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| Tommy John, pitching for the Dodgers in the 1970's. |
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| Come on, Dave Parker should be in the Hall of Fame just for this picture. |
The 2025 Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot was recently announced. The ballot focuses on players who made their impact on baseball before 1980.
Some players who are not on the ballot that I feel deserve more consideration for the Hall of Fame would be: Vada Pinson, Al Oliver, Graig Nettles, and Vida Blue. Let’s take a look at the candidates, in alphabetical order.
Dick Allen: Allen was one of the leading sluggers of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He was a controversial player during his career. Because of this, Allen was never embraced by the BBWAA writers—his highest percentage of the vote on the BBWAA ballot was 18.9% in 1996.
Allen had a short career, as his whole value was accumulated in the 11 seasons from 1964-1974. How you feel about Allen probably depends on if you like short peak guys or long career guys. With the recent election of Gil Hodges and Tony Oliva, we’ve seen two players elected who, like Allen, finished their career with fewer than 2,000 hits. Will that help Allen’s case? Allen has come very close to election recently, falling just one vote short in 2015 and 2022. I’d be fine if Allen gets into the Hall of Fame.
Ken Boyer: He was a stud at third base. Jay Jaffe’s JAWS metric ranks Boyer as the 14th best third baseman of all time. Of course, they didn’t have JAWS at the time Boyer hit the BBWAA ballot, but at that time JAWS ranked him as the 5th best third baseman, so he really should have been voted in by the BBWAA. During Boyer’s time on the BBWAA ballot, a generation of excellent third basemen came of age, headlined by Mike Schmidt and George Brett. By the time Boyer aged off the BBWAA ballot in 1994, his totals of 2,143 hits and 282 home runs didn’t seem so impressive. Boyer’s career was relatively short by Hall of Fame standards, just 2,034 games. I’d say that Boyer deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
John Donaldson: A Negro Leagues star, Donaldson pitched for more than 30 years in the Negro Leagues and semi-pro leagues. I’m no expert about the Negro Leagues, but researchers have found Donaldson winning 424 games, with 5,221 strikeouts. I’d say that’s Hall of Fame worthy, and I’m surprised that Donaldson hasn’t been elected.
Steve Garvey: I really like Steve Garvey. He has the “fame” part of the Hall of Fame down for sure. His list of awards and accomplishments is impressive: 1974 NL MVP, MVP of the 1978 and 1984 NLCS, MVP of the 1974 and 1978 All-Star games, a 10-time All-Star, 4-time Gold Glove winner at first base. Garvey was a .338 hitter in the postseason.
Garvey’s Hall of Fame Monitor score is 131. A likely Hall of Famer is 100. His Hall of Fame Standards score is 32, and an average Hall of Famer is around 50. This presents us with the paradox of Steve Garvey: he has all the accomplishments and more that one could want from a Hall of Famer, but yet somehow, he’s light on the standards. He’s really a unicorn, as it seems impossible to imagine a 10-time All-Star, MVP, and 4-time Gold Glove winner somehow falling short of the Hall of Fame.
As sabermetrics have become more and more popular, Garvey’s Hall of Fame case hasn’t received any additional momentum. Because he hardly ever walked, sabermetrics don’t help Garvey’s case for the Hall of Fame. Garvey’s excellence was summed up by the stats on the back of his baseball card: batting average and RBIs were his strengths. I haven’t read very many articles advocating for Garvey’s election to the Hall of Fame. The old-school scribes haven’t been pouring out columns about his grit, leadership, and clutch playing the way they did for Jack Morris. I feel like Garvey was overrated during his career, and now he’s been underrated by the sabermetric stats, so it’s hard to get an accurate feel for how he should be evaluated.
Using Jay Jaffe’s JAWS score, Garvey is ranked 51st in JAWS for 1st basemen. In the JAWS table on baseball-reference, you can sort it by MVP shares, where Garvey ranks 15th. This shows how highly valued Garvey was during his career. If you sort it by All-Star games Garvey is tied for 6th with Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, and Johnny Mize. (JAWS puts DHs like Ortiz at first base.) That’s pretty impressive. Personally, I’d be fine with Garvey getting into the Hall of Fame.
