THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

My personal favorite, Brian Downing, had too many WAR to meet that criteria.  But nobody outside of sabermetrics would have ever known it.  He got as much consideration for HOF as if he were similar to Kuiper or Smalley.

I could also go with Willie McGee.

For me, Bobby Murcer, simply because my best friend at the time was really excited by Murcer’s return to the Yankees (I was ten).  You can’t get more irrational than that.  Murcer had a unique career for a Yankee, coming onto the team after their dynasty-ending 1964 World Series loss, then playing for a long time for the team but somehow missing the two years they won a World Series between 1962 and 1996, though he played for the team before and after those two years.

Buddy Bell had to be every bit as good as Brooks Robinson. Never seen 3B played like that since. WAR is probably too high but zero chance for HOF.

My two favorites were Rickey (113 WAR) and Mike Gallego (13.5 WAR).

Mike ("Pags") Pagliarulo was the 3B for the Yankees when I was growing up in the mid-80’s when the Yanks were terrible.  He had a cool nickname, wore a mustache, got his uniform dirty every day, made some great diving plays down the line, never hit over .240 in his 6 years with the Yanks and had some power.

Frank White.

A sprinter who came up through the Royals Baseball Academy and ended up batting cleanup in the World Series.

A great example of hard work and dedication to get to a high level of play. The best range of any 2B I’ve ever seen. 

And never a hint of anything negative about him. Just went out and played hard every day.

I’m sorry, I know this is off topic, but why was there no DH used in the 85 WS?

Greg Maddux (97 WAR) and Fernando Valenzuela (38 WAR)/ Mike Marshall (10 WAR).

Mike Marshall always looked like he did not belong. He was very tall and looked very awkward at the plate. Had a very good arm but every flyball was an adventure. As a kid i thought if he made it, so could i.

Dodger fan growing up… then the only games on my TV were cubs games… loved Harry Caray and Greg Maddux became my favorite athlete, in any sport.

They alternated by year, and it was a huge story in the 80s.  That’s why they went to the “home park” rule.

Shawon Dunston, loved seeing the Shawon-o-meter on WGN everyday.  Loved him though it seemed I waited every year for him to stay healthy and break out as a superstar as Harry always promised he would.  Still, I remember having some ignorant debates with a friend about Sandberg/Dunston vs. Oquendo/Smith.  Unlike Poz, my feelings towards Dunston were greatly diminished as I began to understand how great his flaws were.  Also doesn’t help that he played for five other major league franchises after leaving the Cubs.  Worse, he had to play for the Cardinals and Mets.

Boyd and Lee, Tom?  Was Vermont blasting signals from RSN up to you?  I like colorful pitchers, too.  But if I had to choose one for this exercise, it would be Fidrych.

I love topics like this.

I was spoiled by having a very good team to root for in my formative years as a fan--most of my favorites were really good (Lofton, Manny, Thome, even Julio Franco).  Rickey Henderson and Barry Bonds from other teams.

When I was a little older, it would have to be Dave Burba, and he qualifies.

As a Phillies fan just getting into baseball in the late 70’s, no one gets close to Mike Schmidt but in neighborhood pickup games I loved to play second base and pretend I was Manny Trillo.

Pete Incaviglia! (8.5 WAR)

Among the hometown nine, definitely Jody Reed. (11.5 WAR)

My favorite Twin as a kid was Cesar Tovar (27.3 WAR).  Nobody was more useful than Tovar who could and did play every position (he even pitched an inning).

Sorry to bring up batting average, but if you would have asked me 10 minutes ago how many times Dave Bergman hit .300 in his career, I would have said probably somewhere between two and four.  Fact is, after looking him up, he never even sniffed it.

I loved him, though...Him and Larry Herndon.

Eric Davis

Bill Madlock and Ed Ott are the guys for me.

One day while taking batting practice with my father he instructed me to “stop swinging like Willie Stargell and start swinging like Bill Madlock.” Almost 30 years on, I can still vividly remember him telling me “short and quick” over and over. From that day forward, Bill Madlock was my favorite player.

My grandfather had an Nazi helmet that he brought back from WWII. The name “Ott” was written on the lining inside the helmet. Don’t know why, but that somehow connected me to Ed Ott.

Edgardo Alfonzo (28.3 WAR)

I’ll go for current SEC referee and former Braves catcher, Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce Benedict (7.1 WAR in 12 seasons).

Lenny Dykstra.  41.4 WAR, just above lesser players like Don Mattingley.

David Justice - 39.5 WAR.

Steve Avery - 11.3 WAR.

Plus Maddux and Glavine and McGriff, of course.

@J. Cross: Holy crap! Dykstra had 41.4 WAR in just 5230 plate appearances? That’s nuts!

Bo Jackson - 7.8 WAR

Lance Johnson - 28.6

Rusty Staub (48.7 WAR)

Always my favorite player and while I never thought of him as a HoF caliber player I do consider him a sort of a HoF litmus test.  In my mind a player gets serious HoF consideration if and only if he is clearly better than Staub.

