For the past few seasons, I have used the previous year's voting results as a guide for my HOF ballot. This season I will continue that trend, but I am going to use a different metric to evaluate the top options in terms of HOF worthiness. Previously, I have used the Career Standard Score (a Bill James invention) which does a nice job. However, I use Wins Above Replacement for other blog posts and it's more easily understood than some of Bill James' other creations so I figured that I should use it for this if possible.
Last night, I discovered a Runs Created calculator that I can plug the career numbers of the hitters into and then convert from Runs Created to WAR quite easily. I also have access to a WAR calculator for pitchers, but putting career numbers into that gives me wacky results. Neither will method will match the more precise method that I have used for other blog posts exactly, but it is much easier for full careers and will be a good indicator of HOF-worthiness. Without further ado, here's a look at last years results and a WAR-centered rundown of the top candidates this season.
Above are the results from last season's voting...nobody made the cut, but there were certainly a number of deserving candidates:
Pablo Macias: 62.10 offensive WAR, -10.25 defensive WAR =
51.85 total WAR
Pinky Curtis: not on ballot this season
Maikel Romano: 53.70 offensive WAR, 1.70 defensive WAR =
55.40 total WAR
Don Webster: 1.95 defensive WAR, Career Standard Score 50.9
Midre Tarasco: 0.77 defensive WAR, Career Standard Score 45.6
David Campos: 0.85 defensive WAR, Career Standard Score 23.3
Now that I have some WAR data to work with, we need to look at how the players on the ballot stack up against the current competition. Here is a look at the names brought up on World Chat:
Yogi Gray: 54.00 offensive WAR, -1.08 defensive WAR = 52.92 total WAR
Raul Chantres: 61.50 offensive WAR, -22.98 defensive WAR = 38.52 total WAR
Gregorio Astacio: 50.90 offensive WAR, 13.57 defensive WAR = 64.47 total WAR
Elian Rojas Jr. : 45.90 offensive WAR, 14.96 defensive WAR = 60.86 total WAR
Fred Sparks: -0.74 defensive WAR, Career Standard Score 20.9
Last but not least, let's compare all of the candidates to those guys who have already made the cut. Using the metrics I've been tracking above, here's a look at the position-by-position averages for current Plumpy HOF members:
--> Average Hall of Fame 1B = 88.88 WAR
--> Average Hall of Fame 3B = 55.49 WAR
--> Average Hall of Fame RF = 70.52 WAR
--> Average SP Career Standard Score = 52.5
--> Average RP Career Standard Score = 22.1
Based on those averages, the following players are above "Hall of Fame average" and definitely deserve to be inducted:
As of right now, the rest of the field stacks up as follows in terms of WAR:
- Gregorio Astacio (64.47)
- Elian Rojas Jr (60.47)
- Maikel Romano (55.40)
- Yogi Gray (52.92)
- Pablo Macias (51.85)
- Alexi Franco (41.90)
- Raul Chantres (38.52)
- Guy Gorzelanny (35.96)
- Rod DeJean (28.74)
- Otto Dillon (28.20)
- Mariano Infante (-3.33)
***MORE WILL BE ADDED TO THIS LIST IF THEY COME UP ON WORLD CHAT AND/OR I HAVE TIME TO DO THE MATH!
