Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hall of Fame Committee suggestions

This is a post to kickoff discussions on forming a Hall of Fame committee to supplement what WIS is implementing at some point in the future. Bribar sent a ticket to WIS to find out the status. Here's the response Bribar got to his ticket:

"We will use the same rules as in real life. When we have the structure in place we will be looking at every player in all of the worlds that ever played so everything will be covered."

First, a key rule from "real life" is that a player must have played in each of ten Major League seasons. So I'll first suggest that any player who plays ten years in HBD is excluded from consideration by our committee. This is debatable; a guy who plays from age 31 through 40 in HBD might not have the stats to get in, but as long as another real life rule being carried over to HBD is the voting process, the owners as a whole will be able to have a say.

Second, I'll suggest that a player must play at least five seasons to be eligible. I can't see putting a guy in to our HoF who only played his last few seasons before retiring. It's just impossible to project such a short time playing over a whole career. I could see making the minimum four instead of five, but not any lower.

Third, a player must be retired but need not be retired for five years before we vote. As far as I know, that five-year period is to ensure a guy is really retired and not coming back. We don't have that risk in HBD--retired means retired.

Fourth, I'll suggest that the committee's role be limited to identifying the eligible players, projecting career stats, and making an argument for and against each eligible player's enshrinement. Then we take the eligible players to a vote, with a percentage of all votes required to enshrine. If it is 75%, it isn't necessarily 24 votes for. If only 20 people bother to vote, than 15 votes gets a guy in.

Last, I'll also suggest we consider a future addition of coaches and owners to the Hall of Fame. At least for owners, we should have some baseline requirements. Something like a minimum of 10 (15? 20?) years of ownership, and maybe something related to wins, playoff appearances, or titles, but I'm not sure about that. I don't know that I'd want something that excludes somebody like jenningss, who has been a loyal and hardworking owner who just hasn't found the right formula or caught the right breaks yet.

Thoughts?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

All-Stars by the numbers

Total number of individual all-star selections: 480 (30 per league per year)

Teams with 25 or more selections:

Athletics (40)
Giants (32)
Mets (31)
Indians (30)
Astros (28)
Cubs (27)
Royals (27)

Teams with fewer than 10 selections:

Reds (9) (seven in last four seasons)
Twins (9) (no player more than once)
Cardinals (8) (no player more than once)
Orioles (7) (no player more than once)
Blue Jays (3) (two this year)
Mounties (3) (two this year)
Nationals (3) (none in first five seasons, one per year since)
Dodgers (2) (none in first six seasons, one per year since)
Phillies (2) (both in Season 1)

Teams with most pitchers selected:

Giants (17)
Indians (17)
Athletics (16)
Mets (14)
Rays (14)
Royals (11)
Brewers (10)

Teams with most position players selected:

Athletics (24)
Astros (20)
Cubs (18)
Mets (17)
Red Sox (16)
Royals (16)
Giants (15)

Teams with most unique players selected:

Athletics (19)
Cubs (17)
Mets (16)
Pirates (15)
Brewers (14)
Giants (14)
Red Sox (13)

Players selected to 6 or more All-Star Teams:

Greg Stewart (8) (all as AL P)
Todd Linebrink (7) (all as AL SS)
Al Alvarez (6) (all as NL C)
Bob Wall (6) (three as NL P, three as AL P)
Chuck Rigdon (6) (all as NL P)
Cliff Simms (6) (all as NL P)
Gabe Brooks (6) (all as AL P)
Jorge Zapata (6) (three as NL RF, three as NL 1B)
Ralph Ryan (6) (all as NL P)
Wes White (6) (all as AL P)

Players who have been All-Stars five or more consecutive seasons:

Greg Stewart (8) (Seasons 1-8)
Todd Linebrink (7) (Seasons 2-8)
Gabe Brooks (6) (Seasons 3-8)
Jorge Zapata (6) (Seasons 3-8)
Ralph Ryan (6) (Seasons 2-7)
Joe Linden (5) (Seasons 4-8)
Theodore Haney (5) (Seasons 4-8)

Players who have been All-Stars for three different teams:

Bob Wall (Dukes, Angels, Orioles)
Brandon Canseco (Pirates, Brewers, Royals)
Cliff Simms (Pirates, Mets, Padres)
Wally Hunter (Rangers, Dukes, Angels)

Players who have been All-Stars in both leagues:

Bob Wall
Brandon Canseco
Chuck Hoover
Darryl Whitaker
Gerald Daly
Joe Linden
Luis Lopez
Mark Moore
Raymond Cambridge
Ricardo Castro
Shawn Becker
Tom Dickerson
Wally Hunter
Willie Santana

Player who has been an All-Star at three different positions:

McKay Woods (LF, RF, 3B)