COG Round 41 Results: For Brooks No Opposition Can Stop Induction |

Brooks Robinson’s supporters fielded all concerns, defended their man, and gave Brooks enough votes to allow him to scoop up the designation as the 41st inductee in to the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Robinson and the voting after you cleanly handle the jump.

Most Career “WAR Runs Fielding” (or “RField”, baseball-reference version) in Major League history:
1. Brooks Robinson 292
2. Mark Belanger 240
3. Ozzie Smith 239
4. Andruw Jones 236
5. Roberto Clemente 204

Most Games Played at Any One Position, Major League History:
1. Brooks Robinson 2,870 games played at third base
2. Willie Mays 2,832 games played in center field
3. Barry Bonds 2,715 games played in left field
4. Omar Vizquel 2,709 games played at shortstop
5. Tris Speaker 2,691 games played in center field
6. Eddie Collins 2,650 games played at second base

(With 2,545 games played at shortstop to date, Derek Jeter is within immediate striking distance of this list if he can stay healthy and productive enough to get back to playing regularly at short)

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– The voting this round was tied between Robinson and Perry as of New Year’s night, but thereafter Brooks was named on another thirteen ballots and Perry on only five.

– Willie McCovey fell on to the bubble in the last round, but his support leaped this round and Stretch is now off the bubble again. In his four rounds so far, his support has been 23 votes, then 7 votes, then 6 votes, and now 18 votes.

– Ron Santo fell one vote short of joining McCovey in his flight off the bubble and into safety. But that one missing vote leaves him as vulnerable as ever next round.

– With Robinson’s induction in his first appearance on the ballot, with no other newcomers receiving anything more than token support, and with all the holdovers except Perry and McCovey ending up with vote totals in the status quo range between 10% and 25%, the holdover list next round will look the same as this one — but for an extra round of eligibility stored up for Perry and McCovey. Gaylord is becoming one of those guys who gets a lot of support each round but can’t seem to quite break through to induction.

Here’s the Circle of Greats membership thus far, currently in order of date of birth, from earlier to later:
Brooks Robinson
Phil Niekro
Carl Yastrzemski
Pete Rose
Ferguson Jenkins
Joe Morgan
Tom Seaver
Steve Carlton
Rod Carew
Jim Palmer
Reggie Jackson
Nolan Ryan
Johnny Bench
Carlton Fisk
Mike Schmidt
Bert Blyleven
George Brett
Gary Carter
Ozzie Smith
Robin Yount
Paul Molitor
Alan Trammell
Wade Boggs
Rickey Henderson
Tim Raines
Tony Gwynn
Cal Ripken
Roger Clemens
Randy Johnson
Barry Larkin
Barry Bonds
Tom Glavine
Greg Maddux
Curt Schilling
Larry Walker
Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas
Mike Piazza
Mike Mussina
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Mariano Rivera

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Dr. Doom

10 years ago

First of all, can you all believe we’ve done this for 41 rounds already? Insane! Thanks again, birtelcom, for a really fun project. A second thought: we have five bubble guys in this round. I’m not going to be surprised if they all manage to stay alive. The new candidates aren’t particularly strong, with only Killebrew, Drysdale, and Mazeroski in the HoF, and none of them being a particularly “inner-circle” type of player. It’s very interesting. As has been mentioned on the other thread, there are some hotly-contested elections coming up; this is a good chance for the backlog. One… Read more »

Mike HBC

Reply to Dr. Doom

I’m equally enthused by that “most games at one position” stat. Definitely a fun one that I’ve never seen before. And, though I love advanced metrics, it’s cool to see a simple stat that anyone can understand but is still thoroughly interesting.

Hub Kid

Reply to Mike HBC

I like these numbers, too, and I’ve never seen them before, but what about RF and 1B? that’s not meant to be sour grapes – I know the COG body of work is time consuming enough on its own. I appreciate seeing the counts for the 6 positions, and presume it wasn’t as meaningful or interesting at RF and 1B. I think Vizquel is the biggest surprise here, anyhow…

Author

birtelcom

Reply to Hub Kid

Most Games Played at Any One Position, Major League History: 1. Brooks Robinson 2,870 games played at third base 2. Willie Mays 2,832 games played in center field 3. Barry Bonds 2,715 games played in left field 4. Omar Vizquel 2,709 games played at shortstop 5. Tris Speaker 2,691 games played in center field 6. Eddie Collins 2,650 games played at second base 7. Luis Aparicio 2,583 games played at shortstop 8. Derek Jeter 2,545 games played at shortstop 9. Joe Morgan 2,527 games played at second base 10. Ozzie Smith 2,511 games played at shortstop 11. Rickey Henderson 2,424… Read more »

Editor

Doug

Reply to birtelcom

This season, David Ortiz will pass Harold Baines’ record 1643 games at DH.

Thank you very much, Birtelcom. Nice to see Steady Eddie show up, another feather in his cap for COG candidacy…maybe I need to consider voting for him again.

and hooray for the DH numbers, with a bonus Big Papi mention, Doug.

Bryan O'Connor

Born before Molitor: 1. Morgan, 2b 2. Schmidt, dh 3. Yaz, lf 4. Reggie, rf 5. Bench, c 6. Brett, 1b 7. Yount, cf 8. Brooks, 3b 9. Ozzie, ss Seaver/Carlton/Fergie/Blyleven/Palmer, with Niekro in relief and Ryan closing Carter, Fisk, Rose, and Carew on the bench Born after Molitor: 1. Rickey, lf 2. Bonds, rf 3. Hurt, dh 4. Griffey, cf 5. Bagwell, 1b 6. Piazza, c 7. Boggs, 3b 8. Ripken, ss 9. Larkin, 2b Clemens/Maddux/Unit/Schilling/Mussina, with Glavine in relief and Mo closing Walker, Gwynn, Raines, and Trammell on the bench I’ll take the young guys. What they lack… Read more »

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Very nice. Would be very interesting to put these teams in a simulator and see what happens. Poor Paul Molitor, the dividing line, doesn’t get to play.

jeff hill

With the 4th most RField ever, is Andruw Jones a HoFame worthy player? He’s equal to Ozzie in fielding but a much more productive hitter overall. Thoughts…

Reply to jeff hill

There shouldn’t be any doubt of Jones’ Hall worthiness. Combining his counting stats with his defense, he seems like a slam dunk. Yet, I suspect some will criticize Andruw more for what he failed to achieve, than praise him for what he did accomplish. Jones is one of only 7 outfielders with 300 HR and 1000 RBI before age 30 (the others are Griffey, Aaron, Ott, Robinson, Mantle and Gonzo). But, Andruw unfortunately compiled a 92+ OPS+ in over 2000 PAs aged 30+. Only Lloyd Waner (95) also had an OPS+ under 100 among HOF outfielders with 2000+ PA aged… Read more »

Reply to Doug

I agree completely, Doug. His 126 Hall Rating is 11th among CFs, ahead of Ashburn and a handful of lesser Hall of Famers. His peak was not just HoF, it was inner circle.

That Hall Rating also behind Lofton and Beltran, who’s probably not a slam dunk given the current standards. By the time Jones hits the ballot, his years of dominance may be a distant memory to voters, while his ugly Yankee years will still be relatively recent. I could see him falling short of 5% his first year.