Sam Crawford

HoME Rankings 2020, Right Field

Babe Ruth is baseball’s most titanic figure and, according to Miller, the best player in baseball history. Timeline or time machine if you must, but according to MAPES+, Ruth’s 11^th best season is superior to any season of Mike Trout’s career. We both rank Sam Crawford as the 11^th best player in right field. Well, Ruth had 15 years better than any Wahoo ever produced. The gap between Ruth and Hank Aaron, a guy who’s absolutely one of the game’s ten best position players ever is larger than the gap between the top two any other position by both CHEWS+ and MAPES+.

And on and on and on.

If Ruth were born in 1990, I’m not sure he would have been as great. Maybe though. If he played in an integrated league, he wouldn’t have stood out as much. If talent wasn’t so top heavy at the time, he wouldn’t have stood out as much either. Don’t care. Ruth’s the best.

Maybe.

As always, we’ll share past positions here. [First Base], [Second Base], [Third Base], [Shortstop], [Left Field], [Center Field]

Here are our rankings!

Anything jump out?

Maybe it’s not such a big deal, but I’m struck by Mel Ott passing Frank Robinson by each of our measures. Frank Robinson, now fourth, gained a teensy bit in the latest BBREF update, but Ott earned more and now looks like the third greatest right fielder ever.

Another thing that jumps out is Ichiro. He played his last game in 2019, the same year that CC Sabathia and Brian McCann played their last games. Let’s imagine the BBWAA elects just one player on Ichiro’s ballot. It’ll be him, though there’s no guarantee we rank him ahead of both McCann and Sabathia when the time comes. With the idea in mind that pitchers are a whole ‘nother can of fish, let’s look at McCann here. I’ll preview next week’s post by letting you know that Miller sees McCann at 100% of the way there, while Eric puts him at 95%. As far as Ichiro goes, Eric sees him at 100% of the way there, and Miller sees him at 95%. Since right field is our most populated position and catcher is our least, it’s possible we’re going to disappoint Ichiro fans in a few years.

What’s more, if 2020 is cancelled due to COVID-19, there will be additional retirements, which may further compromise Ichiro’s chances. Who knows what we’re going to see from Albert Pujols in 2021. And there’s a trio of catchers beyond McCann – Buster Posey, Russell Martin, and Yadier Molina – who should be hanging ‘em up soon too. With Sabathia and four catchers hitting our ballot the same time Ichiro does, I’m a bit worried about the potential backlash we may receive.

What active players are on their way?

Giancarlo Stanton could make a run if he ever gets healthy. Bryce Harper isn’t as far along, though he’ll still be only 28 when next season opens. And then there’s Mookie Betts, 43^rd by MAPES+ and 44^th by CHEWS+. He just needs to stay healthy. Of course, we’ve all heard that before. Andruw Jones, Vada Pinson, and Cesar Cedeno all totaled more WAR than Mookie through their age-27 seasons, which is what Mookie would be playing in 2020. It’s no sure thing.

Who are the best remaining candidates?

Eric sees the best three as Bobby Abreu, Bill Nicholson, and Tony Oliva. Miller thinks they’re Brian Giles, Sam Thompson, and Bobby Abreu. Those facts sort of suggest that Abreu would be our guy if we chose to add a right fielder. However, since right field is the position we’ve elected the most, since Ichiro is coming, and since Betts, maybe Harper, and maaaaaybe Stanton could get there too, Abreu fans shouldn’t hold their breath.

Any big changes this year?

Enos Slaughter took a big jump for Eric, rising from 23^rd to 18^th.  Chuck Klein climbed four spots from 38^th to 34^th, the same as Tommy Holmes from 4o^th to 36^th. Rocky Colavito fell as many, from 35^th to 39^th.

Small changes for Miller are Reggie Smith and Bobby Abreu dropping two spots from 27^th and 29^th, respectively. Tommy Holmes jumped the same number from 38^th to 36^th. As Eric, Miller’s big climbers are Enos Slaughter and Sam Thompson, each up five spots, to 23^rd and 28^th, respectively.

How about the guys only listed by one of you?

