Seamheads: WIN SHARES and the HALL OF FAME

Hoban has HOF Bernard Purdie with him…and that’s enough shares for me.

But if we want to use Win Shares in order to compare players’ careers, then it is necessary to devise a way to do it other than to simply look at the total number of Win Shares accumulated. That is why I have developed the NEWS Hall of Fame Gauge – based on Win Shares. Consider the following example.

Arky Vaughan and Brooks Robinson were both outstanding infielders who are in the Hall of Fame. Vaughan is considered by many as one of the top three shortstops of the 20th century. And Robinson is generally regarded as the best fielding third baseman of all time. The numbers that they accumulated during their careers illustrate rather well what the NEWS Gauge is designed to demonstrate. Both of these players accumulated 356 win shares during their careers. But that does not mean that their careers were similar in any way. Vaughan played for fourteen seasons and Robinson for twenty-three. Arky’s core value (CV) was 308 meaning that he averaged almost 31 win shares for his ten best seasons – a truly great performance. Brooks’ CV was 247 indicating that he averaged almost 25 win shares for his ten best – a very good career but not nearly as good as Vaughan. Arky’s NEWS score of 320 places him among the top 35 position players of the 20th century. Brooks’ score of 274 is respectable (and places him among the top 100 position players of the century) but it cannot compare to Vaughan’s 320.