This post is for voting and discussion in the 139th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG). This is the second of three rounds of balloting adding to the list of candidates eligible to receive your votes those players born in 1979. Rules and lists are after the jump.
The new group of 1979-born players, in order to join the eligible list, must, as usual, have played at least 10 seasons in the major leagues or generated at least 20 Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, as calculated by baseball-reference.com, and for this purpose meaning 20 total WAR for everyday players and 20 pitching WAR for pitchers). This group of 1979-born candidates, comprising those with G-Q surnames, joins the eligible holdovers from previous rounds to comprise the full list of players eligible to appear on your ballots.
In addition to voting for COG election among players on the main ballot, there will be also be voting for elevation to the main ballot among players on the secondary ballot. For the main ballot election, voters must select three and only three eligible players, with the one player appearing on the most ballots cast in the round inducted into the Circle of Greats. For the secondary ballot election, voters may select up to three eligible players, with the one player appearing on the most ballots cast elevated to the main ballot for the next COG election round. In the case of ties, a runoff election round will be held for COG election, while a tie-breaking process will be followed to determine the secondary ballot winner.
Players who fail to win either ballot but appear on half or more of the ballots that are cast win four added future rounds of ballot eligibility. Players who appear on 25% or more of the ballots cast, but less than 50%, earn two added future rounds of ballot eligibility. One additional round of eligibility is earned by any player who appears on at least 10% of the ballots cast or, for the main ballot only, any player finishing in the top 9 (including ties) in ballot appearances. Holdover candidates on the main ballot who exhaust their eligibility will drop to the secondary ballot for the next COG election round, as will first time main ballot candidates who attract one or more votes but do not earn additional main ballot eligibility. Secondary ballot candidates who exhaust their eligibility will drop from that ballot, but will become eligible for possible reinstatement in a future Redemption round election.
All voting for this round closes at 11:59 PM EST Sunday, February 11th, while changes to previously cast ballots are allowed until 11:59 PM EST Friday, February 9th.
If you’d like to follow the vote tally, and/or check to make sure I’ve recorded your vote correctly, you can see my ballot-counting spreadsheet for this round here: COG 1979 Part 2 Vote Tally. I’ll be updating the spreadsheet periodically with the latest votes. Initially, there is a row in the spreadsheet for every voter who has cast a ballot in any of the past rounds, but new voters are entirely welcome — new voters will be added to the spreadsheet as their ballots are submitted. Also in the spreadsheet is a column for each of the holdover candidates; additional player columns from the new born-in-1979 group will be added to the spreadsheet as votes are cast for them.
Choose your three players, for both the main and secondary ballots, from the lists below of eligible players. The current holdovers are listed in order of the number of future rounds (including this one) through which they are assured eligibility, and alphabetically when the future eligibility number is the same. The 1979 birth-year players are listed below in order of the number of seasons each played in the majors, and alphabetically among players with the same number of seasons played.
Holdovers:
| MAIN BALLOT | ELIGIBILITY | SECONDARY BALLOT | ELIGIBILITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dick Allen | 9 rounds | Bobby Abreu | 5 rounds |
| Carlos Beltran | 7 rounds | Ken Boyer | 5 rounds |
| Vladimir Guerrero | 5 rounds | Billy Williams | 5 rounds |
| David Ortiz | 3 rounds | Don Drysdale | 3 rounds |
| Luis Tiant | 3 rounds | Richie Ashburn | 2 rounds |
| Gary Sheffield | 2 rounds | Stan Coveleski | 2 rounds |
| Ted Simmons | 2 rounds | Monte Irvin | 2 rounds |
| Chase Utley | 2 rounds | Reggie Smith | 2 rounds |
| Bobby Wallace | 2 rounds | Andre Dawson | this round ONLY |
| Todd Helton | this round ONLY | Andruw Jones | this round ONLY |
| Ted Lyons | this round ONLY | Minnie Minoso | this round ONLY |
| Willie Randolph | this round ONLY | Graig Nettles | this round ONLY |
| Scott Rolen | this round ONLY | Rick Reuschel | this round ONLY |
| Don Sutton | this round ONLY |
Everyday Players (born in 1979, G-Q surname, ten or more seasons played in the major leagues or at least 20 WAR):
Ryan Howard
Gerald Laird
Adam LaRoche
Corey Patterson
Humberto Quintero
Bill Hall
Koyie Hill
Dan Johnson
Pitchers (born in 1979, G-Q surname, ten or more seasons played in the major leagues or at least 20 WAR):
Jon Garland
Jeremy Guthrie
Brandon Lyon
Colby Lewis
As is our custom, here are quiz questions for each of the new players on the ballot.