• Eric has Tim Salmon 37^th, and Miller puts him 41^st.
• Eric has Giancarlo Stanton 38^th, and Miller puts him 49^th.
• Eric has Rocky Colavito 39^th, and Miller puts him 42^nd.
• Miller sees Joe Jackson 9^th in right field, while Eric has him at the same rank in left.
• Miller puts Brian Giles in 27^th place in right, while Eric has him 22^nd in left.
• Miller has Johnny Callison in 40^th place, and Eric puts him five places lower.

Come back next week for the backstops. Thanks!

Miller and Eric

All-Time HoME Leaders, Right Field – 1-20

Mr. October. It’s one of baseball’s most recognizable nicknames. Thinking ahead to this post, I was considering Reggie Jackson as one of the players MAPES+ might underrate because it doesn’t take post-season performance into account. So then I looked at Reggie’s playoff statistics. He slashed .278/.358/.527 in October compared to .262/.356/.490 in the regular season. Better? Sure. Against stiffer competition? Almost certainly. But there’s not a marked difference, at least not one that’s suggested by the nickname. If you want to call someone Mr. October, someone like Lou Brock, Paul Molitor, Curt Schilling or Bob Gibson (to name four off the top of my head), go for it. But Reggie? I don’t know.

Yes, he won two World Series MVP Awards, and I think he deserved it in 1978 too. And not we’re on to something. In 116 trips to the plate over five World Series, he slashed .357/.457/.755. In my mind “October” is equal to the playoffs. However, if we view “October” as the World Series, which is justifiable, I suppose, Reggie earned that nickname. Now about MAPES+…

Actually, you can read about MAPES, CHEWS, and all posts in this series with the links below.

[MAPES+], [CHEWS+], [1B, 1-20], [1B, 21-40], [2B, 1-20], [2B, 21-40], [3B, 1-20], [3B, 21-40], [SS, 1-20], [SS, 21-40], [C, 1-20], [C, 21-40], [LF, 1-20], [LF, 21-40], [CF, 1-20], [CF, 21-40]

Right Field – 1-20

Where do we project the active player(s) to finish in our rankings?

Ichiro Suzuki

Part of the fun of Ichiro is that he’s kind of like a thought experiment made real: What if we took a star player from roughly 1901–1930 and plopped him into the majors? Now we know! It’s Ichiro! But that’s precisely what’s happened. His game is predicated on a few things:

• Putting the ball in play
• Speed from home to first
• Excellent baserunning
• Excellent fielding
• Cutting down baserunners who take foolish chances.

In the deadball era, grounds keeping wasn’t quite as meticulous as today. Comiskey Park was famously built atop a landfill and old trash popped up through the grass sometimes. The amazing drainage technology that today’s fields have didn’t exist. Freddie Lindstrom became a World Series goat when a ball hit a pebble and bounced over his head. That combined with primitive glove technology increased the reward for simply putting the ball on the ground between the lines and dashing like mad to first base.

Ichiro is something like Harry Hooper combined with George Sisler. Which is basically what Sam Rice was. I wonder whether that kind of player would have been more or less effective in the 1970s and 1980s. Why? Astroturf. Infielders could play back to pick up grounders that might get through at normal depth, but even well-placed grounders would reach fielders faster, reducing Ichiro’s speed advantage. Turf did give speed merchants an advantage on the bases, but the players who took best advantage of turf did so by hitting balls into the gaps and running like crazy. Ichiro’s game is different than that of George Brett, Tim Raines, or Vince Coleman. Turf might also reduce the advantage accrued with Ichiro’s arm because the ball would get to him quicker on singles, reducing the likelihood of his being tested, and extra-base hits would get by him more quickly. Hard tellin’ not knowin’ as they say up here in Maine.—Eric

I projected Ichiro to retire after the 2014 season. Seriously. Over the seven years before this one, he was worth a total of 5.2 WAR. That’s not a guy who you want on your club unless you want to sell tickets or jerseys. Oh, wait, I’ve figured it out. I’m sure there’s more. I bet Ichiro is a good guy, and I suspect his English is better around teammates than reporters, which is just fine by me. As far as where he ends up, that depends on whether or not he decides to play again. He’s just done for the year, not retired. Given an infinite number of chances, he’d play his way out of the HoME. Since I think he’s seen his last game, we will only have to factor in the-0.5 WAR he accrued in 15 games this year. That drops him behind Bobby Bonds for me, and into a virtual tie with Gary Sheffield. We’ll have to see how BBREF rounding works out.—Miller

Where do our rankings diverge the most from the conventional wisdom?

