Comments on: WAR Data: Best Position Players Not In the Hall of Fame

By: Joe Garrison

Joe Garrison — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:12:54 +0000

You have Andre Dawson at number 41.... he of course is a (newly elected) HOFer.

By: MHB

MHB — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:35:15 +0000

(A little off-topic)

Not that the Bambino needs more padding for his numbers, but Babe Ruth's listed WAR of 172.0 doesn't include his pitching WAR of 18.0. Absolutely amazing to look at what he did.

By: Charles Saeger

Charles Saeger — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:16:42 +0000

TT@34: Whitaker was platooned starting in 1990. From 1987 through 1989, Whitaker started 285 games against righties and 102 games against lefties. From 1990 through 1992, he started 329 games against righties and 27 against lefties. He had great trouble hitting lefties.

C@27: You're joking, right? You don't know who Bobby Grich is? I'll assume you're under 30. Classic underrated ballplayer, was the best player on the 1979 Angels but the team DH won the MVP; arguably should have been the MVP in 1981.

By: An open letter to Baseball-Reference and the statistical powers that be | Baseball: Past and Present

Sun, 23 May 2010 07:38:45 +0000

[...] the heels of a pair of great Baseball-Reference blog posts this week ranking the best pitchers and position players not in the Hall of Fame based on their Wins Above Replacement data, I may have created a new [...]

By: Joey

Joey — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:40:06 +0000

We're missing a very important player from the Hall of Fame shortstop list: Ernie Banks!

Per Santo: it's an interesting inquiry. Statistically there are some compelling reasons to bring him in--what isn't taken into account is that the guy could be a cancer to his teams at times. Those intangibles are hard to incorporate when voting, but are some important in terms of team chemistry. In the same vein, while A-Rod outdoes Jeter statistically, there's no doubt in my mind I would build a team around Jeter over A-Rod. Chemistry is key in the clutch--hence Bonds has 0 rings, as would be the case for A-Rod minus Jeter.

By: TigersType

TigersType — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:05:17 +0000

As a lifelong Tigers fan, I sure don't remember Lou Whitaker being platooned. He was our leadoff hitter no matter who was pitching. This is a guy who is 4th all-time in games played at second base. Part of that is longevity, of course, but you still don't get there being platooned. I'm not arguing he should be in the Hall of Fame, but I'm not getting the suggestion that he was "extensively" platooned.

By: Another day, another guest post: WAR and the Hall of Fame | Baseball: Past and Present

Fri, 21 May 2010 19:14:47 +0000

[...] for Baseball In-Depth, examining a Baseball-Reference blog post that ranked the best pitchers and position players not in the Hall of Fame based on their WAR [...]

By: argman

argman — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:15:48 +0000

One thing about career WAR is that they don't seem to take "peak value" into account. An extreme example is Hank Greenberg. He has 56.8 WAR in 1394 games, while Eddie Murray has 68.6 WAR in 3026 games. More than twice as many games for Murray, and less than 20% more WAR. And when you consider that Greenberg missed 3 or 4 seasons (sorry, too lazay to look it up) while serving in the military, you can't say that is part of his "value" as a player. This is related to the point that BSK made earlier. I voted for Larkin, but could easily see any of the above in the HOF, with the possible exception of Martinez.

By: masternachos

masternachos — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:18:54 +0000

@Spartan Bill
Thanks.

By: Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » WAR Data: Best Starting Pitchers Not In the Hall of Fame

Thu, 20 May 2010 20:37:20 +0000

[...] I looked at the best eligible position players not in the Hall of Fame by WAR, and you responded with your votes by choosing Tim Raines as the non-HoFer you felt was most [...]