Hall of Merit: Left Fielders

Here are the left fielders.

Hall of Merit: Catchers

Here are the catchers, I’ve updated this thread 9/19/2003. I’m going to remove anyone who isn’t a new eligible, or hasn’t received a vote from these threads; unless he has 175 WS (145 for the catchers), so these threads don’t get too cluttered.

Hall of Merit: Shortstops

Here are the SS’s. Pebbly Jack Glasscock is by far the best candidate here. George Wright may have a case on peak value once we have some NA data. Ed McKean has a case he may get in before the next generation’s big guns start hitting the ballot.

Hall of Merit: Third Basemen

Here you go . . . Patsy Tebeau has been added at 1B, he’s not a serious candidate though.

I considered Tom Burns a SS as opposed to a 3B, despite the 48%/44% numbers (48% 3B). Burns prime was as a SS, and a bad half-season late in his career that pushed him a little bit ahead on PT as a 3B. It’s a judgement call, and it means nothing, since WS take position into account already.

Ezra Sutton is by far the best candidate at 3B IMHO.

Hall of Merit: Distribution list test

I sent an email last night to all ‘registered voters’, who are basically anyone I have in the address book for the Hall of Merit.

If you didn’t get one, and you want to be on the correspondence list, please let me know, by sending an e-mail to me at this address, which is different than the one below; you can copy the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) address (the one below) as well. I haven’t been checking that one below for some time, it had slipped my mind. Copying my regular home email will remind me to check the other address and get you in the address book . . .

You can also just post to this thread, leaving your email in the appropriate spot on the form.

I guess we can use this thread if someone wants to bring up an administrative issue, or anything else not related to discussing the merits of players.

Hall of Merit: Second Basemen

Click on the discussion link for the summary of 2B.

Hall of Merit: First Basemen on the opening ballot

This will be the first of many threads to discuss players at each position on the first Hall of Merit ballot.

A gigantic thank you to David Jones, John Murphy and KJOK. They ran the numbers through the spreadsheets for me and it was a major help. Without their help it would be two months from now before this thread would have been posted. Thanks guys!!

I’m going to list the player’s career WS, top 3 seasons, top 5 consecutive and a few other things, like % played at each position (based on seasons, not games, very important w/shifting schedule length), etc. All WS numbers are adjusted to a 162-game season, based on team games. Hopefully the formatting works . . .

The players are listed here alphabetically. Let me know if anyone was overlooked.

Later in the week, I’ll be adding offensive W-L records that I’ve computed, as well as a total of Stats retroactive MVP, all-stars, etc., so check back here as well. This is just a beginning, these numbers aren’t meant to be a criteria, just a starting point for discussion. I’ll be adding NA WS by the end of the month I hope.

Coming up with reasonable adjusted pitching numbers are still in the works, hopefully in the next two weeks or so.

Let me know what you think of this format. More will be coming . . . The resumes will appear when you link into the discussion, you’ll have to scroll back up.

Hall of Merit: Seasonally Adjusted Win Shares for First Ballot (1906 induction) Canditates Update

I’ve received the spreadsheets back from the volunteers (David Jones, John Murphy and KJOK, thanks much!!).

I’ve been swamped and spent the last week at the SABR convention. All data should be posted by Monday morning next week, hopefully sooner.

What I’m planning to do is write up a summary of the data, I’m looking for suggestions on the format.

I see two options. The first is to create a separate thread for each position. The second is one long thread for everyone. I like the first option, but I can be persuaded otherwise.

In addition to the summary, I’ll set up links to the spreadsheets so people can do whatever they want with the data.

We’re getting close to an actual vote here . . . maybe by the end of the month?

I should have similar pitcher info by the end of the week of July 20. The only thing I need is some pitcher/defense split info from 1871-1900 (and some time/volunteers to use this to adjust some numbers, similar to the position player project). Charlie Saeger has been working on this, and I plan to drop him an email later today.

One other thing, I’m hoping to have a preliminary constitution up by the end of next week, so we can discuss it, modify it, and finalize how all of this will work.

Hall of Merit: Volunteer Recruitment

I realize I’ve got myself into too many things to be able to do all the prep for “player resumes” right now, and we need to get this cranking before we lose all of the interest that was generated over the winter (over 100 people signed up to vote).

Let me preface this by saying Win Shares are not the be all end all of player evaluation. I realize people have their issues with it.

That being said they are a valuable tool towards what we are trying to evaluate here.

What I’d like to do is take my list of “players that will appear prominently on the ‘ballot’” (can’t think of a better description, since technically, anyone is eligible) and adjust their win shares to a 162 game season. This is very important for pre-1901 players (really for pre-1961-62 players).

Volunteers for this will need the Digital Win Shares Update from Stats, Inc. ($19.95). Owning one of the new Total Baseball’s (I forget which edition it is), with OF positions broken down by LF/CF/RF will help as well, but I can update that if necessary.

I’ll set up a form, and email you the spreadsheet when you volunteer. There’s probably 10-20 players at each position that we’ll need to do this for. I had almost finished the catchers, and when I swapped laptops, the file was lost (I thought I burned it to a CD, but I guess I didn’t). If we could get 9-10 people to each take a position, that would be ideal.

Then as the data comes back to me, I’ll start posting the “resumes” to this part of the site, discussion will begin and when we reach a consensus that we are ready to start voting, we’ll do that. That’s the plan anyway.

I’ll probably take the suggestions from prior threads, come up with a basic “Constitution” if you will. When that’s drafted, we’ll let people offer up suggestions for “Ammendments” and then we’ll have a structure in place.

For the “players that will appear prominently on the ‘ballot’”, I’m thinking anyone that made a Stats All-Time Handbook All-Star team at least once, or anyone ranked in Bill James top 100 lists in the New Historical Baseball Abstract. If someone isn’t in either spot, they probably have no chance at election, but just in case, I’ll add any player that a reader “requests” as well.

You can send the email for this to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Take the “NOSPAM” out of that address.

I really want to get this cranking now. It will be my number one baseball related priority from here out. I’m sorry if I’ve cried wolf on this before. Thanks for hanging in there.

Later today, the basic jist of this will be sent in an e-mail to everyone in the Hall of Merit address book as well, because I’m sure many of you have stopped looking here. I’ll probably make this a clutch hit as well.

My goal is to go no longer than one week without a new post on this part of the site.

Hall of Merit: Replacement Level for 19th Century Players

This is to extend the discussion brought up earlier on the Win Shares thread w/Craig B and I about trying to peg the replacement level for 19th Century baseball. It’s something we’ll need to do, if we want to adjust win shares for replacement level. I’ve generally considered .325 a solid number for modern times, but it could definitely be lower as baseball matured.

Does anyone have any thoughts or know of any existing studies on this issue?