I think I have Winfield and Vlad lower than mainstream folks would. They’re not even on this list. The real divergence may be ranking Clemente third rather than fifth, not that the difference between him, Ott, and Robinson is meaningful at all. The reason for my ranking is pretty clear; it’s Clemente’s consecutive peak. If I removed that factor, Eric and I would have the same top-6. This seems as good a place as any to reiterate why I like the consecutive peak factor in my formula. First, it’s how JAWS began. Though Jaffe did come up with a better conclusion, I don’t think he was completely wrong to start. There is something, not nothing to be said for consecutive greatness. A team really knows what it has. Also, it’s only 11% of my formula, which is to say Clemente, Ott, and Robinson are very close anyway. Sure, I have Clemente third. If you have him fifth, I certainly won’t argue.—Miller

Larry Walker and Harry Hooper. We’ve got Walker among the top dozen right fielders, and he’s having trouble drumming up enough Hall support to make it before his eligibility expires. Lots of people think the Hall made a mistake by electing Harry Hooper. We strongly disagree.—Eric

Where do we disagree with one another the most?

Probably Willie Keeler. Throughout this process, Miller has had Keeler ranked ahead of me. I don’t exactly know why, but over the several iterations of each of our sifting tools, Wee Willie has always managed to look worse in my eyes.—Eric

Is it Clemente? No, I wouldn’t really make an argument that he’s exactly the third best right fielder ever. I’m nearly certain he’s between third and fifth, or maybe sixth. Not exactly third. It’s not like with Aaron. I’m almost certain Aaron is exactly the second best right fielder ever. There aren’t really any major discrepancies here. Even with Keeler. We both see him as 2% above the in/out line for the position.—Miller

Are there any players who MAPES+/CHEWS+ might overrate or underrate? 

So let’s answer that question from the top of the post. Might MAPES+ underrate Reggie? I don’t think so. I call him the eighth best ever at the position. If you want to take him over Waner, I won’t put up a stink.—Miller

Well, neither of our systems take into account the verifiable, proven fact that Paul Waner shares my birthday. That’s a thing, man! But let me now posit a weird idea. Is it possible that Babe Ruth, the player, can be seen as overrated? No statistical system can capture the immensity of Babe Ruth’s contribution to baseball, of course, and we don’t talk about off-the-field stuff here very often. Still, we both had him among our top-three most influential persons in baseball history. But the thing about Babe Ruth is that he was so much better than everyone else. If you run standard deviations on any kind of runs-creation stats in his time, especially the early 1920s, he pulls everything out of whack. You have to seriously consider removing him from the test because by himself he raises the bar so high. But that begets the interesting question of whether Ruth was that good or did the league fail to catch on to his innovation? Some of both, surely, but that latter idea always makes me wonder whether Ruth is actually overrated from a certain, very narrow, point of view. The innovation is the source of his value, so in the most literal sense, it’s a non-question. And yet, it digs at me a little because it’s not entirely a question of talent and performance. There’s this little bit of friction for me about the long window of time before which the rest of MLB got its power together, and the massive advantage Ruth accrued from it. But whatever, he’s the Babe after all!—Eric

***

We round out the offense next week with the second half of right field.

Compilers Are Great, Top Nine All-Time

On one level, I’m disappointed by the names on this list. On another, I think it points out one of the greatest instances of the Hall of Fame really blowing it. Every player on this list is in the Hall of Miller and Eric. And all but one are either in the Hall, PED users, or the criminally under-appreciated Lou Whitaker.

In all of baseball history, there are only five people who can total 200 Rbat, 25 Rfield, 25 Rbaser, and 5 Rdp. (Before we go on, Whitaker reaches 209, 77, 32, and 16 on these levels, easily eclipsing most of them). In any case, the other guys are Barry Bonds, George Brett, Carlos Beltran, and Larry Walker.

I’ve recently discussed the reasons Walker isn’t in the Hall. His reasons aren’t too different from Sweet Lou. Whitaker was very good at everything that makes a player valuable. He just wasn’t great at any of it.

So here you have it, the final post in our Compiler series. Clearly, at least one of these players hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves. Check out other posts in this series: #60-#55,  #54-#46, #45-#37, #36-#28, #27-19 , and #18-#10 if you haven’t already.

