball.

1945-Ed Delahanty, Jimmy Collins, Fred Clarke, Roger Bresnahan.

Ed Delahanty-Yes- Another Pre-1900 type player, but like Jesse Burkett he is a no-doubter. Ed Delahanty is one of the all time greats, and his death is one of the great mysteries of history.

Jimmy Collins-Yes- Jimmy was one of the best third basemen of his time, both offensively and defensively. .294 .343 .409 is a very good line for a player of his time period. Plus he was an excellent defensive third basemen. During this period of baseball third base is probably the premier defensive position on the diamond due to the high number of bunts down the line.

Fred Clarke-Yes- A good hitter, a good defender, and a good manager. His percentage numbers are a very solid .312 .386. .429. He was one of the most well respected players of his generation by his peers.

Roger Bresnahan- Yes- Roger looks like he shouldn't be a Hall of Famer, but he was probably the best catcher of his time. He could hit a bit, and he had a good OBP to boot, but this was at a time when catchers were some of the worst players on the field due to all the injuries.


1942-Rogers Hornsby- Yes- Another no doubt Hall of Famer, his percentage numbers are phenomenal .358 .434 .577. He won six straight batting titles and he hit over .400 3 times. That’s just silly good.

Repost of my Sosa block with a little extra about McGwire

I wrote this blog a while back about Sosa and it still applies with whats going on with McGwire. I still believe what I wrote in the Sosa blog, but I have a few more things to add. Firstly, its really silly to see all of these media types who kept pressuring McGwire to come clean turn around and have a field day with it. Seems incredibly hypocritical, of course I wouldn't know what to do if journalists weren't hypocritical. What's even worse is all the guys who were just upset that he didn't come clean in the way they thought he should, so they are critical of that. Secondly, I still think the media has a completely blind eye to the fact that all of their so called clean players from before the steroid era were all popping greenies (amphetamines). They are just as much a PED as steroids are. Stop turning a blind eye just so you can make a story, or protect the sanctity of an era that is not nearly as clean as you would have us believe.

THE SOSA BLOG

Ok, so its true that apparently Sosa did test positive for a performance enhancing drug and it made headlines in the sports world yesterday. But lets be honest about this, is anybody actually surprised anymore when a name like Sosa's pops up testing positive? I for one am not shocked by any name that comes up from the late 90's and early 2000's anymore. And frankly did we need confirmation to know that Sosa was on them? Anybody that watched him play had to have him on their top 2 or 3 list of players most likely to be taking a shot in the butt. My top 4 list was Big Mac, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens. I have been screaming for a while now that Roger Clemens was the one pitcher I was certain of to hitting the juice, and truthfully he is the only player other than Bonds that I have felt a certain vindication and satisfaction in seeing the news come out. The question though that I feel needs to be asked is was it worth what Big Mac and Sosa did to themselves and the game? I would have to say yes. Those of you who know me well know that I am a rules nazi. I am fair to the rules to a fault, when I play softball I have actually called myself out when an umpire was umping that didn't know all the rules. I hate it when my team gets the benefit of a bad call and I tell an umpire when I think he missed a call, even if it is one that helped my team. But at the same time, 1998 was a magical season for baseball fans. Outside of hard core baseball fans, baseball was not doing well after the 1994 strike and 1995 lock out ( I do believe the owners were more at fault than the players, and they get a bum rap on this, but thats a blog for another day) and he game was struggling mightily to get butts in the seats. Sosa and McGwire's home run chase changed that. It created interest in the game on a national level that baseball had not enjoyed in a long time. That interest did not go away, it maintained through the 2000's and even though baseball can't compete with football for television ratings (this mostly has to do with the number of games) people were going to game at a great rate in most cities, Florida and Montreal of course were exceptions. Montreal baseball was destroyed by the strike, and never recovered. They had a hell of a team in 1994 and had real chances of going places that year, and their fans got their hearts ripped out. But for most teams 1998 was magical. Not only was it home runs in numbers never seen before, but it was a rivalry between two players in the same division, and each on teams that historically have one of the best rivalries in baseball. Everbody was watching, everybody wanted to know what was going to happen next, and everybody was enchanted by the fact Sosa and McGwire were pushing each other to play better via encouragment rather than animosity. Sure the steriods make the season seem a bit hollow now, but you can't take away what it did for baseball, even now baseball is doing all right and its in part due to that season. And you can take away some of the gloss on what they accomplished on the field with their numbers, but you can't take away the grace they handled themselves with during that chase and embracing what they were to baseball. And lets keep in mind that in 1998 they weren't technically even breaking any baseball rules, which means that perhaps baseball administration is far more on the hook for steroids than the individual players are. Was it worth it, yea, it probably was, without 1998 contraction was a very real and ugly possiblity, and the face of baseball could have been drastically different. Would baseball have been better if the owners and administration had been more responsible in their drug testing? Absolutely, but us and the players have to play with the hand they were dealt, and we still have to look for a silver lining in a cloudy sky.

MVPs on Bad Teams

It is pretty easy to tell how a pitcher who pitches on a bad team is affected. Generally speaking it means less wins, as his team will score fewer runs, and more wins blown by the bullpen. It can also mean a higher earned run average, or more unearned runs allowed because bad teams often have a terrible defense as well. But not many people think about how playing on a terrible team alters the statistics of a truly great hitter. I think how these players are treated has changed in the last decade. Previously, I think one great hitter on a bad team had their stats inflated. Now I haven't done in detailed analysis on this theory yet, this is purely from observation of games in the 80's and 90's. I will do research on retrosheet to back it up though, and I think it will prove true, but I hypothesize that players on bad teams had their stats inflated because pitchers then didn't want to put guys on base and waste pitches. So instead of pitching around the good hitter in the lineup, they just pitched to him knowing they had a lead and that he couldn't really hurt them. You get a whole lot of meaningless fastballs down the middle of the plate, I.e. the Jack Morris school of pitching. However, lately, with pitchers not going deep into ballgames, and the intentional walk a much bigger part of the game, pitchers are approaching it differently. Why pitch to a guy who can hit a homerun when you can just walk him and get the next guy out? The difference in mind set is the difference in the pitching mentality then and now. When I get a chance, I will pick out some players and pour through the box scores and see how exactly they were treated with runners on base in the games there teams were behind by a large margin. I think I will be proven correct.

Top Five Shortstop!!

As listed in my previous blog, I don’t consider Ernie Banks to be a shortstop. The majority of his career was actually spent as a first sacker. Also I am leaving off Arod because it seems he is going to go in as a third-baseman, not as a shortstop.

5. Ozzie Smith- Ozzie Smith is not an offensive force, but he didn’t contribute some with the stick in his career. He eventually became a respectable average guy and a pretty decent on base guy as well. He also had 580 career stolen bases to only 148 times caught. That’s a pretty good number. However, Ozzie is not here because of his batting prowess. He is here because he is, by any statistical analysis you choose to employ, the single greatest and most valuable defensive player of all time. At a position where defense is important that counts for a lot.

4. Derek Jeter- With all apologies to Cal Ripken Jr., he isn’t going to make my top five. This is a bit of a surprise to me, as much as it is to the people who know me. First of all Jeter isn’t done. He may actually go into the number 3 spot, even though he has actually been a pretty terrible defensive player for most of his career. He has finally learned to be an average to slightly above average shortstop the last couple of years. No bones about it, his Gold Gloves are a travesty and anybody who thinks that they aren’t should be ashamed. That being said, Jeter is still one of the exception shortstops of all time. To this date he has amassed 2742 hits, and put up slash numbers of .317/.388/.459. And he is a gamer, and a leader, which although not heavily waited, is important. He has the personality that Arod should have, but doesn’t. All in all, I feel confident in putting him in my top 5.

