COG Round 69 Results: A Reese to the Top

Despite a nickname unlikely to be seen again in the major leagues anytime soon, Pee Wee Reese edged Kenny Lofton in this past week’s voting to win election as the 69th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Reese and the voting after the jump.

Most WAR (“WAR”, baseball-reference.com version) in MLB, 1940-1959, Position Players
1. Stan Musial 118.7
2. Ted Williams 113.3
3. Mickey Mantle 67.5
4. Pee Wee Reese 66.3
5. Lou Boudreau 62.1

Most Wins Above Replacement in the NL, 1940-1959, Position Players
1. Stan Musial 118.7
2. Pee Wee Reese 66.3
3. Jackie Robinson 61.5
4. Duke Snider 60.8
5. Willie Mays 58.7

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Most WAR for the Dodgers Franchise (Total WAR for everyday players, Pitching WAR for pitchers)
1. Pee Wee Reese 66.3
2. Duke Snider 65.9
3. Dazzy Vance 61.6
4. Jackie Robinson 61.5
5. Don Drysdale 61.2
6. Zack Wheat 59.7
7. Willie Davis 54.4
8. Sandy Koufax 53.2
9. Ron Cey 47.5
10. Gil Hodges 44.3

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Reese and fellow Circle inductees Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider were regulars together in the Dodgers lineup from 1949 through 1956, an eight-year period during which Brooklyn won five NL pennants and put together an overall .622 regular season winning percentage. Over the ten seasons 2005 through 2014 only two teams have managed to sustain a winning percentage that high for even a single season (the 2009 Yankees and the 2011 Phillies).

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Reese and Robinson I

Reese and Robinson II

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–A lazy summer holiday week brought us the lowest vote total we’ve seen in 15 rounds, but that didn’t prevent some interesting developments, including the narrow, two-vote margin separating Reese from Kenny Lofton.

–It was a a good round for guys trying to get off the “bubble”. Harmon Killebrew, Kevin Brown and Lou Boudreau all appeared on over 25% of the ballots cast this round. They each now have a round of stored eligibility allowing them each to survive a possible bad round in the future. The total number of “bubble” guys thus declines dramatically from seven to four. Killebrew received his highest vote total, in any of his 22 rounds on the ballot, with 18 votes this round, topping the 17 he’d received in his first appearance on the ballot and again last round.

–Enos Slaughter was one of the few guys we’ve seen receive as many as five votes in his first ballot appearance but not get up to the seven or eight votes generally needed to return to the ballot. I believe Don Drysdale, Hal Hewhouser, Ken Boyer, Trevor Hoffman, Dale Murphy, Andre Dawson and Dave Stieb (who received 8 votes in a round in which 81 were cast) are the only other one-ballot-and-out guys to get at least five votes in their single ballot appearance.

–Now that Reese is in the COG, and with Slaughter falling short of holdover-level support, we’ll be down to eleven holdovers next round. A redemption round, to select some names to add to that holdover list, is definitely needed soon — and will be run simultaneously with the 1914 balloting.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1916 Round 2 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.

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Doug
Doug
9 years ago

From your WAR list, Lou Boudreau looks like a deserving COG choice in a not-too-distant round. A contemporary of Reese playing the same position (albeit in the other league) has just 6.3% less WAR in 28.6% fewer PA. You do the math!

mosc
mosc
9 years ago
Reply to  Doug

If he had served as Reese (remove ’43, ’44, ’45), he’d look like this: .291/.369/.415/.785 instead of .295/.380/.415/.795 a career drop of 11pts of OBP His WAR would go from 63 to 43.2 His WAA would go from 42.2 to 27.5 He’s got a slightly higher peak than Reese with nowhere near the durability. Giving Reese any credit at all for war years makes him look like one of the inner circle guys as far as I’m concerned. When you consider those are his age 24-26 years for a player that had early success, you’re probably cutting into his absolute… Read more »

Doug
Doug
9 years ago
Reply to  mosc

Certainly Boudreau benefited from having some of his best years in a war-depleted league, while Reese, of course, missed those years entirely. If you want to mentally bump up Reese’s totals for those missed years, that’s fine. Personally, though, I prefer to focus on what a player actually did. You mentioned that Boudreau had a bit higher peak. Maybe it was more than a bit. – 7.5 WAR seasons: Boudreau 4, Reese 0 – 6.0 WAR seasons: BOudreau 5, Reese 4 I won’t pretend the cutoff point wasn’t selected to favor Boudreau. Still, it can’t be denied that Boudreau’s four… Read more »

bells
bells
9 years ago

I’m surprised that Slaughter didn’t receive more support, given a long, stellar career that also included 3 missed years due to the war. He’s only 5 WAR behind Killebrew, for example, and was solidly pulling in 4+ WAR seasons before and after missed time in service. Any thoughts? Is it because the narrative that has come through the decades associates him primarily with being a racist? Or was there something missing on the diamond?