Criteria to be included on this list include:

• They must have had at least one 5 WAR season with my adjustments. If they don’t have even one season where they played like an All-Star, they’re just not good enough to make our list.
• They cannot have had a season with an adjusted WAR of 8 or more. That’s because we’re not interested in guys with too high a peak.
• For the same reason, they also cannot have a prime where they averaged 6 WAR per season. For that reason anyone with 42+ adjusted WAR for their best seven seasons is eliminated.
• They must have had at least 15 seasons posting at least a single WAR. If not, they haven’t been good enough for long enough.
• And they must be retired. We don’t want to take the chance that a current player knocks himself off the list with a late-career surge.

So let’s get to the top nine!

Ozzie Smith, #9

Seasons: 19
5 WAR seasons: 4
1 WAR seasons: 18
Best year: For the first and only time in his career, Ozzie hit over .300 in 1987. And in the year of the homer, Ozzie hit none. Still, it was the best season of his career. When a stinky hitter and an excellent defender begins to hit a little, that’s likely to happen. That year he finished second in the MVP voting to Andre Dawson. Oh, the dark ages of what constituted baseball analysis. Dawson hit 49 homers but was just a 4-win player. Ozzie was clearly better, but Tony Gwynn and others were better still.
Commentary: Fifteen All-Star games and thirteen Gold Gloves highlight a career with no meaningful Black Ink and an 87 OPS+. But Ozzie was as good as he was because of defense. Those numbers made him one of nine shortstops ever with ten seasons at 4.5+ WAR, and one of eight with 15 seasons of 2.2+.Ozzie isn’t stereotyped like many of the others on these lists. That’s because unlike most of them, he was an all-time great at something. Most guys on this list are just good across the board. Ozzie was pretty bad at one thing and excellent at the rest.

Gabby Hartnett, #8

Seasons: 20
5 WAR seasons: 5
1 WAR seasons: 17
Best year: If you’re looking for what seems to be an outlier of a year, it’s 1930 and 7.98 WAR for Gabby Hartnett. He hit 37 homers, 13 more than any other season. He drove in 122, 31 more than his second best. And he put up an incredible 1.034 OPS. Hartnett was a bit of a, well, catcher. He had several great years at the plate, but many of them were quite pedestrian. It’s hard to stay healthy wearing the tools of ignorance.
Commentary: Catchers don’t really fit on any list. Hartnett was awesome and clearly a Hall of Famer. He won the 1935 NL MVP, and he’s something like the eighth best catcher ever. By my numbers, no catcher had more 7-WAR years. Only one had more at 6-WAR, and two had more at 5-WAR. So called compilers at other positions are studs at catcher.

Eddie Murray, #7

Seasons: 21
5 WAR seasons: 5
1 WAR seasons: 16
Best year: I like a power hitter who posts his best season when he hits the sixth most homers of his career. That’s exactly what Murray did in 1985. Leading the league in walks, OBP, and OPS+ suggests that good stuff will happen. And in 1984 good stuff happened for the 1977 AL Rookie of the Year and the guy who made his fifth of eight All-Star teams.
Commentary: Steady Eddie, yeah. By MAPES, he’s pretty much the same as Dick Allen, though they had very different shapes to their careers. Neither got along with the press, but somehow Allen took it on the chin a lot more than Murray. We have to respect the 500 homers and 3000 hits. However, he really didn’t have value in his last two years. As recently as 1996, 22 homers and 79 batted in obscured below replacement level value. Murray is a no-brainer because of the milestones, and that’s okay with me.

Carlton Fisk, #6

Seasons: 24
5 WAR seasons: 4
1 WAR seasons: 19
Best year: In his first full season of 1972, Fisk led the AL in triples, won his only Gold Glove, was an All-Star for the first eleven times, finished fourth in the MVP race, won the AL Rookie of the Year, and posted a career high 7.88 converted WAR.
Commentary: Fisk was a survivor. Only two catchers had more 4-WAR seasons. None had more above 3-WAR. We can all agree he was an all-time great. Lesser players don’t put up a 134 OPS+ at age 42. Of course, because he’s a catcher I don’t know about where he should really place on this list.