3. Joe Cronin- This may be a controversial pick as well, but he was a damn good player. First of all Cronin was a great fielder. Absolutely superb, and one of the best ever. But no only could he field the ball, he could hit it as well. His percentage numbers are a very solid, .301/.390/.468. These are very, very good, particularly for a short stop, and even rarer for a shortstop who can field his position.

2. Arky Vaughn- The proud owner of the best season by a shortstop not named Honus Wagner. This guy could hit, this guy could field, and frankly I am just a sucker for players with career OBP’s over .400. His slash numbers are .318/.406/.453. His 1935 season was truly amazing. In that particular season he hit .381/.491/.607. That’s an absolutely sick season.

1. Honus Wagner- This is pretty much a given, and beyond debate. Hans Wagner is the greatest shortstop of all time, bottom line, end of story. 7 time batting champion and the best defender of his time. His career numbers are .327/.391/.466. This doesn’t look all that impressive but given the average season of his time he was leaps and bounds better than everyone else. Putting up a near 1.000 ops, which he did often, was a near super human feat in early baseball. And according to his peers he was far and away the most feared hitter in the National League.

Cal Ripken Jr.- Cal Ripken Jr. is, of course, one of the great players in baseball history. However, I have a hard time putting him in the top 5. Sure he had the games streak, and that is one of the most impressive records in baseball, but that in itself does not make you the best player at your position. His career OPS is .788. Frankly this is just a bit low to put him in, even counting that he played in an offensively repressed era. Defensively he was very very good, but not great. I have no qualms putting him in the Hall of Fame, and among baseball’s greats, but he doesn’t crack the top five.

Here come the 1950's Hall of Fame blog Part 6!!

Alrighty boys and girls, I know it’s been a long time since my last installment into the wonderful world of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but here we are the 1950’s.

1959- Zack Wheat

Zach Wheat- Yes- Zach Wheat is fairly marginal as far as Hall of Famers go, but I do think he is a Hall of Famer. His slash numbers are .317/.367/.450, which aren’t spectacular, but are very good. He accumulated 2884 hits, 1248 RBI, and 1289 Runs. He was known as a quality defensive outfielder and was considered one of the best players in baseball by his peers.

1957- Sam Crawford

Sam Crawford-Yes- Sam Crawford is nearly and identical player to Zach Wheat with the exception that he was one of the great defensive outfielders of his generation. His percentage numbers are .309/.362/.452. He gets extra points for playing Right Field next to Cobb for several years without killing him. Overall, it is basically the same thing as Wheat. A few more hits, a few more Runs, and quite a few more RBI’s.

1956-Hank Greenberg, Joe Cronin

Hank Greenberg- Yes- Normally I don’t go for the short career guys, but you know what there are seldom guys who have been truly this great. .313/.412/.605. Yep folks that’s a career 1.017 OPS. That’s pretty damn good.

Joe Cronin-Yes- Joe Cronin is actually in my top five greatest shortstops of all time. His slash numbers are a very, very solid .301/.390/.468. He was an amazingly good defender, one of the best. As far as shortstops there are very few who can combine his defensive prowess with the ability to hit both for a decent average and with some pop. His .857 OPS ranks very high amongst shortstops.

1955-Dazzy Vance, Ray Schalk, Ted Lyons, Gabby Hartnett, Joe DiMaggio, Home Run Baker.

Dazzy Vance-Maybe- Dazzy Vance is a tough person to rate. I put a lot of weight towards how their peers viewed them in their playing days. Dazzy Vance was always considered one of, if not the best by the hitters he faced. There is no question that he was tough to hit, and his 1924 season is one of the greatest of all time. He also led the National League in K’s 7 years running. However, other than his 3 great seasons, he wasn’t all that good and he didn’t pitch for very long. He has a career 3.24, which would have been a lot higher is his ERA hadn’t been ridiculously low in his 3 great seasons. In the rest of his seasons he was only average or a little above or below. He only had 197 wins to 140 losses. He does have 2045 career K’s, which given the strikeout rates of players in his day, is very impressive. Its equivalent of about 3200 k’s now. All in all it’s a tough case to judge, so I am putting it at maybe, but I think I am inclined to leave him out.

Ray Schalk-No- This pick is one of the ones that gets the most attention as being a farce. This is because his career slash numbers are .253/.340/.316. That is the lowest batting average of any player in the Hall of Fame. His OBP is actually pretty remarkable considering how little of a threat he was with the stick. What’s even worse than his batting average is his putrid .316 slugging average. He was a good defensive player, a great one even. But he is not the greatest defensive catcher off all time. Maybe not even in the top five greatest. He was an excellent base stealer for a catcher and he did have some speed, but its not enough to get him into the Hall of Fame.

Ted Lyons-No- As far as I can tell, Ted Lyons isn’t really all that good a player. He had a career 260-230 record, for a less than stellar .531 winning percentage. His career high in k’s for a season was 74, for a career total of 1073. I am not a big fan of pitchers that walk more than the strikeout and Lyon’s did that for his career. His career ERA of 3.67 is not really indicative of him having a Hall of Fame career.

Gabby Hartnett-Yes- Gabby Hartnett was an excellent catcher. He was great defensively with a rocket arm, and he could hit. He could hit very well. His percentage numbers are .297/.370/.489. That gives him a very solid .858 OPS. His cumulative numbers are lacking, of course, but with catchers especially you have to make an exception for that. Due to the nature of their profession they are always going to have less games played than other positions.

Joe DiMaggio-Yes- Three time MVP, great defensive centerfielder, and a great hitter. His career OPS of .977 make him a HOF lock. A curious thing about DiMaggio, he was known as a very speedy player but his career high in SB’s was 6. In fact he only had 30 career stolen bases. I know it wasn’t a stolen base era, and that he was a middle of the order type hitter, but you would think he would have gotten at least twice that accidently.

Home Run Baker-Yes- Mr. Frank Baker was known as Home Run Baker because of his ability to knock the ball out of the park. Of course 12 was his career high and he only hit 96 in his career. His career slash number are .307/.363/.442. Given the time period in which he played he was a legitimate big time slugger. He was considered by his peers to be the best third basemen in the game. His 12 home runs were also a record until Babe Ruth broke it. He is a Hall of Famer without question.

1954-Bill Terry, Rabbit Maranville, Bill Dickey

Bill Terry-Yes- I am not a huge Bill Terry fan. His .401 average is incredibly over rated and should not be considered with the same reverence as the other .400+ hitters. Basically anything offensive that was done in 1930 shouldn’t really count. Outside of that he was a very good player. His career .341 average is extremely impressive and he had a little bit of pop in his bat as well.

Rabbit Maranville-No- He got in because he was a media riot. His numbers certainly don’t verify Hall of Fame status. His career OPS of .658 is unimpressive to say the least. He was not that exceptional a fielder to make up for the poor average. I am really not sure why he is in the Hall of Fame to be honest.

Bill Dickey-Yes- Mr. Dickey grew up in Kensett, Arkansas, which is a little town that is basically a part of Searcy. After he finished his career he moved back to Arkansas until his death in Little Rock in 1993. Most people rate Yogi Berra as the greatest Yankee catcher of all time, but my vote goes to Bill Dickey. He was a man that was well liked and a leader on his team. He was a smarter player than Yogi, he was a much better defender and had a rocket arm. And in my opinion he was much more consistent hitter. He put up a nice career .313 batting average, with a .382 OBP, and .486 SLG. He is a no doubter as a Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest catchers of all time.