Vic Harris: An outfielder and manager in the Negro Leagues, Harris was a feared hitter, and as a manager he led the Homestead Grays to 8 first places finishes in the Negro National League. I’d say that’s worthy of the Hall of Fame.
Tommy John: With 288 wins, why has John not made it into the Hall of Fame yet? Yes, he was more of a workhorse than a thoroughbred. But still, John started 700 games, pitched 4,710 innings, with an ERA of 3.34. That’s amazing.
John won 20 games 3 times, and he led the league in shutouts 3 times. And, of course, he revolutionized baseball by becoming the first pitcher to undergo the surgery that now bears his name. I think Tommy John should have been in the Hall of Fame years ago, and I’m hopeful that this year he will finally get in.
Dave Parker: I would love to see the Cobra get in. Parker was such a great player, and one of the best all-around players in the game from 1975-1980. He’s one of my favorite baseball players from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Parker’s resume is impressive: he was a 7-time All-Star, a 2-time World Series champion, he won 3 Silver Sluggers and 3 Gold Gloves. He won back-to-back batting titles in 1977 and 1978, and he was the 1978 NL MVP. Parker led the league in total bases 3 times, in doubles twice, in slugging percentage twice, and he led the league in hits once and RBI’s once.
Plus, Dave Parker was simply cool. He was a 6'5" badass who had a pierced ear and wore a Star of David. His answer as to why he wore it was simple: "My name's David and I'm a star." The Hall of Fame would simply be a little cooler if Dave Parker were in it.
Luis Tiant: A talented pitcher, Tiant won 20 games 4 times, led the AL in ERA in 1968 and 1972, and led the AL in shutouts in 1966, 1968, and 1974. Why isn’t he in the Hall of Fame? I think part of the reason is bad timing.
Tiant debuted on the BBWAA ballot in 1988 and received 30.9% of the vote. That was the only time he received over 20% of the vote during his 15 years on the BBWAA ballot. Tiant was the only starting pitcher to debut on the ballot in 1988 and receive over 5% of the vote. But Tiant’s candidacy was quickly swamped by the amazing pitchers who joined the ballot after he did. Here are the starting pitchers who joined the ballot during Tiant’s 15 years and were subsequently elected to the Hall of Fame:
1989: Gaylord Perry, Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat
1994: Steve Carlton, Don Sutton
Footnote: Tommy John joined the BBWAA ballot in 1995. Like Tiant, he stayed on the BBWAA ballot for 15 years but hasn’t been elected to the Hall of Fame yet.
So, in Tiant’s 15 years on the ballot, he had to compete with 11 Hall of Fame starting pitchers. It’s an incredible generation of starting pitchers, maybe the best ever. The problem for Tiant is that in this group of 12 pitchers, Tiant comes in last in wins, with 229. He’s 25 wins below the next highest guy on the list, Jack Morris, at 254 wins.
You can argue about whether or not wins are the best way to judge a starting pitcher, but the fact that Tiant was so far below his Hall of Fame peers in wins didn’t help him at all during his years on the BBWAA ballot. What I think this data really tells us is more about how amazing this generation of pitchers was, rather than telling us that Tiant doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame. What are the odds that you’d be on the ballot for 15 years and have 11 guys with significantly more wins join the ballot? The average number of wins of these 11 Hall of Fame pitchers is 299.6, so let’s just round that up to 300. At 229 wins, Tiant is 71 wins below the average number of wins for a Hall of Fame starting pitcher during his time on the ballot. That’s a crazy statistic. I think Tiant deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, but you can see what a tough battle he faced during his time on the BBWAA ballot.
In 2024, Tiant’s career totals of 229 wins, a 3.30 ERA, 187 complete games, and 49 shutouts look at lot more impressive.
It’s very hard to predict what the committee will do. Honestly, I just hope they elect any of these candidates to the Hall of Fame. I’ll engage in some wishful thinking and predict that Tommy John and Dave Parker will finally get the call for the Hall of Fame.
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