Rafael Palmeiro, #5

Seasons: 20
5 WAR seasons: 7
1 WAR seasons: 18
Best year: The game changed in the few years after 1993, a year I convert to 7.09 WAR for Palmeiro. He hit more homers eight times and drove in more runs seven, but 1993 was the best year of his career with 7.09 WAR. The reason isn’t just because of the offensive spike later in the decade. It’s also because the three-time Gold Glove winner had just about the best defensive year of his career, and he was 22/25 on the bases.
Commentary: We know why a guy with over 500 homers and 3000 hits is outside the Hall, right? It’s the finger wagging. It’s also that he was never really great. His career totals are a function of the era in which he played, and maybe other things. The guy is nearly a Jim Thome doppelganger though. And word is that he’s going to get in on his first try next year. Musial, Anson, Connor, and Rose are the only four at the position who put up 2+ WAR more times than Palmeiro did.

Paul Molitor, #4

Seasons: 21
5 WAR seasons: 7
1 WAR seasons: 19
Best year: Do you remember the part of Molitor’s career when he was always hurt? Well, by his fifth season, 1982, he was finally healthy from April to and through October. He led the game in runs, hit .302, stole 41/50 bases, didn’t hurt the Brewers too much at third, and excelled in the post-season. All told, he was worth 6.49 WAR that year.
Commentary: Today we think of Molitor as a DH, and we should. He played there more than anywhere else, but he also had 400+ games at second and third. Rfield and DRA agree that he was a plus defender. Given that I don’t categorize players as designated hitters, just because the competition is pretty weak there on a career level, I put Molitor at third, where I rank him ninth overall, a shade ahead of Brooks Robinson. Looking at his profile, it’s pretty clear if we lopped off his Minnesota years where he “compiled” 530 hits, he wouldn’t be in the Hall today. With just 2789 hits and limited power, the voters might not have given him a second look. If we remove those years from his MAPES profile, the seven-time All-Star would still be HoME-bound, dropping to 14^th place in between Graig Nettles and Deacon White. Overall, only Chipper Jones had more 2-WAR seasons among guys who I call third basemen. Nobody had more years at 3+, and only the big three of Schmidt, Mathews, and Brett had more at 4+.

Lou Whitaker, #3

Seasons: 19
5 WAR seasons: 4
1 WAR seasons: 18
Best year: In 1983 the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year made the first of five straight All-Star teams, won the first of three straight Gold Gloves, and had his best year with 6.80 adjusted WAR. With just a dozen home runs that year, Whitaker would post ten better seasons. He did set a career high in doubles, run the bases well, and play solid defense. It’s this strength across the board that was a Whitaker hallmark, and likely the reason he was overlooked by the BBWAA, receiving just 15 votes in 2001, the only time he was on the ballot.
Commentary: If you asked me who would top this list when I began this study, it would have been Sweet Lou. He so clearly belongs in the Hall of Fame if you think a Hall close to its present size is appropriate.

Sam Crawford, #2

Seasons: 19
5 WAR seasons: 7
1 WAR seasons: 16
Best year: Hmm, Wahoo Sam never had an 8-win season. That’s not what I would have guessed. But in 1903 he did have his best season at 7.22 converted WAR. He only hit four homers after leading the league two years earlier, but his power came in the form of 25 triples. He also hit .335 with impressive defense.
Commentary: At this level, we’re looking at someone who pretty much everyone considers a Hall of Famer if they think about him at all. He hit .309 in his career with a 144 OPS+ and an all-time high 309 triples. It would be nice to have more baserunning data from Crawford’s era. BBREF considers him a plus baserunner for the only three years for which we have CS data, but they see him as a negative for his career. We might predict that someone with over 300 triples and a decent career doubles total is pretty fast and likely a strong runner. Maybe Crawford doesn’t truly belong on this list, and perhaps that’s why anyone you ask would call him a Hall of Famer.

