Welcome to our annual BJOL Hall-of-Fame vote.
This is a vote that we’ve been conducting in parallel to the BBWAA vote. Part of our intention, in starting this, was to focus to our annual debate on players we wanted to talk about. If the BBWAA wants to spend a few years deciding on the candidacies of players like Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines and Alan Trammell and Mike Mussina, let ‘em. We’d rather argue about Lou Whitaker and Larry Walker and Edgar Martinez and Kenny Lofton.
And part of our intention – the biggest part - was to have some fun. It’s fun to vote, even if it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of the universe. It’s fun to see, too, where our community differs from the BBWAA voters.
Our ballot is slightly different than the BBWAA ballot: in the seven years we’ve been running this thing we’ve elected a lot of players that the BBWAA is still deciding on. And the BBWAA has elected a couple guys we’re still deciding on. Here’s a table:
Elected by BJOL
|
Elected by Both
|
Elected by BBWAA
|
Tim Raines
|
Rickey Henderson
|
Jim Rice
|
Alan Trammell
|
Bert Blyleven
|
Andre Dawson
|
Mark McGwire
|
Roberto Alomar
|
Jeff Bagwell
|
Barry Larkin
|
Edgar Martinez
|
Greg Maddux
|
Craig Biggio
|
Frank Thomas
|
Mike Piazza
|
Tom Glavine
|
Barry Bonds
|
Mike Mussina
|
Lou Whittaker
|
One of the by-products of our willingness to elect players with some expedience is that we have a much more manageable ballot than the BBWAA voters have. Really…go look at their ballot and try to decide which ten players you’re going to vote for. It’s tough. I feel bad for the BBWAA voters.
Our ballot is so manageable that we’ve been able to add write-in candidates: each year, voters are encouraged to cast a write-in vote for any former player, provided they are a) not in the actual HOF, and b) not on the current BBWAA ballot. In 2013 the BJOL voters picked Lou Whittaker as our inaugural write-in candidate. He was elected in 2014, joining his double-play partner Alan Trammell in our alternative Hall. Last year’s winner of the write-in was Dwight Evans: he makes his first appearance on our ballot this year.
The rules are the same as the BBWAA: voters can pick ten players. You should also write-in whatever unrecognized player you’d like to see on next year’s ballot. The player with the most votes will be added to our 2016 ballot.
Votes should be posted in the comments section below. We’ll close the voting and announce this year’s elected players the same day the BBWAA announces their selections. And be sure to remember to include your write-in nominee.
Here’s our ballot:
Name
|
Career rWAR
|
Career Win Shares
|
% of Prev. BJOL Vote
|
Randy Johnson
|
102.1
|
326
|
- -
|
Pedro Martinez
|
84.0
|
256
|
- -
|
Curt Schilling
|
76.1
|
252
|
74%
|
John Smoltz
|
69.5
|
289
|
- -
|
Larry Walker
|
67.3
|
308
|
55%
|
Dwight Evans
|
66.9
|
323
|
- -
|
Rafael Palmeiro
|
66.0
|
394
|
46%
|
Kenny Lofton
|
64.9
|
287
|
26%
|
Kevin Brown
|
64.0
|
242
|
21%
|
Gary Sheffield
|
60.2
|
430
|
- -
|
Andre Dawson
|
57.0
|
340
|
44%
|
Jeff Kent
|
55.2
|
339
|
33%
|
Sammy Sosa
|
54.8
|
321
|
32%
|
Brian Giles
|
50.9
|
287
|
- -
|
Fred McGriff
|
50.5
|
326
|
29%
|
Bernie Williams
|
47.3
|
312
|
14%
|
Carlos Delgado
|
44.3
|
303
|
- -
|
Dale Murphy
|
44.2
|
230
|
14%
|
N. Garciaparra
|
44.2
|
219
|
- -
|
Tom Gordon
|
35.3
|
179
|
- -
|
Darin Erstad
|
32.3
|
161
|
- -
|
Lee Smith
|
29.7
|
198
|
8%
|
Jason Schmidt
|
29.6
|
120
|
- -
|
Cliff Floyd
|
25.9
|
191
|
- -
|
Jermaine Dye
|
20.3
|
175
|
- -
|
Rich Aurilia
|
18.1
|
177
|
- -
|
Troy Percival
|
17.5
|
125
|
- -
|
Eddie Guardado
|
13.7
|
100
|
- -
|
Aaron Boone
|
13.5
|
111
|
- -
|
Tony Clark
|
12.5
|
128
|
- -
|
Good luck with your ballots!
