Despite a nickname unlikely to be seen again in the major leagues anytime soon, Pee Wee Reese edged Kenny Lofton in this past week’s voting to win election as the 69th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Reese and the voting after the jump.
Most WAR (“WAR”, baseball-reference.com version) in MLB, 1940-1959, Position Players
1. Stan Musial 118.7
2. Ted Williams 113.3
3. Mickey Mantle 67.5
4. Pee Wee Reese 66.3
5. Lou Boudreau 62.1
Most Wins Above Replacement in the NL, 1940-1959, Position Players
1. Stan Musial 118.7
2. Pee Wee Reese 66.3
3. Jackie Robinson 61.5
4. Duke Snider 60.8
5. Willie Mays 58.7
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Most WAR for the Dodgers Franchise (Total WAR for everyday players, Pitching WAR for pitchers)
1. Pee Wee Reese 66.3
2. Duke Snider 65.9
3. Dazzy Vance 61.6
4. Jackie Robinson 61.5
5. Don Drysdale 61.2
6. Zack Wheat 59.7
7. Willie Davis 54.4
8. Sandy Koufax 53.2
9. Ron Cey 47.5
10. Gil Hodges 44.3
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Reese and fellow Circle inductees Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider were regulars together in the Dodgers lineup from 1949 through 1956, an eight-year period during which Brooklyn won five NL pennants and put together an overall .622 regular season winning percentage. Over the ten seasons 2005 through 2014 only two teams have managed to sustain a winning percentage that high for even a single season (the 2009 Yankees and the 2011 Phillies).
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Notes on this round’s voting:
–A lazy summer holiday week brought us the lowest vote total we’ve seen in 15 rounds, but that didn’t prevent some interesting developments, including the narrow, two-vote margin separating Reese from Kenny Lofton.
–It was a a good round for guys trying to get off the “bubble”. Harmon Killebrew, Kevin Brown and Lou Boudreau all appeared on over 25% of the ballots cast this round. They each now have a round of stored eligibility allowing them each to survive a possible bad round in the future. The total number of “bubble” guys thus declines dramatically from seven to four. Killebrew received his highest vote total, in any of his 22 rounds on the ballot, with 18 votes this round, topping the 17 he’d received in his first appearance on the ballot and again last round.
–Enos Slaughter was one of the few guys we’ve seen receive as many as five votes in his first ballot appearance but not get up to the seven or eight votes generally needed to return to the ballot. I believe Don Drysdale, Hal Hewhouser, Ken Boyer, Trevor Hoffman, Dale Murphy, Andre Dawson and Dave Stieb (who received 8 votes in a round in which 81 were cast) are the only other one-ballot-and-out guys to get at least five votes in their single ballot appearance.
–Now that Reese is in the COG, and with Slaughter falling short of holdover-level support, we’ll be down to eleven holdovers next round. A redemption round, to select some names to add to that holdover list, is definitely needed soon — and will be run simultaneously with the 1914 balloting.
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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1916 Round 2 Vote Tally.
The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 . An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary . In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.
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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . 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.