Manny Ramirez, #1

Seasons: 19
5 WAR seasons: 8
1 WAR seasons: 17
Best year: At age-27, just when many think you hit your prime, Manny certainly hit his with 44 bombs and 165 batted in in just 147 games in 1999. He led the league in SLG, OPS, and OPS+ in addition to runs batted in, overall putting up 7.02 WAR.
Commentary: Very few people would ever have called Manny a compiler. And that’s because we too frequently use the word to describe players we don’t understand, those who are strong across the board rather than great at one thing. Well, Manny was great at one thing, hitting the baseball. The 11-time All-Star won a batting title, three OBP titles, three SLG titles, and three OPS titles. Add a homer crown, and RBI crown, and an OPS+ crown, and you have someone with a bunch of Black Ink. Yes, Manny could hit. He was a poor runner who grounded into a bunch of double plays. And he was a historically bad defender, though he was made to look worse by playing left field in Fenway. There are 50 players ever who had -10 runs as a defender, runner, and double play maker. Manny’s one. There are 20 at -15 in all three categories. Manny is still one. And just eight other players join Manny at -20 or worse across the board. Billy Butler and Victor Martinez are still active and basically just designated hitters. Aramis Ramirez almost certainly would have been one if he played in the American League. Mike Piazza was kind of famously well known for his defensive struggles. The only reason that Paul Konerko wasn’t a DH is that fellow chart member, Frank Thomas, had that role in Chicago. And then there’s Harmon Killebrew, a guy not in the Hall because his bat wasn’t strong enough to make up for the rest of the things he did poorly. Manny was an amazing hitter, someone called the best righty they’ve ever seen by a number of folks. But there were those PED suspensions. Plural. After Bonds and Clemens get into the Hall, we’re going to look at PED users differently, but I don’t know that we’ll get to the point that someone who failed multiple tests will be forgiven.

Thanks for checking out this series!

Miller

1926 HoME Election Results

Welcome to the HoME Nap Lajoie

Congratulations to our largest ever class of inductees – Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Nap Lajoie, Eddie Plank, Sam Crawford, Joe Jackson, Jesse Burkett, Ross Barnes, and Rube Waddell for gaining entrance to the Hall of Miller and Eric with our 1926 election.

The HoME is now populated with 29 of the greatest players in the game’s history.

Per our rules, all four had to be named on both ballots for induction. Let’s look to see how we voted.

      Miller                 Eric

1     Honus Wagner           Honus Wagner

2     Christy Mathewson      Nap Lajoie

3     Nap Lajoie             Christy Mathewson

4     Sam Crawford           Eddie Plank

5     Eddie Plank            Joe Jackson

6     Joe Jackson            Sam Crawford

7     Ross Barnes            Jesse Burkett

8     Jesse Burkett          Paul Hines

9     Rube Waddell           Elmer Flick

10    Monte Ward             Charlie Bennett

11    Pud Galvin             George Wright

12                           Jimmy Collins

13                           Ross Barnes

14                           Joe McGinnity

15                           Rube Waddell

16                           Vic Willis

It’s pretty easy to say that Honus Wagner is the best shortstop in the history of major league baseball. Sure, Alex Rodriguez seemed to be ready to challenge, but then the Yankees moved him to 3B, and there was some other nonsense… Anyway, as a Pittsburgh Pirate he won eight batting titles, seven doubles titles, six slugging titles, five run batted in titles, four on base percentage titles, three triples titles, two runs titles, and one ticket into the Baseball Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. The Flying Ducthman was also a slick fielder and aggressive and adept base runner.

A fine football player and college man before joining the Cincinnati Reds, Christy Mathewson soon became part of perhaps the most lopsided trade in baseball history when the Reds shipped him to the New York Giants for 246-game winner, Amos Rusie. Well, Rusie never won a single game for the Reds, or for anyone else. Mathewson won 372 for the Giants – and then 1 for the Reds, just for fun. Mathewson won 30 games four times. He also had five strike titles to go with five ERA titles. He’s one of the dozen or so best players ever to play the game.

Nap Lajoie owns the greatest single-season batting average in the history of the American League, .426 for the 1901 Philadelphia A’s. The second baseman won four more batting titles, all for the Cleveland Indians. And he collected a total of 3243 hits during his career, which was second in history at the time of his retirement. Lajoie’s career was nearly derailed after he contracted sepsis due to an untreated spike injury when the dye from his sock entered the open wound and led to blood poisoning. Luckily for him, the Indians, and all of baseball, they didn’t amputate, and he recovered. After more than 1700 additional hits, he entered the Hall in its second class, with more votes than such greats as Cy Young and Tris Speaker.

Eddie Plank was among the best left-handed pitchers ever to play the game. He was the first lefty with 200 wins and with 300 wins, even though he didn’t get to the majors until he was 25. Once he got started, Plank never slowed down, winning at least 14 games every year from 1901-1916. His 326 victories are the thirteenth best ever, and he’s in the top-20 in pitcher WAR as well. Plank retired after the 1917 season. Still, the New York Yankees traded Urban Shocker, 15K, and four other players for him and Del Pratt. Plank kept giving after his retirement, as Shocker went on to win 126 games for the Browns before being dealt back to the Yankees.

