Roy Campanella led in the early voting, and Harmon Killebrew mid-week, but Kenny Lofton, who narrowly missed induction last round, was the leader at the end of this round, and it’s the end that counts. Lofton becomes the 70th inductee in the High Heats Stats Circle of Greats. More on Kenny and the voting after the jump.

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Baseball-reference.com breaks down total Wins Above Replacement for position players into sub-categories. Three of those sub-categories are runs above, or below, average as a batter (Rbat), as a fielder (Rfield) and as a baserunner (Rbaser). Bill James used the mathematical concept of a harmonic mean to find players with high levels of accomplishment in both homers and stolen bases; James’ “Power-Speed Number” is the harmonic mean of the a player’s home run and stolen base totals. We can also do a three-number harmonic mean of Rbat, Rfield and Rbaser to measure high levels of accomplishment in all three areas of performance.

Highest Harmonic Mean of Rbat, Rfield and Rbaser, MLB History (retired players only):
1. Willie Mays 152.7
2. Rickey Henderson 124.0
3. Kenny Lofton 102.9
4. Barry Bonds 102.1
5. Max Carey 95.7
6. Hank Aaron 86.8
7. Al Kaline 82.9
8. Larry Walker 78.9
9. Willie Randolph 72.3
10. Honus Wagner 69.5

(The active players Ichiro Suzuki, Carlos Beltran and Chase Utley would be candidates for the lower half of this list today. But because players tend to drop in this stat in their later years, it wouldn’t be an accurate reflection of their historical standing to include active players here.)

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Kenny Lofton had an unusual age arc to his career. An elite-level college basketball player, he didn’t concentrate on baseball until a relatively late age and wasn’t a regular in the majors until he was 25 years old. But once he did make it as a regular he blossomed immediately:

Most WAR Over a Second Through Fourth Seasons in the Majors, By a Player 25 Years or Older
1. Wade Boggs 23.1 WAR (Age 25-27)
2. Jackie Robinson 22.5 WAR (Ages 29-31)
3. Kenny Lofton 21.4 (Ages 25-27)

And then on the other side of his career, WAR suggests he was still a solid player at age 40, but at age 41 couldn’t get a suitable contract to continue playing.

Most WAR In a Final Season in the Majors, Age 40 or Over
1. Barry Bonds 3.4 (age 42)
2. Ted Williams 3.0 (Age 41)
3. Chipper Jones 2.8 (age 40)
4. Kenny Lofton 2.59 (Age 40)
5. Brian Downing 2.58 (age 41)

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Although Lofton never won a World Series ring, he sure played in an extraordinary number of post-season games. Examples of his standing as a prolific post-season participant:

Most Career Post-Season Games Played as Leadoff Hitter in the Batting Order
1. Kenny Lofton 77 games
2. Derek Jeter 67 games
3. Rickey Henderson 59 games
4. Rafael Furcal 58 games
5. Chuck Knoblauch 50 games

Most Post-Season Stolen Bases
1. Kenny Lofton 34
2. Rickey Henderson 33
3. Omar Vizquel 23
4. Roberto Alomar 20
5. Davey Lopes 19

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–This round was a closely contested one, with evenly-spread support. Every holdover received at least 12 votes. The evenly matched competition helped lead to a particularly spirited discussion among the voters throughout the week, with a total of 322 comments posted in the ballot thread as of the voting deadline.

–For the second week in a row, Whitey Ford, Lou Boudreau and Harmon Killebrew all topped the 25% vote support threshold that earns an extra round of eligibility for a candidate’s bank of guaranteed ballot eligibility. The popular newcomer to the ballot, Joe Gordon, also topped 25% support and thus joins the holdover list without needing to endure, at least at first, the infamous “bubble”, where candidates are vulnerable to falling off the ballot if they receive less than 10% support in a round.

–The bubble list for the next round will be unchanged from this round. Robbie Alomar just missed getting off the bubble, receiving 24.2% of the vote, a vote short of the 25% needed.

–With Lofton elevated to the Circle, and Joe Gordon replacing him on the list of holdovers, that list remains at eleven candidates long. But with a “redemption round” about to start, we will soon have more holdovers to consider.

–For the second round in a row, the support for Harmon Killebrew hit a level not seen before, increasing from 18 votes last round to 23 this time. Roy Campanella also hit a high in support, going from nine votes last round to 17 this time, easily topping his previous best of 14, which he had received in his debut on the ballot.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1915 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.