1. Gerald Laird scored more than 50% of the time he reached base (H+BB+HBP+ROE) in 2006, one of six such 250+ PA seasons by a catcher in the live ball era. Which of those players did so in a qualified season? (Ivan Rodriguez, 1999)
2. Ryan Howard‘s 1477 games at 1st base is a Phillie franchise record. Whose record did Howard break? (Fred Luderus)
3. Corey Patterson swiped 32 bags and slugged 63 XBH for the 2004 Cubs. Which player posted the most such 30/60 seasons for the Cubs? (Ryne Sandberg, 1984-85)
4. Humberto Quintero‘s two seasons (2010-11) with dWAR over 1, in fewer than 90 games and 300 PA, are the most by an Astro catcher. Who was the first Houston catcher to record such a season? (Alan Ashby, 1981)
5. Adam LaRoche played over 300 games at 1st base for the Braves, Pirates and Nationals, recording 150+ RBI for each franchise. Which other two players did the same for two of those franchises? (Elbie Fletcher, Al Oliver)
6. Bill Hall, in his lone qualified season at SS, posted 5.8 WAR in 2006, second only to Robin Yount among Brewer shortstops. Which player recorded the only higher WAR score in a lone qualified season at shortstop? (Bobby Grich, 1972)
7. Koyie Hill’s 46 OPS+ for the Cubs (and for his career) is the lowest mark among players with 200+ games caught for the Northsiders. Which player recorded the lowest OPS+ in 500+ games caught for the Cubs? (Malachi Kittridge, 53 OPS+)
8. Dan Johnson posted 7 consecutive seasons (2008-15) of 40 or fewer games, playing first base in all of them. Which player has the only longer streak of such seasons?
9. Jeremy Guthrie and Tim Hudson were the game 7 starters in the 2014 World Series. Who were the pitchers the only other time both World Series game 7 starters were aged 35 or older? (Max Scherzer/Zack Greinke, 2019)
10. Jon Garland was a CG winner in his first post-season game, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits. Who is the last pitcher to allow more than 2 runs in a CG win in his post-season debut?
11. Brandon Lyon is the only pitcher to record 100+ IP for the Blue Jays, D-Backs and Astros. Among relief pitchers with 100+ IP for two of those franchises, who, like Lyon, posted a 70+ IP season with 150 ERA+ for Detroit? (Jose Valverde)
12. Colby Lewis‘s 7.30 ERA in 2003 is the worst (by more than half a run) of any rookie campaign with 25+ games started. Lewis reduced his BB/9 from 5.6 over his first three seasons to 2.3 for the rest of his career, a 3.3 improvement that is the largest among starting pitchers with 4.5+ BB/9 in 150+ IP over their first three seasons, and with 850+ IP over the rest of their careers. Among HoFers in that group, who recorded the largest such improvement? (Bob Feller)
Question 9: I came up with Zack Greinke and Max Scherzer in 2014. I used their ages as of June 30, 2014.
Make that 2019, not 2014.
Correct.
Actually, it was Scherzer’s age 34 season, but he was 3 months past his 35th birthday for that 2019 game 7.
