Hall of Stats

It’s December! So, that means it’s Hall of Fame season. But it also means that it’s time to vote in Graham Womack’s 50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame poll.

I voted—and here’s my Top 50 (in alphabetical order):

• Dick Allen: You can count the number of eligible Hall of Famers with more WAR batting runs than his 434.8 on one hand.
• Kevin Appier: Averaged 5.5 WAR per season over an eight-year peak. Silently impressive.
• Jeff Bagwell: Forget Jackson. Forget Rose. Jeff Bagwell is the single greatest player outside of the Hall of Fame.
• Sal Bando: In the discussion of the best third baseman outside the Hall. Solid all-around player who’s counting stats lag behind because of a relatively short career.
• Buddy Bell: Tremendous defensive player who also happened to collect 2500 hits. He wasn’t Brooks Robinson, but he’s probably the closest player to him.
• Craig Biggio: First time on the ballot. While he may not be quite as good as his 3000 hits suggest (he was a very weak defender), he still very much belongs.
• Barry Bonds: Best player in history not named Ruth.
• Bobby Bonds: Tremendously valuable player in his own right. He could run. He could field. And boy could he hit.
• Ken Boyer: Another that would compete for the best non-Hall third baseman title. Like Bando, was a great all-around player (rating positively in all WAR components). Was a bit better with the glove than Bando, but also a bit weaker with the bat. They are each other’s most similar player.
• Kevin Brown: He’s probably the best pitcher outside of the Hall of Fame—until Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling are snubbed.
• Bob Caruthers: He’s the only 19th century pitcher that I kept on this list. And that’s because he could also hit the crap out of the ball.
• Eddie Cicotte: The “Rose and Jackson” group actually has a third member. Cicotte was good enough to make the Hall before he was banned.
• Roger Clemens: I may hate him, but he’s one of the two or three best pitchers the game has ever seen.
• David Cone: Silently dropped off the ballot, but he’s one of the five best pitchers outside of the Hall. Injuries lowered his career totals, but he still provided more than enough value to warrant induction.
• Bill Dahlen: If you’ve got a reason to keep him out of the Hall of Fame, I’d love to hear it.
• Darrell Evans: I see him as a notch below Boyer, Bando, Bell, and Nettles. He was my 50th man.
• Dwight Evans: It’s one thing that Writers screw up when comparing players across eras. But in this case, they inducted a team’s left fielder when they should have inducted the right fielder.
• Wes Ferrell: He was one of a kind. If we can reward Koufax for dominating a short career, we should do the same for Ferrell. He won games and his peripherals look much better when context-adjusted. And he was the best hitting pitcher of all time.
• Jack Glasscock: He’s Bill Dahlen without the longevity. They’re closer than you think—Dahlen’s 39.4 WAA isn’t much more than Glasscock’s 35.9.
• Bobby Grich: List of second basemen with more WAR batting runs and more WAR fielding runs than Grich: Nap Lajoie and Jackie Robinson.
• Keith Hernandez: OBP and defense have always been very underrated things.
• Shoeless Joe Jackson: He was damn good. I’m just not sure he was “Bagwell good”. With a full career, his Hall Rating would certainly be way up.
• Kenny Lofton: In all of our focus to get Bert Blyleven inducted, Kevin Brown fell off the ballot. In all of our focus to get Tim Raines inducted, Kenny Lofton will fall off the ballot.
• Sherry Magee: He’s a rarity—an early 20th century offensive player who is underrated. In looking at his numbers, I have no idea how he was overlooked. Maybe because he only hit .291?
• Edgar Martinez: He’s one of the guys who had more batting runs than Dick Allen. Tell me, what’s worse—being a DH or killing your teams by being a butcher in the field? That difference is why Edgar was better than Allen.
• Mark McGwire: He’s another one with more batting runs than Allen. His voting percentage decreased after he came clean. Let that be a lesson to everyone.
• Minnie Miñoso: He’s borderline if you don’t consider the late start to his career (or his role in integrating the game). Factor that in and he’s a no-brainer.