Nobody in the history of the game compiled more triples than Sam Crawford. Wahoo Sam led the AL in the category six times and reached double figures every season from 1900-1916. For some perspective on how the game has changed, the top player on the all-time list who played in the last quarter century is Willie Wilson, and he’s tied for 56^th place. Showing more speed and power, Crawford holds the single-season record with twelve inside the park home runs and is second all-time to fellow HoME inductee Jesse Burkett.

There’s little we can share here about Joe Jackson that hasn’t already been told. For those who think his greatness is a creation of Black Sox apologists, check out the similarities between Shoeless Joe and Ed Delahanty. The third highest batting average in the game’s history is enough to put him in the HoME. Add to that his back-to-back 9 WAR seasons in 1911 and 1912, and you might have the game’s best right fielder at his peak aside from Ruth and Aaron. As a sign of his greatness, Jackson’s best season for the White Sox was his last, in 1920, the year after the White Sox threw the World Series and the year before he was banned for life.

Jesse Burkett isn’t the game’s best known superstar, probably because his career ended more than a century ago. But Burkett could hit – think about the level of Billy Williams. Seasons above .400 for the 1895-1896 Cleveland Spiders helped him to achieve an impressive .338 career mark. He was such a consistent and solid player, posting over 4.0 WAR for seven consecutive seasons, from 1895-1901. Among players in left field, only Ed Delahanty and Barry Bonds can makes that same claim.

Ross Barnes is the best player in the history of the National Association. He was the second baseman for the dominant team in the NA, the Boston Red Stockings, that won titles in four of the NA’s five seasons, including a spectacular record of 71-8 in 1875. Barnes also starred in the National League, winning the triple slash triple crown, the second of his career, in the circuit’s inaugural campaign of 1876 for the Chicago White Stockings.

Not long ago, I made the argument that Rube Waddell might just be the greatest strikeout pitcher in the game’s history. He won six K crowns and a pair of ERA titles to go with his 193 wins and 2.16 career ERA. The thing that made him so great is the number of strikeouts he had compared to his peers, routinely striking out a batter or three more than the runner-up in his league. He gets into the HoME with ease as one of the half-dozen or so best pitchers in the first two decades of the American League.

Each season, some guys are elected, while others receive votes from only one of us. Below we’ll explain our reasons for such votes

Miller:
Monte Ward: Ward ranks 140^th in career WAR, right between Dave Winfield and Willie McCovey. Now some of his total is inflated because of the huge pitching numbers, particularly in 1879 and 1880. On the other hand, it’s deflated on offense by the shorter schedule. He was a very good pitcher; then he was a pretty strong hitter. He was an adept fielder who played every day. I wouldn’t put him in as a pitcher or as a hitter. Combined, I think he belongs.

Pud Galvin: I’m looking at those 365 wins, fifth all time. And he’s second in innings in history. Sure, his 107 ERA+ ain’t shiny, but I just salivate over those wins.

Eric:
Paul Hines: He’s Deacon White in the outfield and the best CF before Billy Hamilton. The impressiveness of his longevity and performance is masked by the length of the schedules in his day. And perhaps it’s overshadowed by the extreme longevity of Cap Anson and Jim O’Rourke.

Elmer Flick: I went back and looked at the great right fielders in history (who have been eligible for the Hall through 2013), and this guy is, like Burkett, smack dab in that middle third. He dominated his position in the early aughts, and just because Lajoie was better than he is doesn’t constitute a knock against him. Sad that he got whatever disease he had because he was really special.

Charlie Bennett: Probably the second best catcher before Gabby Hartnett. His greatness is often overlooked due to what appears to be a paucity of games played. However, catcher really beat a guy up back then, and he routinely was among the league leaders in games caught. He was a gifted receiver and mobile fielder and thrower who racked up tremendous defensive value and who hit enough to be a middle-of-the-order hitter. Worth noting that catchers were simply more valuable defensively during the early game because teams ran so much, and because fielding percentage was a high-value stat when there was limited defensive equipment.

George Wright: He was the world’s best player by contemporary and historical acclimation before the National Association, second only to Ross Barnes during the NA, and continued along a couple more years into the NL.