Question 2: Fred Luderus with 1298 games.
Luderus had a big WS for the Phillies in 1915, slugging at a 1.250 OPS clip and driving in 6 of their 10 runs. It was definitely a dead ball era series, won by the Red Sox 4 games to 1, despite outscoring their opponent by only a 12-10 margin.
In 1915, the Phillies won Game 1 behind Pete Alexander and proceeded to lose four straight – all by a single run. Not to be outdone, the 1950 Phillies lost the first three games of the 1950 WS by a single run. So, I have to believe that seven in a row has to be a record for one run losses in the post-season. Perhaps some team during the dead ball era lost seven consecutive regular season games by a single run?
Seven one-run losses is indeed a post-season record streak.
It’s also the regular season record, by the Washington Senators from May 21st to 29th, 1919, losing to the Browns, White Sox and Yankees. They “broke” the streak with a 4-2 extra-inning loss at home to New York.
Doug,
Thanks for the research
Adam LaRoche:
250 HRs without an All-Star appearance.
Traveled on USO tours.
Retired and left $13,000,000 on the table after the White Sox asked him to dial back his 14-year old son’s visits to the clubhouse.
Vote, Secondary
Three guys who have fallen to the bubble. I do not think they should be eliminated from the conversation:
Andruw Jones
Minnie Minoso
Don Sutton
I see Willie Randolph as under-rated. Either I have insight or bias on this matter, because I watched him play.
Baseball is about creating runs and preventing runs.
As a 2B, he is 3rd all time in total zone runs (since 1953), behind only Frank White and Mazeroski.
3rd All-Time in double plays, which speaks to both excellence and longevity.
On the bases he was always a positive, and in Randolph I think his league-average OPS+ is misleading, because I always saw him playing situational baseball. Rickey gets on, steals 2nd… Randolph would just try to hit the ball to the right side. He did his job.
Definitely a winner. Everyday second baseman on 5 pennant-winning teams, but generally overshadowed by his teammates.
Kind of right on the bubble Hall-wise in that 65-70 WAR zone. Only three eligible players (Grich, Whitaker, Dahlen) without “baggage” above 70 WAR and not in the Hall (though all are in the COG).
In the 65-70 zone with Randolph are Bell, Evans, Nettles and Lofton (and Manny with baggage) still on the outside, though Evans, Lofton and Manny are in the COG.
Voomo,
A lot like Grich and Whitaker-except he didn’t drive the ball. But, if you’re playing everyday for a pennant winner at age 21, you’re doing a lot of things right……totally underappreciated.
Vote:
Carlos Beltran
Ted Lyons
Willie Randolph
After going 14-6 with 20 complete games in 20 starts as a 41-year-old in 1942, Lyons joined the Marines. He had 4.8 WAR that year.
Then he comes back after the war, and adds 5 more CG in 5 starts as a 45 year-old.
Lyons finishes his career with 28 straight CG. The next longest streak to end a career is only 17 games, by Red Donahue in 1906.
Those 28 games by Lyons are tied with Robin Roberts for the live ball era record at any point in a career. The dead ball era is another story entirely, with Jack Taylor logging 186 straight CG from 1901 to 1906.
In JAWS, Carlos Beltran is 9th among CF, a hair behind Duke Snider.
Main Ballot
Carlos Beltran
Vladimir Guerrero
David Ortiz
Secondary Ballot
Minnie Minoso
Main: Allen, Sheffield, Beltran
Secondary: Williams
Is #12 Bob Feller?
Indeed it is. Well done.
This is how all HoF pitchers ranked in BB/9 for their first three seasons (min. 150 IP).
As I anticipated, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux had significant drops from the early stages of their careers. When I found Feller next, I figured his 2.9 BB/9 decrease would be tough to beat, so I just guessed. Surprisingly, though, Hal Newhouser was right on his heels with a 2.8 BB/9 improvement.
