Barry Bonds wins induction as the fifth member of the Circle of Greats, appearing on 55 of 88 ballots. No one else appeared on more than 30 ballots this round. More on Bonds and the voting after the jump. Continue reading
This post is for voting and discussion of the fifth round of voting for the Circle of Greats, which adds players born in 1964. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading
Frank Thomas, The Big Hurt, capped strong showings in each of our COG votes so far with a solid victory, appearing on 52 of 79 ballots cast to earn induction. More on Thomas, and the voting, after the jump. Continue reading
This post is for voting and discussion of the fourth round of voting for the Circle of Greats, which adds players born in 1965. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading
As expected, Greg Maddux was the winner of this round by an enormous margin, essentially by acclamation, and becomes the third Circle of Greats inductee, joining Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell.
–Our first three inductees collectively generated 232.3 career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) (b-ref version) in the NL and -0.1 WAR in the AL.
–Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander were rather clearly the two greatest NL pitchers over the 1900 to 1930 period. Since then, 1930-2012, its seems to me a very close call for “Best Pitching Career in the NL” between Seaver and Maddux. Maddux may get a slight edge, with Seaver having spent a few of his late, but still productive, years over in the AL. What do you think? Tom and Greg did have somewhat contrasting styles: Seaver more the strikeout pitcher, Maddux more the contact/groundball guy, though really they were both great all-around. Both had spectacular peaks as well as long-term value, and were also respected as individuals. More election result details after the jump.
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At the end of this post is a table of the major league players who have been known as “Cliff”, listed in descending order of career WAR (total WAR for position players, pitching WAR for pitchers). Continue reading
This post is the spot for voting and discussion of the third round of voting for the Circle of Greats, which adds players born in 1966. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading
After a seesaw battle with Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell won induction as the second member of the Circle of Greats, joining Mike Piazza. Bagwell played his last game in 2005, completing what was then perhaps the greatest career at first base in modern National League history. After the jump, you’ll find a table of the top NL WAR totals for 1900 through 2005 by guys who played at least half their career games at first base. Continue reading
This post starts off the second round of voting for the Circle of Greats, which brings in players born in 1967. As before, your ballot must include three and only three eligible players. The one player who appears on the most ballots cast in this voting round is inducted into the Circle of Greats. Players who appear on half or more of the ballots cast win four future rounds of ballot eligibility. Any other player in the top 8 in votes (or who appears on at least 20% of the ballots) wins one additional round of ballot eligibility. Continue reading
Deacon White, voted into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame less than two weeks ago, was professional baseball’s first “greatest-ever hitting catcher”. From 1871 through 1879, which was White’s final season before shifting to other positions, the following (after the jump) were the top career Batting WAR numbers (or as it is referred to in various places in the baseball-reference Play Index, “WAR Runs Batting”, “runs_bat”, “Rbat” or “the number of runs better or worse than average the player was as a batter”) for players who had played at least half their games at the catcher position: Continue reading