1953-Bobby Wallace, Al Simmons, Dizzy Dean, Chief Bender.
Bobby Wallace-No- Bobby Wallace was a whole lot of average over a very long career. He was a career .268 hitter with no power. He managed to rack up 2309 hits but it took him 25 seasons to get them. He didn’t steal bases, he was only a slightly above average fielder, he only batted over .300 once. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about him.

Al Simmons-Yes- Al Simmons is no doubter of a Hall of Famer, but one that flies under most people radar. “Bucket-Foot” Al could flat out hit the baseball. He racked up 2927 hits, ending up just shy of 3000, but we will give him the benefit of the doubt there. His percentage numbers are a more than solid .334/.380/.535 for a career .915 OPS. He tends to get overlooked because he played on team with about seven other Hall of Famers.

Dizzy Dean-Yes- Dizzy gets into the Hall but I don’t know that I would put him in if he hadn’t been a Hall of Fame type broadcaster too. I will give him the benefit of the doubt because he was a great player, and because of his overall contribution to baseball. And because he is just a damn interesting guy. First of all he one 30 games in 1934. He followed that up with 28 wins the next year. The problem is he only has 150 career wins. On the plus side he had a career winning percentage of .644. That’s pretty spectacular.

Chief Bender-Yes- Charles Albert Bender could play some baseball. He had a career 212-127 record for a .625 career winning percentage. Not to shabby, especially when combined with his career 2.46 ERA. He was always considered one of the best pitchers in the league.

1952-Paul Waner, Harry Heilman

Paul Waner-Yes- Big Poison was a much better player than his brother, Little Poison. He put up a career .333 batting average, and unlike his brother he could slug the ball a little and tossed up a career .473 slg to go along with his good batting average. For good measure he tossed in 3152 career hits, 1627 Runs, and 1309 RBI’s.

Harry Heilman-Yes- A guy most people don’t think about, or have even heard of, Harry could flat out rip the ball. He put up a .342 batting average and put up a .410 OBP and a .520 slugging percentage just for good measure. That gives him a career .930 OPS which is pretty stellar. He put up 2660 career hits, 1291 career runs, and 1539 career RBI’s. No question he belongs.

1951-Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx

Mel Ott-Yes- No doubter. 511 career home runs, with .304/.414/.533. This gives him an outstanding .947 OPS. Mr. Ott was a professional slugger and his numbers show that. He also put up a very respectable 2876 career hit total and had over 1000 career extra base hits. 1859 career runs with 1860 career RBI’s are also very impressive.

Jimmie Foxx-Yes- Another no doubter, Jimmie Foxx goes into the argument as one of the greatest right handed hitters of all time. 534 homers, 1751 runs, 1922 RBI and 1000 extra base hits. His slash numbers are even more impressive .325/.428/.609. There is no question to membership into the Hall of Fame.

Ernie Banks a shortstop?

Ok, I get quite a bit of flack from time to time because I don't include Ernie Banks in my top five shortstops list. But there is a logical and sound reason why he isn't on my list of all-time great shortstops. The first reason is his career numbers aren't all that spectacular. However, that is actually not the reason why he doesn't make my list. He doesn't make my list because he didn't spend his entire career as a shortstop. He didn't even spend HALF of his career as a shortstop. Ernie Banks gets publicity as the only shortstop in the 500 club, but frankly, this publicity is 100% not deserved. Not because he didn't hit 500 homers, that's not in question of course, but because he spent more of his career as a first basemen then he did as a shortstop. Here is the breakdown of Ernie Banks career by position:

As a 1st Basemen:
Games played: 1238
PA: 5091
AB: 4658
R: 565
Hits: 1209
2B: 195
3B: 31
HR: 207
RBI: 758
BB: 305
SO: 659
BA: .260
OBP: .308
SLG: .448
OPS: .756
As a Shortstop:
Games Played: 955
PA: 4083
AB: 3670
R: 609
Hits: 1066
2B: 174
3B: 41
HR: 248
RBI: 691
BB: 348
SO: 450
BA: .290
OBP: 353
SLG: .564
OPS: .916
There is no question that Banks was a much better player as a shortstop, but the problem is he stopped being a shortstop by the age of 29. And when he stopped being a shortstop he really stopped being a shortstop, he never played a game there again, and he played until he was 40. He played 140 games or more at shortstop in his career only six seasons, and in a career that lasted 19 seasons I don’t think its fair to identify him with that position. It’s not fair to the other shortstops that legitimately played that position their entire career. Looking at the stats it’s easy to see which position he spent the most time at. He had more at bats, hits, and RBI’s playing first base than he did at short. He did hit more homers at short than he did at 1st but not by a wide margin. He is pretty close to half and half there. So what in the hell do we give him credit as being a shortstop in the 500 club? Especially since he only hit 248 homers as a shortstop. There is no question that he should be associated with first basemen, not with shortstops. This is a situation in which propaganda and media has affected our perception of a player. Ernie Banks was well liked, especially by the writers. They had to press the issue with the shortstop part of his career because he looks like a much better player, a top ten or top five players because of his home run total. If he was compared as a first-basemen he just doesn’t stack up. His numbers probably wouldn’t crack the top 15. Of course this blog doesn’t even go into the fact that for half of his career Banks was actually not a very good player at all, or that when he was a shortstop it was a stretch to say he was average defensively, but I am not denying that he should be a Hall of Famer, just that he should not be considered a shortstop, because that is misleading. This is the reason why Banks is not on my top five list, and this is the reason why he shouldn’t be on ANYBODIES top five list at short. Because he just isn’t a shortstop.

Five best names in baseball history!

I like names and baseball has sure had some good ones. I am not talking nicknames here, this are the actual given names of these guys.

5. Johnny Dickshot- I can't imagine what the origination of this last name is but I certainly wouldn't want to grow up with it. To make matters worse this guys nickname was Ugly. Ugly Dickshot. What a terrible name.

4. Biff Pocoroba- Absolutely a great name.

3. Razor Shines- I love it when the Cardinals play the Mets just because I know that I will get to see Razor Shines send someone homes from third. Its really a great name.

2. Sixto Lezcano- If only this guy actually had six toes.

1. Rusty Peters- Seriously what was this guys mom thinking. That is just a bad idea.

Here come the 1960's. Hall of Fame Blog Part 5.

Well here come the sixties. Groovy Man.

1969-Stan Musial, Waite Hoyt, Stan Coveleski, Roy Campanella
Stan Musial-Yes- Its impossible to find one blemish on Stan the Man’s record that goes against him being one of the greatest players of all time. .331 career batting average, .417 career OBP, with a .559 career slg percentage. That gives him a very salty .976 career OPS. He was a seven time batting champion and nearly won the Triple Crown in 1948. He gathered 3630 career hits, 475 career home runs, 1949 career runs, and 1951 career RBI’s. He was a three time MVP and easily could have won three more, and probably should have. Plus he was just a hell of a nice guy. He is one of the top ten greatest players of all time.

Waite Hoyt-No- The veteran’s committee strikes again. Apparently they thought their job back then were to pick out marginal guys and make their families happy by putting them in the Hall of Fame. Waite had 237 career wins with a 3.59 ERA. Not exactly hall of fame stuff. He pitched 21 seasons, most of them bad with a few good seasons sprinkled in. I don’t really know why he is in the Hall of Fame.

Stan Coveleski- Yes- Now here is a guy that might be worthy of the Vet’s committee’s pick. He only won 215 games, but at a much better percentage than Hoyt. (.602) and he had a much better career ERA. (2.89) Even though his career was somewhat limited he won 20 games five times, with a good percentage each year. I never really count a 20 win season if you lost 20 games as well, that just means you had a ton of decisions, Coveleski could pitch.