Is #6 Fernando Tatis, Jr.?
Not Tatis, Jr. because, technically, he has two qualified seasons at shortstop, in 2020 and 2021.
Ah, yes. I still forget too often to account for the short 2020 season.
How about Gunnar Henderson? He fits the criteria at the moment.
Hmm: 83 games at shortstop, 84 at third base. He had enough plate appearances for a qualifying season, but how does the position get classified? Is it simply the position at which most games are played? Or does he qualify at both SS and 3B by playing each position in at least half his team’s games?
The player I’m looking has been retired for many years.
Grich, 1972 Orioles.
Nice find, KDS!
Grich might have had a second qualified season at SS, as the Angels installed him at short in his first season in LA in 1977, but an injury in June shut him down for the season.
The Angels spent more than a decade trying to find a successor to Jim Fregosi at shortstop. Reading off the lineup pages in B-R, here are their primary shortstops each season from 1971 to 1982: Fregosi, Leo Cardenas, Rudy Meoli, Dave Chalk, Mike Miley, Dave Chalk, Rance Mulliniks, Dave Chalk, Bert Campaneris, Fred Patek, Rick Burleson, Tim Foli, Foli repeated in ’83, and then was succeeded by Dick Schofield, who held the job for 8 years. The frequent appearance of Dave Chalk’s name suggests he was a fallback because they couldn’t find anyone else. Indeed, the Halos evidently preferred having 21 year-old Mulliniks, in his ML debut, take over for the injured Grich in ’77, instead of Chalk, their primary shortstop the year before.
Main ballot, my choices are again the WAR leaders:
Wallace (76.4 WAR)
Lyons (70.6 WAR)
Rolen (70.1 WAR, tied with Beltran)
There are lots of reasons not to make WAR the sole criterion in voting. But I’m not just being lazy. I’m concerned that Wallace and Lyons are being overlooked because of their era of play. I’m going to repeat the case for Bobby Wallace, a little earlier in the voting than I did last round. I think he has an exceptionally strong case.
Wallace began as a well-above average pitcher (ERA+ 125), became the premier defensive shortstop of his era (his dWAR exceeds his CoG shortstop contemporaries Davis, Dahlen, and Wagner, despite having played fewer years in the field because of his early pitching role)–he invented the single-motion scoop-and-throw style that every shortstop has used for 125 years: something so fundamental to the game that it’s hard to believe it was invented and not a product of natural selection. And he was an above average batter (OPS+ 105, same as premier fielder and CoG shoo-in Brooks Robinson). Wallace has the tenth highest dWAR ever. There are 56 position players in the Circle of Greats with lower WAR numbers and only 42 with more. He’s an upper division Circle candidate.
Wallace’s main weak point was something not under his control: he played over a hundred years ago and is the only truly CoG-worthy player of his era who has been left behind by HHS after Bill Dahlen–whose quality measures are almost identical with Wallace (but WAR a tad lower)–entered the Circle. And Wallace had the bad luck to play most of his career for the St. Louis Browns, which meant he received almost no press in his own time. The baseball writers had forgotten him by the time the Hall was established. The only successful team he played for was the Cleveland Spiders in the 1890s, and he was a pitcher then. Wallace’s profile was so low that Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, said of him, “The best player in the American League, the only man I would get if I could, plays on a tail-end team, and few people pay any attention to him. I mean Bobby Wallace of St. Louis. I wish I had him.” And Dreyfuss had Wagner!
It’s natural to feel more interest in recent players, but, as I wrote last round, the CoG was designed by our late friend birtelcom to try to balance against that tendency. Wallace stands as an exceptional omission, and it becomes less likely each year that the gap will be filled. He’s actually exactly the type of case the Circle project was created for: a player who never got ink, but whose quality stands out when you actually look at the high heat of his advanced stats.
Nice pitch for Wallace.
