Baseball Hall of Fame — Today’s Game ballot (Alomar, uniform, MVP)

[bachslunch]

This year’s Veterans category for the Baseball Hall of Fame is the “Today’s Game” ballot. Sadly, not much to get excited about:

Harold Baines
Albert Belle
Joe Carter
Will Clark
Orel Hershiser
Davey Johnson
Charlie Manuel
Lou Pinella
Lee Smith
George Steinbrenner

If I were feeling unusually charitable, I might give second thought to Pinella or Smith. But even though folks like Hershiser and Clark are better players than people remember, I don’t think I’d likely vote for any of them with enthusiasm.

[Grandstander]

Of those on the list, probably only Clark, Hershiser and Belle looked like future HoFers after their first six or seven seasons, but none was able to close the deal with the back ends of their careers.

Davey Johnson is the 31st highest winning manager of all time, but that isn't Hall busting creds.

Now Steinbrenner, hell, its called the Hall of Fame and who was better than George at making himself famous?

[bachslunch]

What I find amazing is that the Character Clause seemingly gets applied (arbitrarily, though) to players, while folks in the Contributor category (managers, owners, commissioners, etc.) seem to be exempt from such examination. Steinbrenner by any standard would flunk a Character Clause test handily, yet he keeps getting nominated year after year.

[bachslunch]

So they announced the voting results. Perhaps not surprisingly, Lee Smith was elected. Given the standards so far established by the HoF for relievers, it's not the worst outcome, I guess.

But the big shocker is that Harold Baines also got in. The reaction has been uniformly condemnatory everyplace I've looked, and rightly so. He's the quintessential compiler with Hall of the Very Good level stats. By any standard used, he's a terrible choice. For example:

Black ink: Batting -- 3 (rank 560th), Average HoFer = 27.
Gray ink: Batting -- 40 (rank 655th), Average HoFer = 144.
Hall of Fame monitor: Batting -- 66 (ranking 311th), Likely HoFer = 100.
Hall of Fame standards: Batting -- 44 (rank 121st), Likely HoFer = 50.

Bear in mind that he's a Designated Hitter, not a middle infielder or catcher.

Using BBRef WAR, he ranks 57th among RFs at 38.7. Players in his range include:

Jessie Barfiield. 39.4.
Paul O'Neill. 38.9
Magglio Ordonez. 38.7
Juan Gonzalez. 38.7
Johnny Callison. 38.5
Kirk Gibson. 38.4
Roger Maris. 38.2

All of these players took anywhere from 5394 to 8329 PAs to amass their number. Baines needed 11092 PAs.

Only two RF HoFers are worse choices, both terrible Vets Committee picks, one them courtesy of Frisch: Ross Youngs (32.2) and Tommy McCarthy (16.2). The closest player above Baines is Chuck Klein (37th, 43.6). There isn't a HoFer anywhere near him.

The thinking is that this particular Vets Committee was heavily loaded with White Sox "homers," including owner Jerry Reinsdorf, GM Pat Gillick, manager Tony LaRussa, and 2B Roberto Alomar -- and these folks pushed heavily on Baines's behalf, in the manner of Frankie Frisch from the bad old days of this panel's sustained cronyism. There were 16 committee members, and 12 voters were needed for election. Results:

Smith: 16 votes
Baines: 12
Pinella: 11

None of the other candidates got as many as 5.

[Grandstander]

I agree with the above analysis. In Baines' best season, he was good for 4.3 WAR. He finished 13th in the MVP voting that season.

This illustrates a built in problem with the past eras committees, they have a static pool, Once they have honored the best in that pool, then future honors will go to lesser and lesser players. Baines and Smith seem the product of this phenomena...enshrined because if they were not, the committee would have a hard time justifying its existence.