Roberto Alomar finished fifth in our very first Circle of Greats voting round, back in December, 2012: COG Round 1 and COG Round 1 Results . In this his 63rd round of eligibility Alomar at last, albeit with a runoff victory needed, wins induction into the COG, as our 84th inductee. More on Robbie and the voting after the jump.
Most Career Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, baseball-reference formula) By A Second Basemen Through Age 33 Season
1, Rogers Hornsby 119.6
2. Eddie Collins 92.4
3. Joe Morgan 80.5
4. Nap Lajoie 76.3
4. Roberto Alomar 67.0
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Most Career Post-Season Hits By a Second Baseman
1. Roberto Alomar 72
2. Mark Lemke 63
3. Frankie Frisch 49
T4. Jeff Kent and Robinson Cano 45
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Most Career Regular Season Hits By a Second Baseman, 1914-2014
1. Charlie Gehringer 2,800
2. Roberto Alomar 2,692
3. Nellie Fox 2,650
4. Joe Morgan 2,489
5. Lou Whitaker 2,336
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Jackie Robinson, Age 28 Through 33 Seasons: 3,333 ABs, 1,060 H, 149 SB, 235 2B+3B, .895 OPS
Roberto Alomar, Age 28 Through 33 Seasons: 3,336 ABs, 1,060 H, 150 SB, 240 2B+3B, .893 OPS
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Most Wins Above Average As a Blue Jays Second Baseman
1. Roberto Alomar 11.7
2. Orlando Hudson 6.3
3. Aaron Hill 4.4
Most Wins Above Average As a Padres Second Baseman
T1. Roberto Alomar amd Mark Loretta 5.9
3. Bip Roberts 4.4
Most Wins Above Average As an Indians Second Baseman
1. Nap Lajoie 53.9
2. Terry Turner 13.4
3. Roberto Alomar 13.1
Most Wins Above Average As a Browns/Orioles Second Baseman
1. Bobby Grich 24.3
2. Brian Roberts 9.0
3. Del Pratt 7.7
T4. Roberto Alomar and Davey Johnson 6.3
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Notes on this round’s voting:
–Alomar becomes the fifth player born in 1968 to be inducted into the Circle of Greats, joining Mikes Piazza and Mussina, and birthday sharers Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas.
–Alomar and Joe Cronin each appeared on 21 of the 62 ballots cast in the regular voting this round. Robbie had never appeared on as many as a third of the ballots in any of his previous 62 rounds of eligibility.
–Interesting that voter turnout increased in the runoff: 62 ballots were cast in the regular voting, while 66 ballots were cast in the runoff. Also interesting that unlike in our previous runoffs, which have themselves been extremely close votes, Alomar’s victory over Cronin in the runoff this round was fairly substantial. A significant number of voters, once he got as far as a runoff, seem to have decided that Robbie had paid his COG dues.
–Since we added five candidates to the eligibility list by way of the most recent set of redemption rounds, the number of holdovers has been quite large and seemingly headed toward some imminent culling. That process finally occurred in earnest this round, as two of the recent redemption returnees, David Cone and Don Drysdale, fell below the 10% level needed to remain on the ballot. And Jim Edmonds, who had earned his way on to the holdover list in the 1970 regular balloting, also fell short this time and loses his eligibility as well. So we will net drop from 18 holdovers this round to 15 in the next round.
–Robbie Alomar of course also drops off the holdover list, having now been inducted, but he’ll be replaced by Red Ruffing, who received seven votes in his first appearance on the ballot, just enough to remain as a holdover. Another 1905 birth year guy, Bob Johnson, received some solid support in the voting but fell a couple of votes short of the total necessary to return.
–Eddie Murray, like Alomar a very long-term holdover, had one of his strongest showings ever, appearing on 17 ballots this round. For a while Eddie looked like a strong threat to win the round. He did appear on more than 25% of the ballots, earning an increase from three to four rounds of guaranteed eligibility. Joe Cronin, who looked like the winner this round until the last few hours of the regular voting, also topped the 25% support level and earns an increase from two to three rounds of guaranteed eligibility.
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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s regular vote tally is here: COG 1905 Vote Tally. The runoff tally is here: COG 1905 Runoff Tally
Three spreadsheets provide past vote totals for previous COG rounds, and related information about past COG voting. The newest such spreadsheet, which will collect votes from this Round 83 on, is here: COG Vote Summary 3 . Spreadsheets showing results from previous COG rounds are here: COG Vote Summary/Rounds 1 through 37 and here: COG Vote Summary Rounds 38 through 82 . In all three of these archive spreadsheets, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1; click on the Sheet 2 tab to see the percentage vote totals for each past round.
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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some stats for each member, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . Hitters are on Sheet 1, pitchers are on Sheet 2. You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.
Another COG data spreadsheet showing each season a COG member played in the majors, along with the team he played for that season and his baseball-reference WAR (overall WAR for everyday players, pitching WAR for pitchers) for the season, is here:Circle of Greats Seasons