Roy Campanella- Yes- A tragic case, Campanella was a great, great player. Roy was a great defensive catcher, and like Yogi Berra he was a three time MVP. The difference between he and Yogi, is that Roy probably actually deserved them, or at least was as good a choice as the competitors. As it is, although his career was shortened due to the car accident that left him in a wheel chair, he had a career OPB of .860 and was an All-Star in every season other than his rookie year and his last. His career was brief, but I don’t really have the heart to exclude a great player who ended his career in a wheelchair.

1968-Joe Medwick, Goose Goslin, Kiki Cuyler

Joe Medwick- Yes- A triple crown winner and MVP winner, and put up a great career average of .324 which he coupled with a career .505 slugging percentage for good measure. He only had 2471 hits, but he was a great player, and had some monster seasons, so that really doesn’t matter. Medwick was a bit of a prickly person and wasn’t particularly well liked in baseball. He wasn’t hated, but he wasn’t exactly liked either.

Goose Goslin-Yes- Goose Goslin was one of the strongest men of his time, and although he was a terrible defensive outfielder, he sure could hit. He has a career .316 BA with a .387 OBP and a .500 Slugging. For good measure he threw in 2734 career hits, 1609 RBI, and 1483 Runs.

Kiki Cuyler- Yes- A little bit marginal, but he was truly respected by his piers as one of the best in the game. He was an excellent defensive centerfielder, with a rocket for an arm, and he could hit as well. He tossed good percentage numbers of .321, .386, and .474. He also led the league in stolen bases 4 times, and in runs twice. He had some decent power, and for a non-RBI slot hitter, had some very respectable RBI totals.

1967-Red Ruffing, Lloyd Waner

Red Ruffing-No- What in the hell was the voters thinking? Less than 2000 career strikeouts, and a 273-225 record. That is a lot of wins, but he pitched 22 seasons, he is supposed to have a bunch of wins. The real issue with him is his career 3.80 ERA, that is entirely too high to be a hall of famer. For at least half of his career he put up an ERA over 4.00. That’s no greatness.

Lloyd Waner-No- Perhaps I am a bit biased, but this is the exact kind of player that I think is overrated. Lloyd did one thing. He hit singles and he hit them well. But that’s all he did. He didn’t walk, and even though he hit .316, he only got on base at a .353 clip. There are lots of players that hit far lower, but were far more productive due to his lack of on base percentage. Not only that he has a tiny percentage of his careers hits that weren’t singles. His career slugging is only .393. An argument could be made that he belongs, because he was a good player. However, I really just dislike this type of player. If he hit .325 plus I would be a bit more likely to take him.

1966-Ted Williams

Ted Williams- Yes – (Explicit Warning Here) Ted used to refer to himself as Teddy Fucking Ballgame, the greatest hitter than game has ever seen. Now everybody that hears it generally hates that type of arrogance, however, he maybe just have been right. He was a fighter pilot as well, and by all accounts he was exceptional at that too. Ted Williams was a ridiculous player. He refused to hit the ball the other way, and he was a terrible outfielder that could often be seen practicing his swing out in the field, but that doesn’t matter. He was that good a hitter. His career percentage numbers are .344, .484, and .634. Those are video game type numbers. He led the American League in OPS 11 times, and posted an OPS over 1.000 18 times. Keep in mind he only played 19 seasons. Yep, that means he has a ridiculous career OPS of 1.116. He put up 521 homers, 525 doubles, and although he only had 2654 hits, a bit part of that is because he took a ridiculous 2021 walks. And keep in mind he did this even though he missed 3 years of his career right in the prime of it due to WWII and he missed sometime for Korea as well. Truly a legend, even if he was a very unlikeable guy.

1965- Pud galvin-Pre-1900 Player, Pass.

1964- Heinie Manush, Tim Keefe, Burleigh Grimes, Red Faber, Luke Appling
Heinie Manush-Yes- This guy could hit the baseball. He is one of the more unknown of the Hall of Famers but he deserves his place. He hit a very robust .330, .377, and .479. To go with the good percentage numbers he also tossed up 2524, which although not a stellar overall total, is very respectable nonetheless. To be honest, I don’t know a ton about this guy, so I don’t really have any anecdotal research to add to his case, and particularly know very little about his defense, since that is pretty much purely extracted from anecdotal research. Like Bill James I think I will revise this list from time to time and hopefully in its next version I will have more to say about Mr. Manush.

Tim Keefe-Pre-1900 player, Pass.

Burleigh Grimes-No- Another guy I don’t know a ton about. He was a spitballer, the legal kind, and he was one of the last legal spitballers to toe the rubber. Just looking at his stats I would have to say he is probably a no. 270 wins, with a good .560 winning percentage, but his ERA are a bit high at 3.53. His strikeout total is a bit low at 1512, but guys didn’t strike out all that much during the ERA he pitched. For now he is a no, but eventually I will do my due diligence on his anecdotal research.

Red Faber-No-If I don’t take Grimes then I can’t take Faber. They are very similar pitchers. Their careers overlapped, and Grimes one a few more games at a better percentage and Faber had a better ERA. Faber had 1471 K’s to Grimes 1524. Neither pitcher was stellar.

Luke Appling-Yes- Appling could hit the ball pretty well, and he new how to take a walk. He won two batting titles and walked over 100 times in three seasons. His career percentage numbers are .310 .399 and .398. The slugging is a bit low, but the OBP is stellar. He was a sure handed quality shortstop if not spectacular at his position. And oddly he seems to be better at short defensively when he was 40 than he was at 30, which is a pretty unusual trend. Anecdotally he is supposed to be one of the best at defensive position, which would account for that anomaly.

1963-Eppa Rixey, Sam Rice, Elmer Flick

Eppa Rixey-No- Although I know this is always indicative of the quality of a pitcher but Mr. Rixey led the league in losses twice as often as he led the league in wins. Ok that is not quite fair to leave it at that, he led the league in wins once, and losses twice. Still, an interesting fact to note. Other than that it seems Mr. Rixey was about a .500 pitcher, to be more exact a .515 pitcher. He posted a career record of 266-251. Definitely nothing to write home about. He also walked about as many as he struck out and gave up quite a few more hits than innings pitched, which isn’t always a bad thing either, but it does mean he has a relatively high WHIP. All in all, there is no way he was close to one of the best pitchers of his era.

Sam Rice-Yes- This man could play the game. He was an excellent fielder, with a good arm and he could hit the baseball. He put up a .322 career batting average with a .374 OBP and a .427 Slg. He also came up just 13 hits short of 3000 for his career. He scored 1514 and for good measure stole 351 bases.

Elmer Flick-pass- I am going to take a pass on Flick at this time, I would like to have the input from the peanut gallery on him if I could.

1962-Edd Roush, Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller,

Edd Roush-Yes- Mr. Roush was a capable hitter, he put up some really good percentage numbers of .323 .369 and .446. The career slugging of .446 is really good for his era. He was known as a good defender as well, and how can you not vote for a guy named Edd with 2 D’s.

Jackie Robinson-Yes- He only played for ten years, but this is a situation where you have to give a guy some credit for projected years. There is no reason to think that he wouldn’t have had five or six more years at the start of career that would have been comparable to his prime. As for the years he did have they were quite good. He put up a .311 average a great .409 OBP and a respectable .474 slugging. He was a great player who also put up 197 stolen bags in a era where people didn’t really still bags. As a defender he was adequate but not great, his reputation with the glove has become a bit overinflated. However, he was a professional hitter no doubt about it.

