The Hall of Stats No Longer Includes Banned Players
Aug 16, 2016 by Adam Darowski
I made a small change to the pool of players eligible for the Hall of Stats. The Hall of Stats will no longer include players that are banned from Major League Baseball.
Who’s Out?
Three players have been removed from the Hall of Stats…
Who’s In?
They are replaced by the top three players (formerly) outside the Hall of Stats, by Hall Rating…
Lombardi and Rixey are already in the Hall of Fame. Of the two, I think Lombardi is particularly Hall-worthy—and I have him included in my personal Hall of Fame. While Riley isn’t in my Personal Hall, I don’t argue too much about his election. There are simply many pitchers better than him outside of the Hall of Fame.
Rucker is interesting. He becomes the tenth player in the Hall of Stats who is not in the Hall of Fame, Hall of Merit, or any of the Personal Halls listed at the Hall of Consensus. He was a .500 pitcher (134–134) but had a sparkling 2.42 ERA for the Dodgers across ten seasons. He was a high-peak pitcher, with 45.9 WAR coming in his first seven seasons. He had two seasons over 8 WAR and two more over 7 WAR. I don’t endorse his election, but he’s another example of a player who was drastically overlooked because of his win/loss record.
Why the Change?
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but the technology behind the Upcoming Elections page really pushed me to make a decision. After retiring, a player must wait five years to be eligible for the Hall of Stats—just like the Hall of Fame. This is so that both Halls pull from the same pool of players. By including banned players, these pools were not actually the same, though.
The Hall of Fame contains 217 MLB players. The Hall of Stats populates itself based on the top 217 eligible players by Hall Rating. It didn’t make sense to me that Rose, Jackson, and Cicotte were eligible for one group but not the other.
This is different from the Hall of Stats including players who are in the Hall of Fame for different roles. Take Joe Torre, for example. Torre is classified as a Hall of Stats player who is not in the Hall of Fame (because he was inducted as a manager). Torre had many opportunities to be inducted as a player, but was overlooked. The cases of Rose, Jackson, and Cicotte are different because the players never had the chance at induction.
Notes on Player Pages
As part of this effort and building on the site’s inclusion of era committee designations, I’ve added notes about eligibility to the headers of many player pages. Here are some examples of the types of information you’ll find in these notes…
Pete Rose (banned from MLB)
Pete Rose isn’t eligible for the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Stats because he is banned from baseball.
Adrian Beltre (active and in line for Hall of Stats induction)
Adrian Beltre is still active, but he is already a future Hall of Stats inductee.
Jeff Bagwell (returning BBWAA candidate in 2017)
Jeff Bagwell is returning to the BBWAA ballot in 2017.
Manny Ramirez (new BBWAA candidate in 2017 in line for Hall of Stats induction)
Manny Ramirez is eligible for the BBWAA ballot in 2017. He is a future Hall of Stats inductee.
Tim Wakefield (new BBWAA candidate in 2017 not in line for Hall of Stats induction)
Tim Wakefield is eligible for the BBWAA ballot in 2017.
Bret Saberhagen (candidate for Today’s Game Era in 2017)
Bret Saberhagen is next eligible for the Hall of Fame via the Today’s Game Era Committee in 2017.
Alan Trammell (candidate for Modern Baseball Era in 2018)
Alan Trammell is next eligible for the Hall of Fame via the Modern Baseball Era Committee in 2018.
David Cone (new candidate for Today’s Game Era in 2019)
David Cone is next eligible for the Hall of Fame via the Today’s Game Era Committee in 2019.
Jesse Orosco (new candidate for Modern Baseball Era in 2020)
Jesse Orosco is next eligible for the Hall of Fame via the Modern Baseball Era Committee in 2020.
Dick Allen (candidate for Golden Days Era in 2021)
Dick Allen is next eligible for the Hall of Fame via the Golden Days Era Committee in 2021.
Jack Glasscock (candidate for Early Baseball Era in 2021)
Jack Glasscock is next eligible for the Hall of Fame via the Early Baseball Era Committee in 2021.
In addition to these changes, the Upcoming Elections page has been expanded to include all players with 50+ Hall Rating for Era Committee ballots and 20+ for BBWAA ballots.