For the second round in a row, Circle of Greats voters wasted no time inducting a player who the baseball writers voting on Hall of Fame candidates had egregiously overlooked. Following the example of Johnny Mize last round, Arky Vaughan had no problem gathering well more than enough support to become, in his first round of eligibility, the 74th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Arkansas native Joseph Floyd Vaughan, and the voting, after the jump.
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Who was the most valuable player in the major leagues over the nine-season period preceding the Pearl Harbor attack that led to the U.S. entry into World War II? A close question.
Most Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, baseball-reference version), 1933-1941
1. Arky Vaughan 60.1
2. Jimmie Foxx 60.0
3. Mel Ott 58.5
4. Charlie Gehringer 52.4
5. Lefty Grove 48.7 (pitching and batting WAR combined)
6. Carl Hubbell 46.4 (pitching and batting WAR combined)
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Highest OPS in A Season By a Shortstop (min. 50 games played at short)
1. Arky Vaughan (1935) 1.098
2. Alex Rodriguez (1996) 1.045
3. Nomar Garciaparra (2000) 1.033
4. Alex Rodriguez (2000) 1.026
5. Nomar Garciaparra (1999) 1.022
Highest OPS+ in a Season By a Shortstop (min. 50 games played at short)
1. Honus Wagner (1908) 205
2. Arky Vaughan (1935) 190
3. Honus Wagner (1904) 188
4. Honus Wagner (1907) 187
5. Honus Wagner (1909) 177
6. Honus Wagner (1905) 175
Arky’s 190 OPS+ in 1935 came in his age 23 season. The only hitters ever to have one or more OPS+ seasons that high at age 23 or younger (min. 400 PAs) have been Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Arky Vaughan.
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How many MLB players in history generated more career Wins Above Average (“WAA”, baseball-reference version) while playing shortstop than Arky Vaughan? Arky generated just about 45 WAA, of his total career 47.3 WAA, as a shortstop. Late in his career he had a few seasons playing almost entirely other positions, which account for about 1.3 of his overall career WAA. And in 1943 he played about a third of his games at third base, so take another 0.8 WAA or so off his career total. Other than that, he was at shortstop in almost all the games he played, so about 45 WAA over those games.
Only Honus Wagner, Cal Ripken, A-Rod and George Davis, among players who spent a significant portion of their career at short, had more overall career WAA than the 45 WAA we are attributing to Arky’s career at short. But A-Rod produced only about 44.5 of his career WAA before he moved to the Yankees and ended the shortstop part of his career. That puts him just below Arky in terms of WAA actually generated at short. George Davis was primarily a shortstop only from ages 26 through 36, seasons during which he produced only about 35 of his career WAA. That only leaves Honus Wagner and Cal Ripken as having clearly generated more Wins Above Average than Arky Vaughan at the shortstop position across MLB history.
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Vaughan’s family left Arkansas when he was an infant, and his home state almost his entire life was California, but “Arky” he was, so this list seems fair to include here:
Most Career WAR By An Arkansas-Born Player, By Primary Position
C Sherm Lollar
1B Tommy McCraw
2B Aaron Ward
3B Brooks Robinson
SS Arky Vaughan
LF Lou Brock
CF Willie Davis
RF Floyd Robinson
SP Cliff Lee
SP Dizzy Dean
SP Lon Warneke
SP Preacher Roe
RP Ellis Kinder
A real All-Arkansas team would surely put Torii Hunter in right field ahead of Floyd Robinson, although Hunter’s position in his prime was center. Similarly, there are many Arkansans we would surely move to first base head of McCraw, although they were not first baseman: George Kell or Travis Jackson, Rick Monday or Kevin McReynolds…. Indeed, Travis Jackson would surely be more valuable at second base (where he did play one game in the majors) than Aaron Ward. If you could fit Jackson in at second and Kell at first, along with Hunter in right, you’d have a heck of a lineup pretty much all the way through.
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Hall of Famers Who Were Youngest When They Died:
Ross Youngs, age 30
Addie Joss, age 31
Ed Delahanty, age 35
King Kelly, age 36
Rube Waddell, age 37
Lou Gehrig, age 37
Roberto Clemente, age 38
Arky Vaughan, aqe 40
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Notes on this round’s voting:
–Vaughan this round and Mize last round won with very similar levels of voting support, 47 votes for Mize last round and 44 for Vaughan this time. These two guys have the highest career WAR numbers of any player in the Hall of Fame who debuted in the majors after 1900 and had to be elected by the Veterans Committee instead of the BBWAA.
–Voters named Kevin Brown on 19 ballots, the most support he’s ever received in one round. It was enough to gain him an extra round of eligibility to add to his collection. Brown, Harmon Killebrew (also over 25% support again) and Whitey Ford were tightly bunched in second place behind Arky this round.
–Seven votes were cast for guys born in 1912 who were very long shots for the Circle of Greats, more votes for such “favorite son” candidates than we’ve had the last few rounds.
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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1912 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.
The newest 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
