Hall of Merit: Email Conversation with Rob Wood

My ‘conversation’ with Rob Wood will be posted in the discussion thread.

It’s basically a status of where we stand. Rob has volunteered to draft a rules document, based on everything that’s been discussed in the threads.

I think we’ll be ready to vote after New Year’s.

Hopefully this answers your questions.

If any of you have an idea for a thread, let me know and I’ll post it. This section is different than Clutch Hits, in that we don’t have “news” every day to link to. We try to keep the discussion going, but it’s easy to fall into lulls. Any suggestions would be appreciated . . . thanks!

Hall of Merit: Hall of Merit group set up on Yahoo

The group has been set up on yahoo, we’ll use this to send messages, register voters, etc.

The subscribe, send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Don’t forget to remove NOSPAM from that address.

To send a message to the group, use .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

I’m not sure how this will work, I only sent two invitations, because it didn’t have an easy way to get to the address book unfortunately. Go to the link above for the home page for the group. Post any questions, etc. here.

Hall of Merit: The Jackson/Rose/Cicotte/Devlin issue

I’ll post Craig’s comment from the rules thread and my reply in the discussion.

Hall of Merit: The Rules

I’m in the process of getting a formal set of rules together, and I’m wondering what you guys think should be included.

Obviously we’ll have the voting system, we settled on 24-23-22-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6 (if 3 are elected) IIRC.

We’ll have to figure out how to register the voters. I know this might be a pain, but I’m going to have to set up a new email address, actually I’ll set up a yahoo group most likely. The reason is that I’ve got over 100 people in the address book for the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) account and yahoo won’t let me send an email to a group that big. It was a pain in the keyster last time to get that test email out there. I’ll let you all know when this group is set up.

I’m wondering if I could get a volunteer to maintain the email group. I can’t get to web email at work anymore, and I’m on dial up at home, so I don’t log on all the time, and things get missed. I apologize if you’ve slipped through the cracks. Once we get the group going on yahoo, this will be much easier.

I’m also wondering what other rules you’ll forsee us needing I’ll tell you where I’m leaning:

Eligibility 5 years after the first time the player plays less than 10 G in the field or pitches in less than 5 games. This will account for most token appearances. We could provide for an exception if someone feels there is a player who slips under this guideline but should eligible anyway. A voter would raise the issue, and we’d decide o a case-by-case basis (maybe a small committee of 3-5 people for eligibility questions?)

I don’t want this to get out of control with rules or anything, but I also want to anticipate problems. So let me know what you all think by posting on this thread, and if you have other questions/suggestions for things that should be in our “Constitution” post them here, so we can discuss and let’s get this thing rolling!

Hall of Merit: Pitchers for the Hall of Merit

Let’s start discussing the pitchers here. I don’t have any adjusted numbers to post yet, but there’s no reason we can get the discussion cranking.

I take that back. I went through season by season a ways back and came up with pythagorean W-L records for each pitcher, based on his ERA vs. park adjusted league (season by season), adjusting for an average number of decisions in each season (based on the pitcher’s career IP/dec ratio for his career). Those numbers will be in the extended text.

Hall of Merit: Let’s pick a voting system

These were the systems presented. I think we’ve agreed to go with 15 players on the ballot (to increase the penalty for not being named, as well as increase the depth of our research).

1) 70-62-57-53-49-46-43-40-38-36-34-32-30-28-26

This closes the gap between 1 and 15 on the list, and gives a more substantial penalty for not being named on any ballots.

2) 15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

This system has larger gaps between the positions (on a percentage basis) and doesn’t penalize a player that is left off that ballot too much (it’s like a 16th place vote really).

3) 20-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Similar to the previous system, but gives a significant bonus for being dubbed the best player on the ballot.

4) 20-19-18-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (assuming 3 players get in that year)

This system changes based on the number of players to be elected in a particular season. Basically the same as above, except all players voted into an “election” spot get the six-point bonus.

5) 20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6

A combination of the first and last systems. This one increases the penalty for not being on the ballot (larger penalty than the first actually), but still has a very large gap between each spot on the ballot.

Those are the significant contenders as I see them. If I missed one, let me know.

I lean towards system 1. If anyone would like to make any final pitches to sway a “vote” please do. I could see a split vote among the last 4 systems, because they are similar, so maybe we should have some kind of run off to get it down to two, and then a final vote if no system is over 50%? I’m new to this election thing, so if I’m missing something, please let me know so we can choose the system fairly, as it is the backbone of our entire project.

Hall of Merit: Summer Vacation Over

Okay, my summer ‘vacation’ is over, almost. I had some personal things to tend to the last month or so, but I’m ready to get cranking again.

I say almost, because I’ll be out of town this weekend, and I’ll be in Vega$ for the first time ever from September 6-10.

Tuesday-Thursday next week, I’ll be working on getting pitcher Win Shares adjusted. I could use some volunteers again as well, drop me an email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you are interested (don’t forget to remove the NOSPAM). Basically, I’ll set up a spreadsheet where you have to put the pitcher WS by season in, and it will adjust automatically. If I can get the form setup by next week (using Charlie Saeger’s formula for splitting pitching/fielding as the backbone), and the volunteers could do the individual pitchers while I’m out West, we could be voting by the time the playoffs start.

We’ve got to decide on a voting system as well. I’ll set up a separate thread for that.

I’ll respond to the email I’ve received from the last month sometime in the next week as well. Thanks for your patience guys.

Hall of Merit: Been busy - apology

Guys, I’ve been very busy w/some personal issues the last few weeks. I might be dealing w/these for another week or two. That’s why I’ve practically vanished from this site (all of Primer, not just the HoM) since late July.

I’ll be back with you all shortly. I have been popping in to read every now and then, but I haven’t had any time to do any new work.

If anyone wants to run the formula Charles Saeger gave for pitching vs. fielding for all leagues 1871-1900, that’d be a huge help.

Rob Wood—great work with the voting studies. I guess we are going to have to make up our minds shortly.

Hall of Merit: Right Fielders

Here are the right fielders. Jim O’Rourke should be a LF, his stats are now over there.

Hall of Merit: Center Fielders

Here are the center fielders. A much better bunch than the LF’s.