In most of my worlds, I run a blog segment that focuses on trying to figure out who should be elected to the Hall of Fame that season. Over time, I have figured out that there are two ways that have proven to be the most successful. The first is figuring out who previously got the most votes in that world and then checking the stats to see if the top 5 previous vote getters were indeed worthy (they usually are) and then pooling votes behind those guys. The second, and more appropriate here since there are no previous ballots to use, is to break down the list of candidates into tiers based on their statistical success and throw support behind the most deserving.
The tiers that I often use are the following: “I Should Have Been In Years Ago”, “I Will Get In Eventually”, “I Might Get In”, “Praying For A Miracle” and finally the “Field of Pipe Dreams.” When I first came up with these categories my ideal scenario was to apply career WAR totals to these tiers and analyze guys that way, but at that point I was in a world with 30+ seasons of history and not enough time in the day to calculate 30+ seasons of WAR. However, I have since discovered a fairly easy way to estimate WAR for hitters (that’s what I used for pre-merger WAR) and have kept track of career WAR for everyone since the inception of this world. Put that all together, and I finally have a chance to try out the tiers along with Wins Above Replacement. Here’s how I’ve got them laid out:
I Should Have Been In Years Ago = 100 WAR
I’ll Get In Eventually = 70 WAR
I Might Get In = 55 WAR
Praying For A Miracle = 30 WAR
Field of {Pipe} Dreams = 29 or fewer WAR
Using those guidelines, here’s how the first ever ATH Hall of Fame nominees stack up. Keep in mind that I included pre-merger stats whenever possible…and if you have any pre-merger stats that you want to share with me, I’d happily include them! Without further ado, our current HOF hopefuls:
23.73 pre-merger Wins Above Replacement
7.77 career Wins Above Replacement in ATH (5 seasons)
31.50 total WAR = "Praying For A Miracle"
18.43 pre-merger Wins Above Replacement
6.38 career Wins Above Replacement in ATH (5 seasons)
24.81 total WAR = "Field of {Pipe} Dreams"
pre-merger stats unknown
14.95 career Wins Above Replacement in ATH (5 seasons)
14.95 total WAR = "Field of {Pipe} Dreams"