• Thurman Munson: Like Miñoso, he’s borderline when you simply consider the numbers. But he was taken from us when he was still producing real value.
• Graig Nettles: Another great glove, pretty-good hit third baseman. In fact, he might be the best of them all.
• Rafael Palmeiro: 3000 hits, 500 home runs, one pointed finger.
• Mike Piazza: Best hitting catcher of all time. Couldn’t control the running game, but the rest of his defensive game wasn’t nearly as bad.
• Tim Raines: The New Blyleven.
• Willie Randolph: Again, great plate discipline and great defense is a great way to be under-appreciated. One of 20 players in the history of the game with 120.1 batting runs and 73.8 fielding runs. Other second basemen to do it are Frankie Frisch, Joe Gordon, and Chase Utley.
• Rick Reuschel: Perhaps the most underrated pitcher in the game’s history, “Big Daddy” played with some bad teams, in front of some horrible defenses, and hardly ever allowed home runs. A saberist’s dream arm.
• Pete Rose: He would have been even better if he retired at age 38.
• Bret Saberhagen: Many players have had “roller coaster careers”, but Saberhagen’s career arc actually looks like a roller coaster.
• Curt Schilling: The more I dug, the more I realized he’s one of the very best pitchers of all time. He snuck up on us, just like Blyleven did. Both were better than the much more famous Nolan Ryan, Carl Hubbell, or Jim Palmer.
• Urban Shocker: Such a great baseball name—he had enough for a good Hall case, despite his early death.
• Ted Simmons: His traditional case is even better than his sabermetric one. How did he not get inducted?
• Reggie Smith: He’s in the Top 110-130 in both batting and fielding runs. How many players beat his combination of both? Just 18.
• Sammy Sosa: Actually is one of the 18 players with the batting and fielding combination of Reggie Smith. Smith did it more quietly. Sosa was a mega-star, but now he has mega-fallen.
• Dave Stieb: The best pitcher in the 1980s. You might even like his mustache better than Jack Morris’.
• Gene Tenace: Terribly underrated in his own day and even now. He has a borderline Hall case despite a short career with very few plate appearances.
• Luis Tiant: It’s pretty rare to see someone this good be so bad for a stretch in the middle of his career (17–30, 98 ERA+, 3.5 WAR from age 28–30). In the seasons before and after that 3-year swoon, El Tiante led the league with a sub-2.00 ERA.
• Joe Torre: He’s a borderline Hall of Famer if you throw away his work behind the plate. Factor in that modest boost and he’s much more comfortably over the line. When he gets in as a manager, his tremendous playing career will be forgotten (like Al Spalding and John McGraw).
• Alan Trammell: If given only one Hall of Fame vote on this current ballot, I might use it on Trammell. His time is running out and he needs votes badly.
• Larry Walker: Probably the most underrated player on the current ballot. WAR makes the Coors adjustment for you. It should be obvious that the adjustment is there. Without the adjustment, he’d be Lou Freakin’ Gehrig.
• Lou Whitaker: Part of my fictitious vote for Trammell is an homage to Whitaker. Perhaps no player in history was screwed worse by the BBWAA.
• Deacon White: My personal cause—this man absolutely deserves to be in Cooperstown. He’s got that perfect mix of importance and on-field dominance.
• Jim Wynn: He played in the Astrodome. He walked more than he hit. Basically, the stars were aligned for Jimmy Wynn to be overlooked. And he is indeed the best player of all time to never receive a single Hall of Fame vote.

That’s it! make sure you head over the Graham’s site and cast your own ballot!

Note: As you can see in the comments below, I originally had Tommy John on my list with the comment “Before the surgery: 28.5 pitching WAR. After the surgery: 28.4 pitching WAR. The surgery was 99.65% effective.” I ended up replacing him with Darrell Evans. Graham’s ballot also asked you to vote whether or not a player should be in the Hall of Fame. I answered mostly “yes”, but I did vote “no” for Evans, Sammy Sosa, Dave Stieb, Bobby Bonds, Kevin Appier, Jim Wynn, Sherry Magee, Eddie Cicotte, and Gene Tenace. These players have Hall Ratings below the Hall of Fame median, so they really wouldn’t raise the bar. Tenace was the toughest “no” vote for me.