* * *
Our ballot is (mercifully) less crowded than the BBWAA ballot. But it’s still a very crowded ballot: just looking it over with a cursory glance, I can find at least seventeen players I’d consider voting for. That’s a lot of players. I like to break the ballot down into manageable segments to help make the list easier to hold in my mind. Feel free to skip this.
The Two Players the BBWAA Will Almost Certainly Elect
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
R. Johnson
|
102.1
|
326
|
300+ wins, five CY Awards, 4875 strikeouts. Pretty tall.
|
P. Martinez
|
84.0
|
256
|
More Koufaxian than Sandy Koufax. Not so tall.
|
If the BBWAA doesn’t elect Pedro and Randy, the system is broke. What’s incredible is that there’s a reasonable argument that both men are:
1) Among the ten best pitchers of all-time, and
2) Only the third- and fourth-best pitchers of their generation.
With Clemens and Maddux as rivals, it’s a little difficult to parse out who the best of the lot is. While peak Pedro Martinez performed at a level unmatched in baseball’s long history, he’s well behind Clemens, Maddux, and Johnson in career value. Anyway, I love both of these players, and hope they’re elected this year.
Two Really Good Pitches Who Are Obviously Comparable,
And Another Guy Who Was Ignored by the BBWAA
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
Curt Schilling
|
76.1
|
252
|
Statistical record shows some evolution in his career.
|
John Smoltz
|
69.5
|
289
|
Third wheel in the Braves' troika of HOF-level pitchers.
|
Kevin Brown
|
64.0
|
242
|
Not too popular. Great pitcher.
|
Win Shares is much less generous to pitchers than WAR is…if I am a little reluctant to trust WAR’s evaluation of catchers, I am equally skeptical about how much Win Shares seems to favor hitters. I don’t see how Rafael Palmeiro can have more Win Shares than Randy Johnson, or how Bernie Williams has more Win Shares than Pedro Martinez. If I had more time I’d look for the Win- and Loss-Shares of these players. Sigh.
Two Outfielders Who Have a Lot In Common
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
Larry Walker
|
67.3
|
308
|
Strong-armed power hitter aided by home park.
|
Dwight Evans
|
66.9
|
323
|
Ditto.
|
We have two Gold Glove right-fielders with excellent throwing arms, who sort of blossomed into power hitters a little late in their careers. Both led the league in homers once, Evans at 29, Walker at 30. Both men played in home parks that aided their counting stats, though Walker gets more knocks for this than Evans does. Both men have first names and last names that are common first names….you can combine their last names to get yourself an iconic American photographer. I’ll write a bit more about Evans in another post. And by ‘a bit’ I mean ‘more words than you could ever be bothered to read.’
Three 1B’s Who Mashed Taters
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
Fred McGriff
|
50.5
|
326
|
Hit a lot of homeruns before everyone else was.
|
Raf. Palmeiro
|
66.0
|
394
|
Hit a lot of homeruns after everyone else was.
|
C. Delgado
|
44.3
|
303
|
Delgado' means 'thin' in Spanish.
|
Trying to figure out what 1B from the 1990’s belong in the Hall of Fame is exhausting. I’m reasonably persuaded by McGriff, who suffers by comparison to the generation that immediately followed him. I am a big fan of Carlos Delgado, though I don’t know that he’d a Hall-of-Fame level player.