Bob Feller-Yes- This is a guy through the years that probably should have kept his mouth shut on a few different occasions. Despite that he was a mighty quality pitcher. He had some of the same problems as Nolan Ryan, but he corrected his wildness where Ryan never did. He did have over 200 walks in a season once though. He led the league in strikeouts 7 times and has a reputation as a big time strikeout pitcher, which he was at times, but contrary to what most people believe he never got to 3000 k’s. Bob was generally a better pitcher than the teams he was on and lead the league in wins 6 times with a very good .621 career winning percentage. He also lost 4 prime years to wartime service, and of all factors that play upon what could have been, I am more prone to giving people the benefit of the doubt when it
comes to wartime service.

1961-Max Carey-Yes- Max Carey was a great leadoff man. He posted a .361 career OBP with 738 careers steals. Caught stealing stats aren’t available for a good portion of his career, but when it is he stole a very good percentage. Also anecdotally he is known as a very high percentage base stealer. He was also an excellent fielder and amassed 2665 career hits and 1545 career runs. He led the league in steals 10 times.

1960-There were no players elected in 1960.

The Wait is over, Here come the Seventies and their Hall of Fame Greatness.

Welcome to Part 4 of the Hall of Fame blog. In this section we will be covering a lot of the worst selections ever to the Hall, mostly due to the Veterans committee that was headed by Frankie Frisch and was made up of his old cronies. They were mostly old Cardinals and Giants beat writers who really were only interested in electing a lot of the players they were friends with through the years, which meant a lot of Cardinals and Giants players that were no where near Hall of Fame caliber.

1979- Hack Wilson, Willie Mays

Hack Wilson- No- Hack Wilson only collected 1461 hits in his career. I am not a huge fan of basing things on cumulative stats alone, but that total is just too tiny. He was a quality player, but not that great of one. His .940 OPS is impressive, but when you look at the time period he played its not nearly that impressive. His best years came at a time when nearly every team in baseball batted .300 as a team. A time period that even dwarfed the Nineties and early 2000’s in its offensive ridiculousness. In fact it wasn’t that uncommon for a team to have a couple of players batting in the .380 range. He is a much less quality Hall of Fame pick than guys like Moises Alou and Jim Edmonds, and that’s not even taking into account Edmonds defense, purely based on his offense. His greatest year came in 1930 when he knocked in 191, but this is probably the single greatest offensive year in baseball history. His entire teams batting average was .309 with a .378 OBP and .481 slugging. That’s just silly high for team numbers. He finished tenth in the batting race that year, and he batted .356. All in all, with his numbers actually being inflated in value, and his lack of career totals Hack Wilson only belongs in the Cubs Hall of Fame.

Willie Mays- Yes- Nothing to say here, anybody that questions his being place amongst the greatest of all time knows nothing about the game.

1978-Eddie Matthews, Addie Joss

Eddie Matthews-Yes- Maybe not the greatest defensive third basemen of all time, but he was definitely serviceable, and his offensive value puts him amongst the greatest all time at his position. His .885 OPS might be a tad lower than you would expect, but he played in an offensively repressed time period.

Addie Joss-Yes- His career was short, and tragically cut short by a fatal duel with tuberculosis, but he was brilliantly great in his ten years. A career .623 winning percentage is impressive, and even more so because it was so much greater than his teams won loss percentage. Every years of his career he was one of the two or three best pitchers in baseball and his career 1.89 ERA is phenomenal even by the standards of his time.

1977-Joe Sewell, Amos Rusie, Ernie Banks

Joe Sewell-Yes- This guy could play. Good defensive shortstop with a career .312 average. He threw in a career OBP of .391 and a slugging of .413 just for good measure. The slugging isn’t anything to write home about really, but the .391 OBP is excellent. Sewell of course is a man who was very hard to strike out, so hard that he only struck out 114 in his career. He had a few seasons where he struck out as few as 3 or 4 times with nearly 700 plate appearances. This is ridiculously impressive. 112 times in his career, and by today’s standards that many times in a season wouldn’t be that many.

Amos Rusie- Who knows- Frankly I just don’t know enough about pre-1900’s baseball to decide who should or should not be in from that time period, and I am not really sure anybody does. At first glance his 3.09 ERA seems high, but I just don’t really know. He did pitch over 500 innings in a season twice, which seems ridiculous. He led the league in losses as many times as he did in wins.

Ernie Banks- Yes- Ernie Banks was not a great player and his value as a shortstop is overstated. He actually played more games at first base (1259) than he did at shortstop. (1125) And when he did play short he was average at best. Actually he gets a ton of press as the only member of the 500 club who is a shortstop, when in reality, I don’t even know why he is listed as a shortstop in the Hall of Fame, as generally they go by what position you played the most games at. In actuality he was done as a shortstop before he was even 30. I guess he is listed at that position because he played there when he was a back-to-back MVP. But in actuality he should have never have won either award. In 1958 Willie Mays was clearly the better player and in 1959 Hank Aaron was even more clearly the better player. His career OPS is low at .830. The only reason I am including him is he was a great player for a few years, probably top 5 in the league, and he cranked out a lot of offensive production and homers when that was very difficult to do, and in a park that made it even more difficult. Wrigley played very pitcher friendly until the late sixties.

1976-Robin Roberts, Freddie Lindstrom, Bob Lemon, Roger Connor.

Robin Roberts-No- He wasn’t really that good. He did win 20 games six times, which is actually one of my milestone type numbers. But he was actually really bad in some years, posting ERA’s over 4.00 in years that were actually very weak offensive years. His winning percentage wasn’t that great, and he also missed 3000 k’s so he doesn’t have that milestone going for him. He also missed 300 wins, although not by much, but with as many decisions as he had it’s a mark he should have hit honestly.

Freddie Lindstrom- No- Mister Lindstrom was pretty good, but he only got in because of Frisch. He was reputed as a good defender, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case and he only had 9 years as a regular player, which were played in the high octane twenties and thirties, so his .311 BA is overinflated and his .351 OBP less than impressive. 1747 career hits, 103 career homeruns, no MVP awards, less than 1000 RBI’s and runs. He only finished in the top ten in the MVP voting twice, so all in all it looks like he is a stretch as a Hall of Famer.

Bob Lemon- No - I am frankly amazed that Bob Lemon got into the Hall of Fame via the vote. His career record is 207-128 for a .618 winning percentage. This is deceptively good. He played on a lot of REALLY good Cleveland Indians teams, and if you go year by year his winning percentage was often below that of his team, and when it wasn’t’ it only met the teams, or was marginally better. True its hard to be significantly better than your teams WP when it’s a good team, but you never want to be below it. His career era was 3.23, which is a bit high. He did do very well in the MVP voting, but I think his reputation is greater than the sum of his parts. He was a very good hitter for a pitcher. He gave up a large number of walks and hits, which tells me he was a very hittable pitcher who played for a very good team.

Roger Connor-I guess- Pre 1900 first basemen. His OPS was .883, which seems high, but frankly pre-1900 baseball just isn’t my think. My knowledge starts at 1900.

1975- Ralph Kiner, Billy Herman, Earl Averill

Ralph Kiner- Yes- There is a balance between having a long career and putting up cumulative numbers. I am not a big fan of the average player who played for 18 seasons while never being great and puts up 3001 hits and gets into the Hall of Fame. However, there is a balance, if a player only plays 10-12 years and hasn’t put up anywhere close to any good cumulative totals it makes it equally hard to include him. To get into the Hall of Fame with a short career you have to have exhibited greatness. Ralph Kiner was great, he led the league in homers his first seven year in the league, so that means in his ten year career he was the home run leader 7 times. Nice ratio. He also put up a nice career .946 OPS. His OBP was nearly .400 at .398 and I am a sucker for guys with a .400 career OBP. He definitely displayed greatness in his time in the big leagues.