You can add consistency to his attributes, surpassing 4 WAR in 11 of 12 seasons from 1897 to 1908. He’s also one of only 9 shortstops since 1901 with a season leading his league in WAR and dWAR. And, he’s one of 12 players (any position) since 1893 with 500+ XBH and fewer than 50 HR.
Apparently, John Valentin could/should have been MVP in 1995 over Vaughn and even Belle?
Bob, well thought out and well written argument.
Problem with Wallace is that I simply don’t understand/trust the statistics.
Can anyone explain how 3.4 dwar is achieved in a season with 66 errors?
As I understand it, it is an extraction of aggregate range factor. Meaning that he simply got to more balls than everyone else.
I just have a hard time visualizing how, with the limited information we have from that era, we can get him, or anyone, to 3.4 dwar.
For context, here are the error totals for the other NL players with at least 100 games at short that season (1901), showing errors and games/chances at SS:
66 (134/934) – Wallace
65 (139/853) – Monte Cross
59 (112/666) – Barry McCormick
57 (129/808) – Bill Dahlen
51 (112/651) – George Magoon
45 (113/737) – George Davis
44 (125/816) – Herman Long
Wallace’s 3.4 dWAR was followed by Long with 2.7. You might question whether 50% more errors was a reasonable price to pay for getting to 0.9 more balls per game. Except that, in Wallace’s case, 0.9 x 134 means 120 extra chances, of which 112 would be outs, based on his fielding percentage. So, 120 hits and 0 outs against Long, compared to 8 ROE and 112 outs against Wallace. So, yeah, range factor means a LOT (the analysis is simplistic, but I hope I’ve illustrated the point that differences in range factor are not insignificant).
Team errors in the 1901 NL ranged from 262 for the Phillies to 355 for the Reds (last season in the NL, the range was from 56 for the Braves to 117 for the Giants) so, on a per game basis, about 4 times as many errors then as now. Understandable when your glove back then was really just a leather oven mitt.
Sure, that all makes sense, given the data we have. There’s just so much data we don’t have, compared to what we have now. The browns’ pitchers, Powell, Harper, and Sudhoff, did they induce significantly higher proportion of ground balls then other hurlers in the league?
That would be a key detail to determine to what extent Wallace’s touches were a product of his skill.
The case for his candidacy is to a large extent defense, and the war numbers that describe his defense.
But WAR is a complex metric, a modern metric, that we have elected to trust because it is an aggregate of a wealth of data that we have access to.
Maybe Wallace really was that much better than everyone else. And Bob has also made the case that he was an innovator at the position. I just don’t have enough information yet to trust his war.
To put his WAR components into context:
6.0 as a Pitcher over three seasons.
_______________
oWar
56.8
which is 117th all-time.
Between David Ortiz and Andrew McCutchen
________________
dWar
28.7
which is 10th all-time
between Bill Dahlen and Omar Visquel
Only 2B in the last 75 years to have 10 seasons of 4+ WAR:
Joe Morgan
Lou Whitaker
Willie Randolph
https://stathead.com/tiny/ZDb2b?fbclid=IwAR2s6IFRewEMhM1Mh0VtZm9R3TAOKhOuxJVmKnl1mT5Zo2aIx5u5qtL96js
Let’s see if this Stathead link works. I got this stat from the b-r facebook feed.
Pirates fan here so special interest to Q #5…checking top-of-head guesses like Sid Bream and Josh Bell finds each falling *just* short in RBI, and GP for Bell. Galarraga didn’t play in Atlanta quite long enough, so I think I’ve got…
Al Oliver and Elbie Fletcher (most of his time was with the Boston Bees, before they even became the Braves there!).
Mark, I had considered Bream, as well, and found him just shy of games at 1B (295) for the Braves. Hadn’t noticed he also fell short in RBI (141).
I believe you are right with Oliver and Fletcher. Oliver barely met the 1B games threshold with both franchises: 317 for the Pirates and 312 for the Expos (now Nationals).
