Season 51
As I mentioned on the Gold Ink Test overview page, my main metric from this season forward is going to be Wins Above Replacement. However, I am going to continue to utilize the various tiers that I have in the past with the HOF Monitor and unofficial HOF Monitor Scores, as those seem like logical ways to classify the various candidates. Here are the career WAR totals that I will use as a guideline:
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
As I also mentioned on the overview page, I am going to start this segment by looking at the five players who came the closest to election without achieving it a season ago to see if they deserve to get over the hump and into Virtual Cooperstown. A screenshot of last year's full voting results can be seen in the Almanac on the homepage, but the top five who didn't get in on S50's ballot were the following: Cliff Zobrist (14 votes), George Bland (11 votes), Tony Vizquel (8 votes), Gary Maxwell (7 votes) and Geoffrey Morris (5 votes.) Here is a look at their five HOF arguments:
Cliff Zobrist, DH
106.8 Career WAR, "I Should Have Been In Years Ago"
VERDICT: He gets one of my votes
George Bland, C
77.9 Career WAR, "I'll Get In Eventually"
VERDICT: He will probably get one of my votes
Tony Vizquel, CF
59.3 Career WAR, "I Might Get In"
VERDICT: It is going to depend on the competition to see if he gets a vote from me or not
Gary Maxwell, SP
69.2 Career WAR, "I Might Get In"
VERDICT: It will depend on the competition
Geoffrey Morris, C
79 Estimated Career WAR, "I'll Get In Eventually"
Since there have also been some plugs for other players on the World Chat, I figured I'd do a quick analysis of them as well to see how they stack up to the guys above:
Richie Bradford, 2B
103.7 Career WAR, "I Should Have Been In Years Ago"
Marc Payne, RF
101.3 Career WAR, "I Should Have Been In Years Ago"
Chico Guerrero , SP
Career WAR TBD, other metrics line up with 70-99 WAR range, "I'll Get In Eventually"
Hee Lee, SP
Career WAR TBD, other metrics line up with 70-99 WAR range, "I'll Get In Eventually"
Based on all of that information, here is how I would rank the candidates above (plus the other candidates I have since had time to evaluate) :
1) Cliff Zobrist
2) Richie Bradford
3) Marc Payne
4) George Bland
5) Gary Maxwell
6) Tony Vizquel
7) Eliezer Familia, 31.8 Career WAR
8) Charles Stark, 70-99 Estimated Career WAR
9) Hee Lee, 70-99 Estimated Career WAR
10) Chico Guerrero, 70-99 Estimated Career WAR
11) Tomas James, 70-99 Estimated Career WAR
12) Geoffrey Morris, 79 Estimated Career WAR
13) Tucker House, 71 Estimated Career WAR
14) Roy Fordham, 70 Estimated Career WAR
15) Matty Ibarra, 55-70 Estimated Career WAR
16) Josias Castro, 65 Estimated Career WAR
17) Moises Espinoza, 60 Estimated Career WAR
18) Tommie Sweeney, 58 Estimated Career WAR
19) Max Brito, 56 Estimated Career WAR
20) Stu Haas, 30-55 Estimated Career WAR
21) Junior Nunez, 52 Estimated Career WAR
22) Bengie Chantres, 50 Estimated Career WAR
23) Zachrey Brooks, 48 Estimated Career WAR
24) Al Lira, 41.3 Estimated Career WAR
25) Alex Arroyo, 40.7 Estimated Career WAR
26) Felipe Moya, 40 Estimated Career WAR
27) Wilfredo Sanchez, 39 Estimated Career WAR
28) Torey Villafuerte, 38 Estimated Career WAR
29) Ross Parker, 37.3 Estimated Career WAR
30) Anibal Sanchez, 37.1 Estimated Career WAR
31) Luis Ortiz, 36 Estimated Career WAR
32) Jason O'Keefe, 34 Estimated Career WAR
33) Juan Guerrero, 33 Estimated Career WAR
34) Brady Dillard, 32 Estimated Career WAR
35) Ramon Ishida, 31.4 Estimated Career WAR
36) Jonathan Irwin, 31.3 Estimated Career WAR
37) Hal Wilkinson, 0-29 Estimated Career WAR
38) Landon Anderson, 25 Estimated Career WAR
39) BC Arias, 22 Estimated Career WAR
40) Derek Schmidt, 14 Estimated Career WAR
***PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THIS IS A "LIVING DOCUMENT"...MEANING THAT IF/WHEN OTHERS ARE MENTIONED ON WORLD CHAT, OR I HAVE TIME TO CONVERT ESTIMATED NUMBERS TO EXACT TOTALS, I WILL.*** So, if you look more than once and notice a bit of a difference, that's probably why.