3 Best Lefties Not in the HOF

[yanks0714]

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I wanna fill out a 8 team league HOF roster for simulation. Need 3 lefties to complement the 13 already in the HOF.

[RuthMayBond]

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I wanna fill out a 8 team league HOF roster for simulation. Need 3 lefties to complement the 13 already in the HOF.

Using rate stats:
John Franco (if including relievers)
Noodles Hahn
Jimmy Key
Hippo Vaughn

Using career:
Wilbur Cooper
Tommy John
Jimmy Key

[Bothrops Atrox]

Assuming no relievers, I'd be okay with Pierce, John, and Cooper. RuthMayBond's choices of Key and Vaughn are good picks too. Don't forget Kaat and Guidry as well. A few others to chew on are: Brecheen, Koosman, Tanana, and Finley.

[Ubiquitous]

Two Cubbies
Hippo Vaughn
Larry French

Unfortunately for French the war came along and his chance to pad his numbers a bit vanished. The guy was a horse

[Los Bravos]

Kaat and Finley.

Two names I bring up, a lot. Jim's a HOFer, for me. Chuck's not quite that high, but I used to watch him a lot, especially when he was with the Angels, just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

[lovethegame]

Gid ,Kaat and Tanana would work for me
Tanana was the most interesting,imo, he went from fireballer(Ryan ,Tanana and some other banana) to a successful junkballer

[dgarza]

Probably Pierce and Guidry, then round it out with either Vaughn or Cooper.

I'd like to throw Larry Corcoran (kind of), David Wells, and Jesse Tannehill out there as well.

[leecemark]

--Tony Mullane?

[dgarza]

--Tony Mullane?

You know, if you take Mullane into account, he'd be my #1 pick over all the other lefties mentioned so far.

[yanks0714]

Using rate stats:
John Franco (if including relievers)
Noodles Hahn
Jimmy Key
Hippo Vaughn

Using career:
Wilbur Cooper
Tommy John
Jimmy Key

Jimmy Key! Whoa, I never even considered Jimmy Key. But you know, you have a very good point. He was underrated the more I think about it.

Very good choice there RMB!

Noodles and Hippo were good pitchers in their day. I admit I had no idea who Hahn was until I got my DiamondMind All Time Greats. I saw his anme and went to BBR to look him up. He's hardly ever talked about.

I'm glad to see you have Wilbur and Tommy on your Career list.

[yanks0714]

Tony Mullane is another I never considered. Dang! I suspect he should be in the list in place of....Pierce? I might be wrong in including Pierce as one of the three. I always felt he was very good, right with Whitey Ford in the 50s and early 60s.

For those that listed Jim Kaat I strongly considered Kaat but went with my 3 overall.

I was surprised to see Guidry, Finley, Tanana, French, Koosman, and wells mentioned. I do agree with the poster who mentioned Tanana going from a fireballer to a junk pitcher. He completely remade himself. A little like Lefty Grove did after his arm trouble.

Jesse Tannahill? I considered him. I don't really know that much about him. I think he was a highly respected pitcher in his day. Am I right on that?

[Bothrops Atrox]

--Tony Mullane?

I forgot Mullane was left-handed! I'd probably go with Mullane, Pierce, and John as the top 3, but I could see replacing any of them with Cooper and Vauhn too.

[Cougar]

Mullane was mainly a right-hander; he threw left handed only in a handful of games, as a combination of gimmickry and extreme change-up.

My top three lefties: Kaat, John, and Guidry...Pierce, Lolich, Hippo Vaughn, and Wilbur Cooper get honorable mentions.

I like Key a lot, but I wonder if he's one of those guys who was underrated long enough to become overrated, if you know what I mean.

[Paul Wendt]

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I wanna fill out a 8 team league HOF roster for simulation. Need 3 lefties to complement the 13 already in the HOF.

If you want best in a simulation game, that depends on how the simulation represents careers.
Does it simulate a uniform-random workday in the player's career? Or during his five best seasons? etc.
Does it make a simulation difference that John Hiller worked in relief and Wilbur Cooper did not? Or does it simulate a uniform-random inning from the relevant portions of their careers when you put a 1-1 nine-inning tie into their hands?

[Los Bravos]

Jimmy Key was a fine pitcher and a major October pain in my butt.

I was researching Glavine's place among the lefties on the all time wins list 3-4 years ago and when I ran across "Threw: B" in Total Baseball for Mullane, I did what I'm sure looked like a Three Stooges-quality double take.