Billy Herman- Yes- Slow as snot, but a great defender, and without a question the greatest hit and run man of all time. This guy could find a way to hit a pitch 15 feet over his head through the hole. The OPS was a little low at .774, but he hit .304 and he was legitimately a good hitter who is one of better defenders historically at his position. Given his defensive prowess he makes it in, although he is not one of the strongest candidates.

Earl Averill- Yes- Played during a high octane time period, but he was still exceptional even when the offense slowed down. He played with a chip on his shoulder, always feeling like he never got the credit he deserved, and by many accounts he wasn’t that pleasant of a teammate. But he could hit, he could get on base, and he could slug. And he was a great defensive centerfielder, which is what really seals the deal for his inclusion. His career OPS was .928. And although he didn’t reach 3000 hits, he was at least over 2000.

1974- Sam Thompson, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Jim Bottomley,

Sam Thompson –Meh- I really need to do some research in regards to Pre-1900 players. I need a pre-1900 baseball scholar.

Mickey Mantle- Yes- It’s the Mick; of course he is a Hall of Famer. There is no question that he was one of the elite to play the game, what is just scary is what this guys potential was. His basically played hobbled his entire career, having a serious knee injury his first year. Apparently this robbed him of some speed early on, but he was still blazing fast. What could this guy have done if he was healthy even for half his career? I mean seriously look what he did with two bad legs.

Whitey Ford- Yes- I should leave him out on principle, as he was just as big a cheater as Gaylord Perry. However, unlike Gaylord he has never flaunted the fact he was successful because of doctoring the ball, so I guess I will just do like most of baseball historians do and ignore it. Whitey Ford did the most important thing a pitcher can do, he just won ball games. At an amazing clip, even counting how good his teams were. He posted a 236-106 record for an astounding .690 winning percentage. You could count on him to win ballgames for you. More so than any pitcher of his time.

Jim Bottomley-No – I be over critical of Cardinals players because I don’t want to show a bias, but Sunny Jim was another one of Frisch’s veterans committee picks. He had some really great years with the Cardinals in the first few years of his career, but he shut it down in the second half of his career. The problem was for about 9 years he put up decent looking percentage numbers, but unfortunately it was during the late 20’s through the 30’s. His percentage numbers, although they look impressive, were actually only average for the time, or even a little below average. For example he hit .304, .368, .493 in 1930. This looks like a pretty decent, even good line. However, the team as a whole hit .314, .372, .471. Except for the slugging, he was actually below average for his team on the other two numbers. There are more years like this as well.

1973-Mickey Welch, Warren Spahn, George Kelly, Monte Irvin, Roberto Clemente.

Mickey Welch-Meh- See other pre-1900 entries.

Warren Spahn- Yes- 8 time 20 game winner. 3 time ERA champ, and 4-time strikeout leader. He won 363 games while putting up a .597 winning percentage. There isn’t much to argue with on Spahn’s resume, although I do find those that consider him to be the best lefty of all time to be a bit laughable.

George Kelly-No- Oh look at this, it’s amazing its another marginable Giant picked by the Frankie Frisch and Friends Veterans Committee. Decent OPS but he only played 8 seasons as a regular, and those were most definitely not great seasons. Under 2000 hits for his career, very limited amount of games played, and he failed to display greatness in any single season.

I am skipping Monte Irvin because he got in based at least half on his Negro league career. He was a Giant as well though.

Roberto Clemente-Yes- Remembered in death as a much nicer person than he was in real life by all accounts. A good person yes, but a prickly one all the same. I think I would feel bad if I didn’t take him. He was a great player.

1972- Ross Youngs, Early Wynn, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Yogi Berra.

Ross Youngs-No- What do you know, another career Giant voted in by the Frisch Veterans Committee, and another one at that with essentially an 8 year career. This isn’t even funny anymore. He was a much better player than Kelly. I guess, kind of hard to tell with a guy who didn’t even make it to 1500 hits an whose career was over before 30. I am voting no out of principle.

Early Wynn-I don’t know- I don’t really think he is a hall of famer. He had a career 3.54 ERA, which is pretty high. He hit 300 wins, but with 244 losses, and he played for some pretty good teams. If you want to take him just because he got 300 wins then I guess you can, but other than that he was an alright pitcher who was kind of a jerk and was never really great.

Sandy Koufax- Wow- Ok, this one is tough. There comes to a debate. Is a player has five great, truly great, compared to any time of history kind of great years is that worthy of being in the Hall of Fame? What if they were the only five good years the player had period? This is what makes Sandy Koufax so tough to gauge. The last five years of his career were ridiculous. He led the league in ERA all five years, he lead in strikeouts three of those years, and in wins three of those years. He won three Cy Young Awards, an MVP, and three pitching triple crowns. He tossed up some ridiculous won loss records, such as 25-5, 26-8, 27-9. Career he is 165-87, for a very stellar .655. The problem is other than those fives years he was average for one year, and then actually quite poor for five years. ERA’s of 3.91, 4.05, 4.48, 3.88, and 4.91. Nothing to write home about, and actually quite the opposite. So if you answer that yes, five great years makes you a hall of famer, regardless of the quality of the other years then he is a Hall of Famer, if you answer no that a player needs to demonstrate quality in more than just five great years, then Koufax does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. It an argument that can be made since he essentially balanced five great years with five very poor years.

Yogi Berra –Yes- He screwed Minnie Minoso out of an MVP twice, and Al Kaline out of one once. He only possibly deserved one of the 3 MVP awards he won, with his last being an outright travesty. As it is I have always felt that Yogi was an overrated player who has more mythos around him than fact. People like to put him in the greatest catcher ever debate, and I don’t even think he is the greatest catcher to wear a Yankee uniform. That being said he was still a great player, although his loveable nature is a modern construct, he was actually quite grumpy and contrary as a player. He is a St. Louis boy, and the Cardinals decided to go with Joe Garagiola instead. That worked out great for them. Yogi’s spot as a Hall of Famer is pretty much beyond contestation; only his debate as to where he stands amongst the greats is in debate.

1971-Rube Marquard, Joe Kelley, Harry Hooper, Chick Hafey, Jake Beckley, Dave Bancroft.

Rube Marquard-No- Oh look, something we haven’t seen before, a marginal ex-Giant player elected in via the Frankie Frisch Veterans Committee. Marquard was a career 201-177, with 1593 career K’s. He had a career 3.08 ERA, and he never led the league in ERA. Nothing at all that really hints and a career that would merit being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Joe Kelley- This guy seemed like he could really hit, but all his good years were pre-1900 so, as with the others I am not really passing judgment.

Harry Hooper- Yes – I have had the luck to have read two books about Hooper, and I have discovered a lot of interesting things about it. However, the most important to the cause here is the fact that year in and year out he was considered one of the best defensive outfielders in the game, one of the smartest players, one of the fastest, and best base runners, and one of the strongest armed as well. He hit .281 for his career with a .368 OBP and he collected 2466 hits. He was an excellent postseason performer with a career .806 OPS in 4 different World Series appearances.

Chick Hafey-No- The Frankie Frisch Veterans Committee strikes again, this time with a Cardinal instead of a Giant. Same principle though. Hafey was a good hitter, although his .898 OPS are greatly inflated by the era. He was a terrible defender though, and I mean Dave Kingman bad. Not only that he really only had two seasons in his career where he played in more than 140 games, and he barely got to that mark. It was due to injuries, but still he was essentially a career part time player. He only gathered 1466 career hits.