Oliver and Fletcher are correct.
Mark’s post calls up a fun fact. When he notes that Fletcher player for the Boston Bees before they became the Boston Braves he’s right, but Fletcher also played for the Boston Braves before they became the Boston Bees. They were the Braves from 1913-35 (hence the 1914 Miracle Braves), the Bees from 1936-40, and the Braves thereafter (though not in Boston post-1952). Fletcher joined the team in 1934 and departed in 1939.
Of course the team is really just the Beaneaters under a pseudonym.
Fletcher, a native of Milton, Mass was the home town boy made good. But his real success came as a Pirate, where he led the NL in OBP three straight seasons (1940-42), and led in walks in two of those years. Three qualified seasons with BA under .290 and OBP over .415 are a major league record, tied with Eddie Stanky and Jim Thome (Fletcher and Stanky together totaled 108 HR for their careers, compared to 115 for Thome just in those three seasons).
Question #3: Answer is Ryne Sandberg who did it twice, in 1984 and 1985. Six other Cubs, including Patterson, did it once.
Sandberg is the top Cub in 30 SB/60 XBH seasons.
The most such seasons by any player is 6, by Jimmy Rollins, Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonds.
For question #1 I’ll go with Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 with 116 R and 231 times on base with ROE.
Rodriguez is correct, just barely passing the 50% scoring threshold.
Question #11: Jose Valverde
Valverde is correct.
Lyon’s lone season as a Tiger was mainly as a mop up man, with 27 games finished but only 3 saves. For his career, Lyon recorded four seasons with 20+ GF and fewer than 5 saves, one season shy of the record held by six pitchers, the first being Kent Tekulve.
Main: Wallace, Randolph, Lyons.
Secondary: Coveleski, Ashburn, Irvin.
For the 1979 – Part 2 election, I’m voting for:
-Vladimir Guerrero
-Todd Helton
-Willie Randolph
Other top candidates I considered highly (and/or will consider in future rounds):
-Beltran
-Rolen
-Utley
-Tiant
-Allen
-Wallace
-Lyons
-Sheffield
Thanks!
For the Secondary Ballot, I’m voting for:
-Don Sutton
-Andre Dawson
-Andruw Jones
Thanks!
Main ballot: Sheffield, Ortiz, Guerrero
Secondary: Williams, Minoso
Two pitchers among our holdovers. One is Ted Lyons whom we’ve discussed a fair bit in recent elections. The other is Luis Tiant, who must have attracted a fair bit of attention a while back (his Eligibility Seasons was once as high as 9, I believe) but has scarcely been mentioned recently, much less attracted a vote.
Tiant’s 66 WAR, 229 Wins and 114 ERA+ are probably right at the Hall threshold. Of 15 retired expansion era pitchers with 65 WAR, 225 wins and 112 ERA+, only Tiant and Clemens are on the outside. On the other hand, of all expansion-era pitchers below those totals with at least 2500 IP, only one (Catfish Hunter) is in the Hall. So, as I said, probably right around the Hall threshold. However, those numbers would probably be a good deal better, if not for a mid-career injury that (according to his SABR biographer) was not handled well.
Tiant’s tenure in Minnesota got off to a rocky start in 1970, getting knocked around in his first two starts, but then appearing to right the ship with a 2.45 ERA over his next 8 outings. However, Tiant was not going deep into games, with just one 9-inning CG in those ten starts. He complained of shoulder pain in his throwing arm, which had been bothering him all season, but was getting progressively worse. The diagnosis: a bone fracture. The treatment: rest and come back when you feel better (as opposed to “come back when the fracture has healed”). Tiant came back ten weeks later, without a minor league tune-up, and was mediocre, pitching more than 5 innings in only one of his final 7 starts.
