Hall of Fame Veterans, Should Any Get In?

This December, at the Winter Meetings, the formerly called Veterans Committee, now with some other similar name, will choose among 10 candidates from the 1871-1946 era and decide whether any of them should earn a place in Cooperstown after all these years.  It's a collection of executives, managers, umpires, and players in this now once every three years for certain era format that get considered and voted on.  Now, we'll admit right up front, we're not real keen on adding lots of players to the Hall, and with the current incoming crop of potential current era players coming onto the regular ballot, including some of those PED cases, plus others, we're probably even less inclined to add.  But, that's probably unfair, so we'll take a look at the ten candidates offered and try to decide, without too much prejudice, if any deserve a spot.  So here goes.

Okay, we'll put our prejudice out with the first statement.  Too many real players who'll be entering soon, so we can't reach too far into the executive, manager, or umpire field.  So, right off the bat, we'll say no to good men Samuel Breadon (Executive), Hank O'Day (Umpire/Manager/Player), Al Reach (Executive/Player/Baseball Publisher), and Jacob Ruppert (Owner/Executive).  Some day when baseball's HOF discussion is less busy, we'll revisit their merits.

As for the six predominant players on the ballot.
Bill Dahlen - Shortstop, 1891-1911.  When he retired, he was the active career leader in Home Runs, even though hitting just 84, and is still the active leader in Games Played.  Had 2,457 hits and 1,233 RBI's.  But beyond those stats, how good was he.  Pretty darn good.  With a career PEVA of 216.119, he'd come in at #6 on the Hall of Fame list for shortstops..  And where would he sit overall, #99 in baseball's position player history, right behind Jim Rice, Goose Goslin, Willie Keeler, and just ahead of Tony Perez.  Based predominantly on how high he ranks of historic shortstops, he's in for us, and we'd vote for Dahlen to enter Cooperstown.

Wes Ferrell - Pitcher, 1927-1941.  Won 193 games.  Career PEVA of 128.949.  ERA of 4.04.  Only 8 players below him in PEVA that are in the Hall and 54 above him.  Our rule of thumb with this, pending some special circumstance of achievement, is that we vote for folks above the median line of those already in the Hall of Fame.  Ferrell's nowhere close to that.  So we vote No.

Marty Marion - Shortstop, 1940-1950, 1952-3.  NL MVP in 1944.  Under 100 career PEVA.  Only 1 shortstop, Travis Jackson in Hall under 100 PEVA.  Not for us.  Vote No.

Tony Mullane - Pitcher, 1881-1894.  Won 284 games, and 468 complete games.  Pitcher whose numbers were inflated by the era and only reached 109.564 PEVA Career Points while compatriots in his years were putting up higher.  For same reason as Ferrell.  Vote No.

Bucky Walters - Pitcher, 1934-1950.  198 wins, 3.30 ERA.  Career PEVA of 182.990, which would rank him #61 overall.  On the already in the Hall list, he'd be 35 out of 63.  Below the half way line, so we should and will vote no.  And before you say, that's unfair, consider the other pitchers near him on the PEVA list.  He's David Cone, not in the Hall.  He's Rick Rueschal, not in the Hall.  He's Dwight Gooden, not in the Hall.  We'll still vote No.

Deacon White - 3rd Base, 1871-1890.  977 RBI and 0.312 Batting Average.  PEVA of 274.720, which ranks him as the highest rated player eligible for the Hall of Fame who's not in.  Sometimes he's hard to categorize, due to the era of rare home runs and because he played so many positions.  We're listing him as a third sacker, because that's where he played the most, 827 games out of 1,622, but he also played at catcher for 458.  On the Hall of Fame list, he'd be the #5 third baseman behind Schmidt, Matthews, Brett, and Boggs, and will get passed in the future by Chipper and ARod, pending their inclusion.  There are only 11 third baseman in the Hall of Fame right now, the rarest amongst the positions.  We vote Yes.

Two new names into the Hall of Fame from the veterans for us, but we're unsure if that many will get in, or whether they'll prefer some of the non-players on the list we just can't consider right now.  Guess we'll know in December.  For more information on how Stat Geek Baseball ranks the already in Hall of Fame players, visit our Hall of Fame Ranking pages.

Hall of Fame PEVA Position Ranks