Jimmy Collins: This is going to sound very twisty, but here goes. I can’t get Jimmy Collins any higher than 14th all-time among third basemen based solely on my interpretation value stats. But I also can’t get him any lower than that. And when I take the broader historical context of his era and position into account, the argument becomes clearer. Among all-time 3Bs ahead of him (who will be eligible by our 2013 election), Collins is immediately beneath a clutch of 1970s guys: Darrell Evans, Buddy Bell, Graig Nettles. When you consider that George Brett and Mike Schmidt also came out of that era (and Sal Bando and Toby Harrah for that matter), but that pretty much nobody but Collins had even a moderately long career as a full-time third baseman in his time, there’s something contextual going on. Collins is the best third baseman between Deacon White and Home Run Baker, and the second best third baseman between White and Eddie Mathews. Or the third best third baseman from 1871 to 1950. That’s 80 years. I don’t like to dive into the bullshit dump very often, but after studying this a bit, I believe that there’s something about that era and third base and the amazing lack of durability showed that isn’t well captured by the numbers. When I combine that with the fact that Collins was the best third baseman of his time, and the fact that the stats stick him squarely within the HoME, I’m comfortable voting for him, even though he isn’t a slam dunk.

Joe McGinnity and Vic Willis: One comment to cover both of these pitchers. You could put either ahead of the other, doesn’t really matter. They were both league-leading pitchers and among the best of this generation for a little while, much like Rube Waddell. McGinnity had the durability and most ink, and Willis probably has the most bulk value. In the end, again like Waddell, they should both occupy a place in the HoME roughly equivalent to the upper part of the bottom third of pitchers. After examining all three and the players around them, I don’t see much chance they could fall very far at all in my rankings, so there’s no real downside to voting for these two now too.

Please visit our Honorees page to see their plaques and to see more information about the HoME and those who have been elected.

1911 HoME Election Results

Congratulations to our third class of inductees: Kid Nichols, Ed Delahanty, Billy Hamilton, King Kelly, and Tim Keefe for gaining entrance to the Hall of Miller and Eric with our 1911 election. The HoME is now populated with eleven of the greatest players in the game’s history.

Per our rules, all five had to be named on both ballots for induction. Let’s look to see how we voted.

Here’s a brief rationale from each voter for each player.

Miller

Kid Nichols: He and Christy Mathewson vie as the best pitchers the game has seen prior to the existence of the American League who don’t have an award named after them.

Ed Delahanty: Died going over Niagara Falls but lived as, arguably, the best left fielder in the game’s first half century.

Billy Hamilton: The all-time stolen base leader until Lou Brock, Sliding Billy didn’t have to steal his way into the HoME. He’s in on his merits.

King Kelly: A versatile and talented player, Kelly was the best right fielder in the game’s first quarter century.

Tim Keefe: Tenth all time, his 342 wins were too much to deny this time.

Eric

Kid Nichols: Best pitcher we’ve seen so far.

Ed Delahanty: Best LF of 19th C. and probably best before Ted Williams—probably among top half-dozen LFs all-time

Billy Hamilton: Best CF of 19th C. and best before Cobb/Speaker; probably top-10 or better all-time

Buck Ewing: Best C of 19th C. and best before ~1930 (Hartnett)

King Kelly: Best RF of 19th C. and best before Sam Crawford

George Wright: Best player of early game from ~1865 through 1880.

Tim Keefe: There’s no shame in being the 2nd best pitcher of 1880s after John Clarkson

Amos Rusie: Dominant strikeout artist of 1890s, feels to me like the Dazzy Vance or Hal Newhouser of his time

Old Hoss Radbourn: Just a sliver beneath Rusie in terms of value, and conditions for pitching were tougher in 1890s, so Radbourn goes here.

Jesse Burkett: Probably among top dozen or baker’s dozen LFs in history. The Billy Williams of his time.

Paul Hines: Best CF before Hamilton, long career with decent peak

Charlie Bennett: Iron-man catcher of 19th century with top-quality defense, long career (for catcher) and a bat that would have played anywhere. 2nd best catcher before Hartnett.

Ross Barnes: Huge peak, great glove, just enough doubt about quality of play and of opposition (didn’t have to face his own teammates), and fair-foul to push him down a bit this time around.

Please visit our Honorees page to see their plaques and to see more information about the HoME and those who have been elected.