Top 30 Retired Batters, Career WAR, Not In The HOF, To Bat In 6+ All-Star Games

Comments on Top 30 Retired Batters, Career WAR, Not In The HOF, To Bat In 6+ All-Star Games

1. Evan3457
   January 12th, 2013 | 12:08 am
   

   Grich is a long-time sabrmetric favorite. Bill James was advocating for his being recognized as a great player in the old Baseball Abstracts.

   He’s a marginal Hall of Famer to me, but he’ll never be recognized as such, because:

   1) He wasn’t a high BAVG hitter
   2) He was a medium-power high-BB middle infielder, and thus plays against stereotype
   3) He wasn’t very fast but had outstanding range
   4) He played in an era when overall offensive numbers were pretty low, and so his WAR will look a lot better than his straight Triple Crown numbers, which are still decently impressive for a middle infielder.
   5) A lot of his seasons were cut short by injury (chronic bad back, among other things) and so he doesn’t have “Hall of Fame” seasons, except maybe 1979, and his career totals are on the short side as well.

   He’s probably one of the top 10 second basemen of all time. Maybe top 12.

   ——————————-
   Assuming Bonds, Rose, McGwire and Sosa are eliminated for “character” reasons, in my opinion, the Hall of Famers on that list are: Griffey, Raines, Pudge, Piazza, Biggio and Minoso. (Assuming Pudge and Piazza aren’t “outed”. For PED use, I mean.)

2. Steve L.
   January 12th, 2013 | 8:29 am
   

   The Pudge & Piazza thing will be interesting.

   Many suspect Piazza used. But, when you look at how Pudge’s body changed, twice, and the fact that he was part of that Texas crew, how can you not also assume about him?

3. Raf
   January 12th, 2013 | 8:51 am
   

   Funny how the list breaks down to Barry Bonds, then everyone else

4. KPOcala
   January 12th, 2013 | 6:28 pm
   

   This is what pisses me off so much about the Ped users/era. It takes away from the accomplishments of the clean, pressures the marginal player, and taints the entire game. And there are ways to look at the records and see the players who were either “for sure” using, and the ones most likely using later in their careers. Guys were coming into to camp having put on “20-40 pounds of muscle” in the off-season was given great press beginning in the late seventies. It was that the writers, stranger to gyms themselves , didn’t think about the implications.

5. KPOcala
   January 12th, 2013 | 6:30 pm
   

   @ Steve L.:
   Funny how Pudge would put muscle on because ‘it helped his endurance during the season’, then after the manure hit the fan, used the same line as to why he reported into camp, having dropped 3 shirt sizes in a few months. Same with Sosa………….

6. KPOcala
   January 12th, 2013 | 6:32 pm
   

   @ Evan3457:
   I can’t say about Piazza, since I don’t watch many NL games, but I’d bet ANYTHING that Pudge used them…..

7. joebaseball
   January 14th, 2013 | 10:20 am
   

   Surprised Ted Simmons is not on the list. I think he qualifies, and may be HOF quality. Excluding players in the PED era, he has more career RBI than anybody on the list. More hits, doubles, RBI, and higher BA than any contemporary catcher. Led his team in RBI seven straight years, and batted over .300 in 8 seasons. 8-time all star.

8. Raf
   January 14th, 2013 | 1:32 pm
   

   @ joebaseball:
   I think Simmons missed because of the ASG criteria; he may have been selected, but he didn’t get an at bat.

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