This is not my ballot, but this discussion actually began informally in this year’s Round 2, and I thought I’d make sure the players mentioned then are part of the discussion now. Voomo mentioned five players: Joe Medwick, Ralph Kiner, Dizzy Dean, Goose Gossage, and Early Wynn — he then added David Cone during Round 3 discussion. nsb mentioned Bill Terry and Rick Reuschel. All these players seem interesting to me for various reasons — Reuschel’s candidacy troubled us for a very long time before he slipped off the ballots, and I think he’s a good example of someone who… Read more »

Offensive leaders not yet in the COG The Greybeards (most PA): 12046 Palmiero 12013 Visquel 11260 Marinville 11240 Brock 11231 Aparicio 11229 Staub 10917 Damon 10861 Tony Perez 10772 Max Carey 10737 Darrell Evans Chicks Dig the Longball: 609 Sosa 583 Big Mac 569 Palmiero 493 McGriff 475 Stargell 473 Delgado 464 Nelson Cruz 462 Canseco 440 Giambi 414 Darrell Evans The Dirty Uniforms (SB): 938 Brock 738 Max Carey 668 Willie Wilson 649 Campenaris 558 Brett Butler 557 Davey Lopes 550 Cesar Cedeno 509 Fred Clarke 506 Aparicio 495 Keeler 495 Milan 470 Rollins 465 Scheckard 461 Bobby Bonds… Read more »

On the basis of the dialogue above between Bob and Doug, I’ve decided to cast a vote for Josh Gibson as a crying exception to the normal voting constraints for COG consideration. While Gibson doesn’t have the highest lifetime WAR rating among Negro League greats, that is owing only to the fact that his playing days came when the seasons were shorter than those of Turkey Stearns, et al. Although the legend of his home run hitting prowess has always seemed to me to belong more in the realm of Paul Bunyan and John Henry and not to be trusted… Read more »

Here’s an argument for Bret Saberhagen, who surprised me by leading all potential pitching candidates in WAR rate by about 10%. I compared Saberhagen to Dizzy Dean, whose very, very short career is, I presume, the reason why he isn’t in the CoG. His flame certainly burned bright enough for seven seasons to get him into the Hall despite the low total of 150 wins (Koufax is a reasonable parallel). If we compare Saberhagen 1985-1991 with Dean 1932-1938 the resemblance (allowing for structural changes in the role of pitchers) is very close. ………WAR….per162……..W-L……….CG………ShO……..ERA+…….SO/BB BS….39.2……..6.3…..100-67..599….62………..13………..130………..3.46 DD….41.9…….5.8……140-76..648…143……….24………..134………..2.70 Dean is superior in workload… Read more »

I don’t actually understand how B-R calculates WAR/162G for either batters or pitchers. In looking at Doug’s off-ballot leaders I substituted WAR/500PA for hitters (a lazy approach; it should have been 502, meaning a qualifying season) and pWAR/162IP. But doing some calculations that turns out to be quite different for the B-R figures. So here’s a list that compares our current Secondary Ballot candidates to some of the leading off-ballot candidates (bolded) vying for redemption (as we all are in this vale of tears!), using the 500PA and 162IP standards. I’ve listed those with identical one-decimal figures according to their… Read more »

Here’s my vote: Doby Terry Saberhagen Cone Edmonds My last slot was a toss-up between Edmonds and Bando. Edmonds looks very much like Reggie Smith and Bando looks a lot like Ken Boyer. Since I’ve voted for both Smith and Boyer to be on the Primary Ballot, I see both Edmonds and Bando as qualified CoG prospects, but there’s room for only one on my ballot here. One thing this exercise has convinced me of is that the CoG threshold area is very crowded and likely to become more so as replacement-level standards continue to rise. I think we may… Read more »