The Wrap Up

Wrap Up:
Here are the totals for the 200 members of the Hall that I tiered.

Tier	# of Players	% of Players
S	19	9.5
A	15	7.5
B	47	23.5
C	44	22
D	28	14
F	47	23.5

Overall, pretty fair.  Thought there would be fewer in the S tier, but it is what it is.  I could do an analysis of each tier and break them down, but that would be insane and take way too much time.  Instead, I’m only going to look at the F tier, because I think people will see that 23.5% and think my system is flawed.  But, let's look at that tier really quickly:

The F Tier:
In the bottom tier, there are 47 players.  Of those 47 players, 36 were inducted by either the old Veteran’s Committee or the now defunct Old Timer’s Committee.  That means 11 players were inducted by the BBWAA that really don’t belong in the Hall of Fame.  Those 11 players are: Lyons (78), Dawson (76), Perez (70), Lemon (70), Sutton (70), Traynor (69), Ruffing (66), Maranville (57), Wynn (57), Hunter (52), and Pennock (45).  Are any of those 11 players really what you would consider an all-time great?  Some of them have cases, like Sutton and Traynor, but most of them really don’t.  The same can be said of the 36 voted in by the VC, which would induct popular players for a long time.  That’s why you see guys like Red Schoendienst and Bill Mazeroski and Orlando Cepeda getting inducted by them.  They are players that most people would want on their team, but aren’t really all time greats by any stretch of the imagination.  So, really, this is just looking objectively at the players that were inducted and giving people an idea of who really belongs.  To be blunt and honest, these 47 players don’t.  Sorry, but it’s true.  It wasn’t my system that was flawed, but the system that let them in was flawed.

Other than that, not much to say.  I’m going to leave the D tier the way it is.  They were mostly players that played for a long period of time and either got milestone numbers or were great for a time then just hung on way too long.

So to wrap this up, let’s look at a couple of active players that would make my Hall of Fame rankings:
1) Albert Pujols, 1B.  Yes, I hated it that he bolted for money and a BS personal services contract that should have been illegal from Day 1.  But, he was the second best player the Cardinals ever had, maybe even the best behind Stan.  His WAR+ as of this moment is 171.  As time goes on, that’ll probably drop a bit, but it’s hard to see him dropping so low that he doesn’t make it in.  He’ll probably end up at the low end of my S tier at worst.

2) Derek Jeter, SS.  Yes, I hate the Yankees.  Yes, he sucks defensively and the Yanks would be better with almost anyone else defensively playing SS.  His WAR+ is 106, and at this point it won’t change much.

3) Chipper Jones, 3B.  I got nothing to hate on with Chipper.  He was always a personal favorite.  Same as Jeter, WAR+ of 106.

4) Pudge Rodriguez, C.  Yes, I know he isn’t active, but I feel like calculating his anyways.  It’s 101.

5) Ichiro, RF.  Without even thinking about his time in Japan, he has a WAR+ value of 106.

6) Mariano Rivera, RP.  Always called the greatest reliever of all time.  His WAR+ is 160.

7) Alex Rodriguez, SS.  Baseball Reference has him as a SS for now.  In that case, his WAR+ is 151.  Assuming no change in WAR, as a 3B it would be 134.  If they decide to ignore those steroid reports with him, he’ll get in easily.

8) Chase Utley, 2B.  WAR+ of 115.  Definitely the best second baseman out there in his prime.  The question is, will that prime be enough to carry him through a decline phase that really won’t be kind to him, given his injury history.

9) Miguel Cabrera, 1B.  WAR+ of 110.  As long as he doesn’t hit a Hafnerian decline phase, he’ll be inducted.  He’s only had a couple of OK seasons, and the rest of his 10 years have ranged from very good to awesome.

10) CC Sabathia, SP.  WAR+ of 101.  He’s been a steadily great pitcher for a number of years now.  The question is, now that he’s approaching mid 30s, can he keep it up?  It’ll be interesting to see, and playing in NY should grant him enough of a chance to rack up the victory stat that voters like to look at.

And that’ll do for this project.  I hope people got something out of this.  I know I did.  I’m probably going to take a break from writing for a bit to recharge myself.  This was fun, so thanks for indulging me.  Feel free to contact me via email or comments to discuss anything on here.