21 thoughts on “Half-Baked Hall: 2008”

1. If you just prorated their stats against the Twins into a full career, my guess is that Frank Thomas and Mike Mussina would be unanimous choices.

2. Kenny Rogers did some good stuff with the First Edition, but his solo work mostly sucks. I mean "Lucille" is reason enough for me not to vote for him.

   1. Also did great work with Dolly. He's a team player. Knows how to win.

3. The most borderline candidate for me here is Jeff Kent. He'd be the weakest second baseman in our hall. He does have the all-time record (by a big margin) for homers by a second baseman, and considering he played many games in Candlestick, that's impressive. And he wasn't that bad of a fielder (except in his last few years). But he just doesn't excite me.

   1. I’ve decided not to vote for Kent. His total rWAR and peak are comparable to Billy Herman, who lost two seasons (ages 34 & 35) to WWII. Herman’s last season before joining the Navy was valued at 4.7 rWAR, and he returned with a 3.8 rWAR season at 36. Seems safe to say he’d have reached 60+ rWAR without the war.

      Kent’s best seven years put him in the company of Bobby Doerr (lower total rWAR than Kent), Willie Randolph (over 10 rWAR more than Kent), Eddie Stanky, Herman, Tony Lazzeri, Jose Altuve (who has only played seven full seasons), and Tony Phillips. His best seven are below guys like Petunia, Knoblauch, Kinsler, and Zobrist.

      Not enough peak, and not good enough for long enough, particularly given the bad glove.

      1. I'm still waffling on Kent. I'm not of a mind that simply looking at JAWS/WAR is enough to determine a Hall of Famer, but looking at everything, he wasn't as good as Pedroia, and I'm waffling on him, too.

         1. I don’t think it is, either, but I think they’re reasonably good shorthand for talking about the quality of a career, both at its height and in totality.

            Kent’s the all-time leader in homers by a second baseman by a pretty wide margin — Canó trails him by over 60 — and he’s 4th all-time in doubles. He’s second all-time in ISO (51% of games at 2b, 5000 min PA), but his OPS+ is merely 12th. Despite having a power bat, he didn’t walk much; he’s 10th in plate appearances, but 25th in walks. He’s 6th in batting runs, not particularly close to any of the guys ahead of him, all of whom played before his time. He’s 8th in Runs Created, behind old-timers or contemporaries (Biggio & Alomar, both of whom were better defenders). He was beyond mediocre at stealing (61% success rate).

4. Maddux should have kept the glasses.

5. Looks like the ballot is currently limited to one selection.

   1. Yeah, I fixed it already. Thanks

      What do you think of Kent?

      1. Great — thanks. As for Kent, see above!

      2. still only 1 vote allowed

         1. Fixed. It was set to support choosing multiple but limited to only one selection.

            1. thanks Sean

6. By the way, poll ends Sunday night

7. I am having a hard time figuring how you can vote for Glavine without voting for Mussina.

   1. That’s why I voted for neither.

   2. 305 wins!

   3. It was pretty easy, I just didn't click on the button in front of Mussina |;‑)

      I freely admit I did no research. Now that I've looked into it a tiny bit, I see what you're saying- they're pretty darn identical.

      Glavine did hit 1 homerun when he was 29. 12+ more seasons and never got another one. I'll say that's why Glavine gets the edge over Mussina, since that guy didn't have any.

      1. Better reason than most writers give!

   4. Call it the Yankme Penalty.

Comments are closed.