Jack Beckley- Bah all of these damn pre-1900 players. Baseball shouldn’t count before 1900.

Dave Bancroft-No – Who is keeping count? Here is another Giant brought in by the Veteran’s committee. Bancroft was a decent but unremarkable player who put up a .714 OPS while suffering from the same problem as Hafey; Most of his career was spent in 100-120 game seasons. An unremarkable player undeserving of the Hall of Fame.

1970-Jesse Haines, Earle Combs, Lou Boudreau

Jesse Haines-No- Once again a Cardinal instead of a Giant brought in by Frisch. There is not one single reason that Haines should have been picked other than he was a friend of Frisch. His career ERA was 3.64. He had 210 wins to 158 losses, which is ok, but not stellar considering the really high ERA. Only had 981 career strike outs, never lead the league in wins, or ERA or anything really. Was completely average except for the fact he pitched 17 seasons with the Cardinals. That I respect, but it is not reason enough to be a Hall of Famer. It should be telling that he was a career Cardinal, and he had a number, yet it is not retired. Ken Boyer’s number is, and he isn’t a Hall of Famer, but Haines isn’t. Why? Because he was that valuable to the Cardinals.

Earle Combs-No- Basically just repeating all the stuff I have said many time in this decade for Veterans Committee picks. Combs could really hit, but his career was really short, just like all the other Vet picks. If he could have sustained it for five more years he would be a Hall of Famer, but unfortunately he got a late start.

Lou Boudreau-Yes- I am making a border line pick based on personal reasons. I had a Lou Boudreau card as a kid and I though he had the coolest name and I wished my name was Lou Boudreau. I thought it would have been cool if my Dad had named me Boudreau after him rather than Ryan after Nolan Ryan. Actually I think Boudreau did a lot more for his teams to help them with than Nolan Ryan did. He was a good shortstop, not great but he could hit. Career percentage numbers of .295, .380, .415.

Hall of Fame Blog Part 3, The Eighties

Alright its time to start part 3 of my amazing Hall of Fame list.  This section will deal with those that were elected in the wonderful decade of the 1980’s.  The same decade that brought me life. 

1989-Carl Yastrzemski, Red Schoendienst, Johnny Bench (A couple of guys that probably couldn’t spell their last names till High School.  I still can’t spell them without looking)

Carl Yastrzemski-Yes- Triple Crown Winner, which is impressive, even if he did it in an offensively repressed year.  Other than that he was a fine hitter who put up 3419 career hits and a career .841 OPS while playing in some pretty pitching dominate years.

Red Schoendienst-No- This guy had TB and it drug down his system in the second half of each year, so he put great first half numbers up, then struggled in the second half.  Red is, based purely on his numbers, not really a Hall of Famer.  However, he really isn’t in the Hall of Fame based purely on his numbers.  He is in because if you take all that he has been in baseball, (player, manager, executive, coach) there is no question that he belongs in the Hall of Fame.  I will not dispute that, but since I am taking players based on their careers, and not other contributions, his .724 OPS when coupled with the fact he fell short of 2500 career hits is going to keep him out.  He was a great defender, which does help his case somewhat, but still, not in my Hall of Fame.

Johnny Bench-Yes- Rocket Arm, Good defender, one of the best offensive catchers of all time, its hard to keep him out of the Hall.  Actually impossible, as much as I would like to given my dislike of the Big Red Machine.  His .817 OPS is really strong for a catcher, and he had the other skills to back it up.

1988- Willie Stargell

Willie Stargell-Yes- Pops could rake, no question.  This man was a professional hitter.  His percentage numbers ended up being a very nice .282, .360, .529, and although he ended up 25 homers short of 500 his .889 career OPS is very strong.  He was a very good player, and a team leader.

1987-Billy Williams, Catfish Hunter,

Billy Williams-Yes- This is a guy who seems to always slip through the radar, but he actually had a very nice career.  He his .290 for his career, and ended up with a .361 OBP and .492 SLG, for a nice .853 OPS.  He played in some bad hitters years, and Wrigley often played in the pitchers favor during his career.  He is not the greatest player of his time, but he was one of the best.

Catfish Hunter-No- Catfish Hunter is a tough, tough call.  He won 20 games five years in a row, with a great percentage.  He was legitimately one of the best pitchers around during that span, but the problem is outside of that five-year span he didn’t put up great numbers.  His career record of 224-166 is very good, but it is just not a very high total, and he was well short of 3000 k’s. His career WHIP was good at 1.134 but his ERA is a tad high at 3.26 given his lack of other cumulative numbers.  I just would have liked to have seen more than five great years. 

1986-Willie McCovey, Bobby Doerr, Ernie Lombardi

Willie McCovey-Yes- If your name is Willie, there is a likelihood you might be a good baseball player.  There seem to be lots of really great Willie’s who played the game.  He was as slow as frozen snot, but he might have swung the bat harder than any man who ever lived.  He had 521 career homers, with good percentage numbers of .270, .374, and .515.  Not to mention the fact that he probably lost a lot of career homers due to the park he played in.  Definitely a Hall of Famer.

Bobby Doerr-Maybe- This is a tough call, and I will admit at this point I just don’t know enough about this guy to make the call.  Perhaps when I revise this column I will have made a decision, but right now I don’t know enough about him, and the numbers are not clear cut enough to make a decision.  His career .823 OPS is pretty damn good.

Ernie Lombardi-Yes- Slow, Slow, Slow, but this guy could hit like a fiend.  Two battings Titles, and MVP, and he only struck out 262 times in his career.  His .306 career average is impressive considering he had no chance of ever beating out a ground ball, even if it was booted.  The reputation is that he makes a Molina brother look fast.  His percentage numbers of .306, .358, and .460 are very impressive and he was a very good defensive catcher.  His OPS of .818 puts him in a class with Bench, although with not quite as much power.

1985-Hoyt Wilhelm, Arky Vaughan, Enos Slaughter, Lou Brock

Hoyt Wilhelm-Yes- Possibly one of the more underrated pitchers in the Hall of Fame.  A career reliever with a career ERA of 2.52, he put up some pretty ridiculous numbers, including 227 saves, over 1600 K’s and 143 wins.  He spent one season as a starter and he didn’t do that until he was 36, when he did he led the league in ERA with a 2.19.  What is even more ridiculous about him is that he didn’t even pitch in the big leagues until he was 29.  He did all of this in his career while not having started playing until he was nearly 30!!

Arky Vaughan-Yes- The great player no one has ever heard of.  He is probably one of the five or six best short stops of all time.  He was short on cumulative numbers, but while he was playing he was truly great and posted percentage numbers of .318, .406, .453.  That leaves a career OPS of .859 which is really, really good.

Enos Slaughter- Yes- You know, when I first got to Enos, I thought for sure that he was going to be a player that would be excluded from my Hall Of Fame.  However, after looking at his stats I was surprised to discover that I am inclined to include him.  It is true that he does have a relatively low number of career hits (2383) but he does have over 1200 runs and Rbi’s.  The real turning point for me though was his career OPS of .834.  He also throws in a nice career .300 average, which of course is secondary, but it does look nice next to the very nice career OPS.  He is by all accounts a capable if not spectacular defender.  He does have a reputation as being a racist, which I don’t approve of, but it’s truly not the Hall of Nice Guys.

Lou Brock-Yes- Whoo boy, I really think Brock is a very marginable Hall of Famer.   His percentage numbers are .293 .343 and .410.  The OBP is lower than you would like to see in a Hall of Fame leadoff hitter, but the slugging is actually a bit higher than you might expect to find.  He did score a large number of runs (1610) and he got 3000 hits, barely. (3023) But I do think that the only thing keeping him in my Hall of Fame is the fact he stole 938 bags.  That’s a high number, with only Henderson beating him.  Since he did however, I will include him.  He was also a terrible fielder, with a below average arm.  When I review this blog in the future he may be one of the inclusions that might eventually get booted. 