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
9 years ago
Reply to  bells

I have three guesses on the Slaughter front. 1.) You’re totally right about the racism thing. That’s all anyone cares about, and it’s not like the guy was Ty Cobb – he wasn’t good ENOUGH for people to let him in reluctantly. 2.) His final six seasons, he was a bit player. He was used as a pinch-hitter and platooned a lot. WAR will, by its nature, overvalue platooned players (this is because platoons will hit almost exclusively against players against whom they have a better chance of hitting well, like lefties vs. righties; WAR does not take handedness into… Read more »

mosc
mosc
9 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

WAA hates Slaughter. Averaging his 3 years before the war and 3 years after to get a rate stat gives you about 2 WAA a season at his “peak”. 6WAA more helps him but still doesn’t get him over 30 and most guys we look at are 40+. He’s a compiler with a very low peak. Maybe the war years cost him three MVP-type years. I think if he would have faced some wartime MLB pitching ’43-’45 he certainly would have gotten some pretty numbers. I still have him above Boudreau. Total WAA of the two excluding 43-45 and slaughter’s… Read more »

David P
David P
9 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

A player I think of as similar to Slaughter is Bobby Abreu. They both had long careers as very good players. In their primes they contributed with the bat, glove, and legs. And yet their contributions were “modest” enough that the highest single season WAR between them was 6.5 (Abreu in 2004). Abreu has 7 seasons between 5.0 to 6.5 WAR. Slaughter only has three such seasons though it’s possible he’d have more if not for the war. Slaughter also has 3 seasons between 4.0-4.9 WAR; Abreu has 0. Not a perfect comparison but in general I think it works.… Read more »

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
9 years ago

Guess what, kids? It’s time for the All-Time Vote-Getters Update! As always, “active” players marked with an *. *Craig Biggio – 711 John Smoltz – 658 Ryne Sandberg – 607 *Kenny Lofton – 583 *Roberto Alomar – 516 Edgar Martinez – 507 *Eddie Murray – 497 Lou Whitaker – 493 Bobby Grich – 376 Sandy Koufax – 375 Tony Gwynn – 346 Willie McCovey – 336 Juan Marichal – 268 Tom Glavine – 262 *Whitey Ford – 250 Alan Trammell – 239 Mike Mussina – 233 Curt Schilling – 224 Nolan Ryan – 220 Ron Santo – 217 Tim Raines… Read more »

bells
bells
9 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

thoroughly enjoy this summary. I wonder if you know this – of the redemption candidates (ie not on the ballot currently), who has the most votes (on the main ballot, not in redemption rounds)? I haven’t looked at the spreadsheet, but my guess would be Winfield? Wait, scratch that – Dick Allen?

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
9 years ago
Reply to  bells

Well, Dick Allen is a pretty darn good guess. His 98 votes keep him juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust off this list. Second place? Dave Winfield, at 72 votes. Here’s the full top 10: 1. Dick Allen, 98 2. Dave Winfield, 72 3. Richie Ashburn, 68 4. Ralph Kiner, 59 5. Hoyt Wilhelm, 48 6. Rick Reuschel, 36 7. Larry Doby, 32 8. Willie Stargell, 23 9. Dwight Evans, 19 10. Jim Bunning, 14 I think I got that right. I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty confident. Bunning only lasted 2 rounds, and everyone below him ALSO lasted two or fewer rounds. Evans… Read more »

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
9 years ago

Quote from this post:
Despite a nickname unlikely to be seen again in the major leagues anytime soon, Pee Wee Reese […]

Quote from the movie Simon Birch:
Simon: I’ve been thinking.
Joe: Yeah?
Simon: Last year we were in the squirt league, and this year we’re in the pee wee.
Joe: So?
Simon: So what do they want us to do, play baseball or urinate? Anyway, I was just thinking.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124879/quotes?item=qt0306850