Kelly Gruber (14.5 WAR).

His career was cut short by injury, but he was the first Blue Jay to hit for the cycle (trivial I suppose, but it seemed like a big deal then), and he delivered a huge HR in game 3 of the 1992 WS. He seemed like a great team player, and he was charismatic and just very memorable somehow. The team brought together a number of players from ‘92 and ‘93 last season to celebrate the WS championships, and Gruber was all over the place, interviewing players, announcing the game over the PA, wearing colourful shirts. One of the players whom it was fun to cheer for when the Jays were full of them.

I also remember him sporting a fantastic mullet, but I don’t want to look that up for fear of being corrected and losing the memory.

If I’m a Jays fan, I’m also thinking Tom Henke…

I thought Henke would be too good for this list, but 23.1 WAR. Not bad for 790 innings though.

Terry Pendleton - 26 WAR

I’ve got Tom Henke as 4th all time in WAR/9 IP among relievers. The dude was just… awesome.

http://darowski.com/baseballtwit/the-war-on-relief-pitchers/

Read your article; I’m having difficulty wrapping my head around WAR/9. Henke is 0.26, but Blyleven is 0.16. Mariano is 0.41, but Pedro is 0.24. Because of the leverage, I suppose? Not sure it’s a fair comparison to neutralize the innings pitched but not the leverage.

Closers, by default, will have much better WAR/9 IP than starters. Leverage index goes into WAR, and ace relievers will always pitch in higher leverage situations than starters. Starters will get a 1.0, which is what the LI is at the start of the game.

I’ve been trying to figure out for years how to quantify the fact that a reliever could even be a Hall of Famer compared with a starter. The inning discrepancy is so big. Factoring the leverage index into those innings is how you can see (for example) Rich Gossage’s career value is on par with that of Lou Brock, a Hall of Fame offensive player.

I’d never use WAR/9 IP to compare starters to relievers. I’d only use it to compare reliever to reliever.

Otto Velez (+9).

Dave Stieb, of course, comes in too high.

Will Clark was just a little bit too good (57), so I guess I’ll have to go with Ron Gant (33), thanks mostly to his 1993 season (36 homers and 117 RBI) when my 11-year old self was madly in love with the Atlanta Braves.  But Mark Lemke is a close second.

For me it’s Glenallen Hill because of the freakin’ BOMB he hit onto the roof across the street in LF at Wrigley. What a beast of a HR.

Great question. 

I guess I gotta go with Manny Mota and Jay Johnstone.  Both were good pinch hitters, and Jay Johnstone was funny as heck.

I think I’m showing my age here:  Harvey Kuenn.  I don’t know how many WAR he had, but he was damn good w/the Tigers, leading off and playing SS.

"If I’m a Jays fan, I’m also thinking Tom Henke… “

Well, for this Jays fan, there was only one answer...and as a kid I no doubt thought he was worth a lot more than 16 wins over his career… Sigh

Jerry Grote (12.4), Cleon Jones (17.5), and Tommy Agee (23.2).  Lynchpins of the 1969 Amazing Mets!

Gotta go with Brad Radke.  I’ve always been a sucker for right handed pitchers with changeups good enough to throw to right handed batters.  I also liked him because his HR heavy style seemed to give him a bad reputation around minnesota.  Also, his last year he pitched with a broken shoulder, and still got good results while throwing (from what I remember) as slow as any right-hander in the game.  He also always seemed to come up big in big games, but, again, memories can be deceiving.

I don’t know where to look up the WAR, but Keith Hernandez was by far my fav.  At a time when Mattingly, Stawberry and Gooden dominated New York and the headlines, Keith was cool.  Plus when you looked at the back of his card, all he led the league in was walks and game winning RBI!

As I got older I took up the angry black player as my favorite - I love Albert Belle, Frank Thomas, Bonds, Milton Bradley et. al.  (I call it the Dick Allen branch)

I would always argue, I’ll take all the discontent, anti-social guys and you take your lovable scrappy white middle infielder/Rex Hudler types and I will stomp your team into submission!

http://www.baseballprojection.com/war/h/hernk001.htm

Hernandez is far too good.

Jeff Cirillo (33 WAR, 5.9 best season).  I’ve been wishcasting rebound seasons for him since 2001.

Jay Bell (34.9) and Bob Walk (5.9).

As a 1975-born Mets fan, my two favorites were Gary Carter (66) and They’re-Not-Booing-They’re-Saying-Moooooooookie! Wilson (20).  Favorite not-my-team guy was Ozzie Smith (65).

Darnell Coles -2.2 rWAR.  I loved him because in 89 I tried to get Ken Griffey Jr to sign my glove after a game and was totally snubbed, Coles walked right up to me after that happened and not only offered to sign my glove but chit chat about baseball.  Also Harold Reynolds, because he lived next door to one of my best friends growing up, and was actually decent (I thought he was great).  After that Edgar, and that’s not fair, that was only in contract to Junior and Randy, even though Edgar was my favorite from 95 on.

Ugh.  Contract = Contrast