The next year, Tiant pronounced himself fully recovered, but pulled a rib cage muscle in spring training, and that was it as far as the Twins were concerned, giving Tiant his outright release less than 16 months after trading four major leaguers to acquire him. The Braves signed him to a minor league deal, and then released him. The Red Sox then also signed him to a minor league contract, and brought him up in June. Tiant made 10 starts, three that were pretty good, but seven that were pretty bad. He finished the year in the bullpen, where he actually fared reasonably well, pitching to a 1.80 ERA in 11 relief outings.
So, after two seasons like that, what’s your prognosis for a pitcher entering his age 31 season? How about leading the league in ERA and ERA+ in 1972, his first of eight straight qualified seasons over which he posted a 134-82 record (.620) with 3.36 ERA (119 ERA+), completing 117 of his 258 starts and amassing 38.7 WAR.
Tiant compiled 0.8 WAR for the 1970 and 1971 seasons combined, as opposed to the 4.5 WAR he had averaged over his first 6 campaigns. Penciling in his average season for those two years (which were in his prime, at age 29 and 30), and now you’re looking at close to 75 WAR with probably around 260 or more wins, and a speech in Cooperstown many, many years ago.
Tiant came onto the ballot in late 2013, I think, and lived on the bubble for years. Then in early 2017 his stock rose suddenly. He lost to Goose Goslin by a single vote in the 1972 Round 3 voting. He remained high among contenders for a couple of years, losing by one vote again in 2019 (to Dwight Evans, but Tiant was in a second-place group), and that’s the period when he piled up extra rounds, peaking at 9.
Doug’s post is the most interesting and persuasive case I can recall seeing for Tiant. I used to vote for him, though not regularly, but was always too busy plugging Dahlen and Wallace to focus on a really strong case for Luis (still the case all these years later when it comes to Wallace!), though I did once review why Tiant was a good candidate, and recalled that his unique delivery (including a 180-degree turn away from the plate, facing second, with his eyes skyward) was circus-act quality entertainment.
Here’s another Tiant factoid to consider: retired starting pitchers, all time, with 35+ WAR aged 31-38 and not in the HoF. Only Tiant, Clemens, Cicotte, Schilling and Kevin Brown.
One day to go, and no clear favorite has emerged. Current totals are:
3 – Guerrero
2 – Beltran, Lyons, Ortiz, Randolph, Sheffield, Wallace
If you haven’t cast a ballot yet, now is the time.
Thanks for the update, Doug. Voomo’s secondary ballot votes are recorded, but his main ballot votes are missing on the spreadsheet.
Thanks for spotting that omission. The corrected totals, as of EOD Saturday are:
3 – Guerrero, Beltran, Lyons, Randolph
2 – Ortiz, Sheffield, Wallace
Question #7: Malachi Kittridge.
Kittridge is correct, with 53 OPS+ playing for the NL Chicagoans long before Wrigley Field became their home. Kittridge’s 1.6 career WAR is the 3rd lowest total among catchers with 1000 games caught, ahead of only Mike Matheny and John Flaherty.
Joe Girardi’s 72 OPS+ is the lowest as a Cub catcher with 500+ games caught in the modern era.
For #4 I found Alan Ashby in 1981.
Ashby is correct.
Ashby posted 14 consecutive seasons with at least 60 games caught and 200 PA, the same as Brian McCann, Russell Martin, Lance Parrish, Gary Carter, Ted Simmons, Bill Freehan. Sherm Lollar and Jimmie Wilson. Catchers with longer streaks are:
20 – Ivan Rodriguez
17 – Yadier Molina (ignoring his 2020 season), Bob Boone
16 – A.J. Pierzynski, Rick Ferrell, Al Lopez
15 – Jason Kendall, Brad Ausmus, Ernie Lombardi, Bill Dickey
My ballot.
Primary: Beltran, Rolen, Tiant
Secondary: Williams, Dawson, Jones
Congrats to Carlos Beltran on induction to the Circle of Greats.
Still a couple of quiz questions on the board, so will hold off on the answers for the time being.