1984-Pee Wee Reese, Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Luis Aparicio

Pee Wee Reese-Yes-When looking at Reese its hard to see why he was included into the Hall of Fame.  At first glance his 2170 hits seems very low with his average percentage numbers.  I have decided though, that he is probably a quality member.  He was of course, a very good defender, and is remembered fondly as a man who befriended Jackie Robinson.  His percentage numbers are .269 .366. .377.  Of course the slugging is a bit anemic, but the OBP is nearly 100 points better than his batting average, which is very good considering he was never a batter that was feared.  That is because he took 1210 walks in his career.  He was dedicated to his craft of getting on base and drawing walks.  His hit total, of course, would have been much higher if he was not so patient.  Also he stole 232 bases during a time when almost nobody was stealing bags.  All in all when included with his defense he is included, although only marginally so.

Harmon Killebrew-Yes- Big Harm was a career DH that played in an era without a DH.  He played 1^st, 3^rd, and the outfield.  He was pretty paltry at each position.  Basically the idea was to always try and hide him.  He was remembered as a bigger man than he actually was in real life.  He was listed at 5’11” and 213 lbs for most of his career.  He was though, whatever his size was, one of the strongest men to play the game.  He could flat out crush a baseball, and had tremendous power to the opposite field.  That at a time when that was more unusual than it is now.  Harm had a very nice career .884 OPS.  He would take a walk, which he did 1559 times, and always posted a great ops.  He led the league in homers 6 times, including three times in a row from 1962-64.

Rick Ferrell-No- I will admit I don’t truly know enough about Ferrell to pass judgment on him subjectively, so I am basing this purely on the numbers.  His numbers aren’t bad.  His hit .281 with a .378 OBP, the only problem is that his slugging is actually lower than his OBP, a very anemic .363.  He only had 28 career homers and 324 career doubles.  Of course he only had 1692 career hits.  He did have some very good years, but the numbers just don’t seem to be good enough, unless he is one of the best defensively, and I don’t know enough about him to rate that.

Don Drysdale-No- This man is sort of the opposite of Enos Slaughter.  With him I expected to see much better than I got.  He won 209 game with 166 lost for a .557 winning percentage.  That pretty good, but honestly his career ERA of 2.95.  Giving the fact that he 1. Played in an era known for being a pitching era, and B.  Played in Dodger stadium, which was an extreme pitching friendly ballpark.  He also only won 20 games twice in his career.  He was a very good pitcher, whose career ended at 32.  If he had played a few more years then perhaps I would include him, but baseball is filled with great players who just missed the Hall of Fame because of shortened careers.

Luis Aparicio-No- Next to Ozzie he might be the next greatest defensive shortstop of all time based on reputation.  However, that seems to be mostly reputation, as the numbers don’t seem to back that up.  His OPS is actually lower than Bill Mazeroski’s.  His percentage numbers are .262, .311, and .343.  The one thing that separates them is the fact that Luis lead his league in Stolen bases 9 years in a row, and he generally stole a very, very good percentage.  However, as I did not take Maz, it would be hard to take in Aparicio.  And I am not really inclined to anyway. 

1983-Brooks Robinson, Juan Marichal, George Kell

Brooks Robinson-Yes- Brooks might be the greatest third basemen of All-Time defensively.  He was not great offensively, but he was just good enough to make my all given his defensive prowess.  His ops were not great at .723, but he did have 1357 RBI’s, 268 homers, and 2848 hits.  Although I am not generally a fan of cumulative totals with weak percentage numbers, most of his value is actually in his defense. 

Juan Marichal-Yes- Marichal didn’t hit the 3000 k mark, but I am not concerned about that.  What Marichal did was win, and win at a very high percentage.  His career record was 243-142 for a nice winning percentage of .631.  Very nice.  He also had a nice ERA of 2.89 and he won 20 games 6 times, including a very nice 26-9 record in 1968 and 25-8 in 1963.  His ERA could be lower, but his winning percentage makes up for that. 

George Kell-Yes- All of us from North East Arkansas has a special affinity for Mr. Kell since he was a born and raised native of Swifton, Arkansas.  Not only that he always lived here even after his baseball career, and he gave back much to his community.  Despite that, he is marginable by just about everybody’s standard.  He had three really good years, but other than that he was a slightly above average singles hitter with no speed and below average defense.  However, I am going to include him.  Just because I want to, and he is the closest thing to a local Hall of Famer my area has.  This is my one, just because I want to pick. 

1982-Frank Robinson, Travis Jackson, Hank Aaron

Frank Robinson-Yes- Can’t really argue with this man.  Plus if he found out I said he didn’t belong he might track me down and beat my ass. But in truth I have no desire to do that.  Mr. Robinson was a GREAT player.  Career .926 OPS with 586 homers and 2943 hits.  And most people forget he did win a triple crown, even though it only took a .316 average to win it that is still impressive.  That was in 1967 and it gets overshadowed because in 1968 Carl Yastrzemski won it.  If I could give him two votes for the Hall I would.

Travis Jackson-No- Another Arkansas boy and perhaps the last of the picks chosen by a veteran’s committee that was notorious for picking marginable Hall of Famers just because they were buddies with them.  He was a good defender, and a decent hitter, but he just didn’t sustain greatness long enough to be a member of the Hall of Fame.  He played 15 seasons yet he still missed even getting 2000 hits. 

Hank Aaron-Yes- Not much needed here.  Great hitter, great defender, Great Hall of Famer and the rightful Home Run champ.  And a great man as well.

1981-Johnny Mize, Bob Gibson,

Johnny Mize-Yes- Johnny Mize might have missed some milestone numbers, but he was an absolute monster with the bat in his hands.  He just missed the triple crown in 1939, and he topped a 1.000 OPS four times in his career.  He did it 3 times in a row from 1938-40.  During this period he was locked in putting up some absolute monster numbers, and was likely the best player in baseball.  He deserved 2 if not all 3 of those MVP’s but somehow in 1938 he was clearly one of the top 3 players in the league, and should have won, yet finished 12^th in the MVP voting.  He lost the MVP in 1939 to Bucky Walters when they were both about equally valuable, but in 1940 he lost to Frank McCormick when the OPS difference was 1.039 to .850.  He should have at least been a two time MVP and very easily could have won the award 3 years running.

Bob Gibson-Yes- Everybody remembers 1.12 but that might not have even been his best year.  He won 20 games five times, had 3117 career K’s and put up a nice .591 winning percentage.  He was also probably the greatest World Series pitcher of all time. 

1980-Duke Snider, Chuck Klein, Al Kaline

Duke Snider-Another no doubt Hall of Famer.  He was a great defender with a rocket arm and posted a career .919 OPS.  His percentage number was a very nice .295, .380, .540.  A most excellent player.

Chuck Klein-Yes- He was an absolute professional hitter with maybe the best arm ever next to Clemente.  He was one of the few guys who played wearing glasses.  His career OPS was .922 which is very strong with a career BA of .320.  He could just flat out hit, and he was one of the few good picks that the Veteran’s committee made during this time.

Al Kaline-Yes- A truly great defender that put up some very good offensive numbers in a very bad offensive park.  His OPS was a very solid .855 which is more than quality considering his great defense and great arm.  He just missed a career .300 BA by 3 points, and he managed to hang around to gain 3007 hits.  Not the greatest player, but he was one of the best of his time.