The Grey Area Hall of Fame?

[DoubleX]

Anyone interested in creating a list of the also-rans? The players that have not been inducted into Cooperstown and are either waiting to get through the VC or are waiting to get to the point of being eligible for the VC (like Keith Hernandez)? I think it would be neat to compile a running and expanding list of who we think are the best of the next group (some of which should undoubtedly be in the Hall anyway). What do you guys think?

[leecemark]

--Of guys better than most (in some cases all) the players listed on the current "VC Mistakes" thread I've got the following (off the top of my head);
--C: Freehan, Torre, Simmons, Schang, Bennett, Munson, Parrish, Howard
--1B: Allen, Hernandez, Mattingly, Hodges, Cash
--2B: Gordon, Grich, Whitaker
--3B: Santo (clearly better than ALL those guys), Hack, Boyer, Nettles, Rosen, Evans, Ceys......well the mistakes at 3B are so bad and the inductees so few I could go on for awhile
--SS: Trammell, Dahlen, Conception, Campaneris
--LF: Magee, Minoso, Rice
--CF: Murphy, Wynn, Lynn, Pinson, Berger, Oliver, RSmith
--RF: Dawson, Evans, Parker, Oliva, Colavito
--P: Blyleven, Gossage, Sutter, Mays, Tiant, Kaat, John, Morris, Marberry, Bridges, WFerrell
--I don't endorse all these players. The grey area, however, isn't going to be all guys who should be in. Better than the mistakes, but not in, seems like a reasonable starting point for establishing the grey area (with some of these being so dark grey as to be impossible to distinguish from black).

[Fuzzy Bear]

--Of guys better than most (in some cases all) the players listed on the current "VC Mistakes" thread I've got the following (off the top of my head);
--C: Freehan, Torre, Simmons, Schang, Bennett, Munson, Parrish, Howard
--1B: Allen, Hernandez, Mattingly, Hodges, Cash
--2B: Gordon, Grich, Whitaker
--3B: Santo (clearly better than ALL those guys), Hack, Boyer, Nettles, Rosen, Evans, Ceys......well the mistakes at 3B are so bad and the inductees so few I could go on for awhile
--SS: Trammell, Dahlen, Conception, Campaneris
--LF: Magee, Minoso, Rice
--CF: Murphy, Wynn, Lynn, Pinson, Berger, Oliver, RSmith
--RF: Dawson, Evans, Parker, Oliva, Colavito
--P: Blyleven, Gossage, Sutter, Mays, Tiant, Kaat, John, Morris, Marberry, Bridges, WFerrell
--I don't endorse all these players. The grey area, however, isn't going to be all guys who should be in. Better than the mistakes, but not in, seems like a reasonable starting point for establishing the grey area (with some of these being so dark grey as to be impossible to distinguish from black).

The gray area is best defined as the range of accomplishment in which some players are in the HOF while others with comparable, even similar accomplishments are not in the HOF. That's Bill James' definition, and it's pretty workable, even if you don't buy into all of his concepts.

This is actually a good list, in that it represents the entire range of the gray area. At the top of the gray area would be players whom many similar players would be HOFers. At the bottom would be players who are better than some other HOFers, but most similar players are NOT in the HOF.

[RuthMayBond]

----SS: Trammell, Dahlen, Conception, Campaneris

--P: Blyleven, Gossage, Sutter, Mays, Tiant, Kaat, John, Morris, Marberry, Bridges, WFerrell.

I might prefer Fernandez over Campy,
McCormick, Mullane, Leonard over Morris..

[DoubleX]

I'd like to thank Mark for being the one and only person who was interested enough to respond to this thread almost 10 months ago. I'm amazed that it has managed to resurface.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Notice the gray area for outfielders. You have a couple of sluggers, but most of the outfielders are broad-based skills guys; guys who had many skills, but none so outstanding as to threaten to cross any of the big milestones. Plus, many of their careers were a bit short for injuries, or other reasons.