Seamheads: Rocking the (HOF) Vote with Steve Gietschier

How about the statistical revolution? Do you still rely on traditional stats to make your selections or have you branched out to include newer measures like Win Shares, VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player), DIPS (Defense Independent Pitching Statistics) or any other sabermetric measure?

I would say that the statistical revolution has influenced how I evaluate players, but that I do not pull every tool out of the sabermetric statistical tool box. Do I value on-base percentage and OPS more than batting average? Yes. Do I value earned run average and WHIP more than wins and losses? Of course. But I think that eligible candidates can rise to the top of the ballot easily without depending on statistical measures, some of them rather subjective, that most fans simply do not understand or accept. I think these newer statistics are quite good when evaluating players in the present, for purposes of trades and signing free agents, etc., but that we do not need Win Shares to tell us that Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer.

But you could use them to tell you Tim Raines was a Hall of Famer.