Some More Outfielders Who Have a Case
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
Kenny Lofton
|
64.9
|
287
|
The 90's version of Tim Raines.
|
G. Sheffield
|
60.2
|
430
|
The scariest hitter I have ever seen.
|
Sammy Sosa
|
54.8
|
321
|
Hit 60+ homers a bunch of times. Not a big deal.
|
Brian Giles
|
50.9
|
287
|
Underrated hitter: .291/.400/.502 slash-line.
|
Ber. Williams
|
47.3
|
312
|
Keystone for the last great Yankee dynasty.
|
I would really like it if someone looked into Lofton and Sheffield really closely and figured out what the hell is going on with their metrics. According to Win Shares, Gary Sheffield is a Really Great Baseball Player, while Lofton is a few ticks below Carlos Delgado. According to WAR, Lofton is slightly ahead of Sheffield. There’s something to be written about the disconnect between those two…if I have the time (and if none of you beats me to it), I’ll try to get back to it.
At least by these metrics, there isn’t a big gap between Sammy Sosa and Brian Giles. Just saying.
Two Icons of the 1980’s
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
AndreDawson
|
57.0
|
340
|
Like Joe DiMaggio Carlos Beltran until his knees went.
|
Dale Murphy
|
44.2
|
230
|
Two-time MVP whose career declined quickly. Nice guy.
|
Two of the most coveted cards when I started collecting. Dale Murphy is interesting: he might be the player not in the Hall whom almost everyone thought was going in. I don’t think there was an article written in the 1980’s about active players and the Hall that didn’t have Murphy as a near shoo-in. Now he’s off the ballot.
His son wrote a letter complaining about how stat-heads ruined his dad’s chances of making the Hall, so I’ll note that Murphy is still on our ballot, and we’re as stat-heavy a community as they come. Murphy has routinely done better among our voters than the BBWAA voters.
The Middle Infielders
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
Jeff Kent
|
55.2
|
339
|
Power-hitting 2B who feuded with Bonds.
|
N.Garciaparra
|
44.2
|
219
|
Once jumped into Boston Harbor to save two women.
|
I cut the vowels out of Nomar’s last name, to make it fit into the box score. There’s
probably not a case to be made for Nomar in the Hall, but I’d be grateful if someone tried to make it. One of my all-time favorite players, and a key cog on my all-time favorite team (The ’99 Red Sox). And
he really did jump into the harbor to save those women.
Jeff Kent, on the other hand, probably deserves serious support, but he seems the kind of player that voters are ambivalent about. I don’t know why that’s the case, but he’s almost never mentioned as a serious candidate.
Those Pesky Closers
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Notes
|
Lee Smith
|
29.7
|
198
|
One-time holder of the save's record.
|
Tom Gordon
|
35.3
|
179
|
Stephen King wrote a book about him and a bear.
|
Lee Smith wasn’t on the ballot last year, despite crossing the 5% threshold from the season before. It wasn’t personal: I just got my list confused. We’ve added him back this year. Tom Gordon isn’t a real candidate, but I didn’t want Lee to be lonely. Both men were fine closers at their peak.
The Other Candidates
Name
|
rWAR
|
Win Shares
|
Darin Erstad
|
32.3
|
161
|
J. Schmidt
|
29.6
|
120
|
Cliff Floyd
|
25.9
|
191
|
Jerm. Dye
|
20.3
|
175
|
Rich Aurilia
|
18.1
|
177
|
Troy Percival
|
17.5
|
125
|
E. Guardado
|
13.7
|
100
|
Aaron Boone
|
13.5
|
111
|
Tony Clark
|
12.5
|
128
|
I’m too lazy to write notes for these guys, though some of them deserve remembering. I will note that Aaron Boone can go straight to hell.
Dave Fleming is a writer living in Wellington, New Zealand. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com.