How Many Are In Your Ideal HoF?

[Tyrus4189Cobb]

If you were given the power to completely restructure the Hall using only available players, about how many players would you want? 150? 250? 350?

[Bothrops Atrox]

Including the ineligible players who are deserving, I'd say about 220. Just based on guys who are eligible, I'd say about 200.

[Second Base Coach]

If you count the executives and managers, Negro League players, and they guy who wrote Take Me Out to the Ball Game, adding to those fifty or so I can come up with an additional 25 player per decade. That puts me in neighborhood of 350.

But I am a Big Hall kind of guy.

[jjpm74]

When I go to a museum, I like to spend the whole day there, so 400+

[SamtheBravesFan]

Well, there are 234 players right now. I don't want to have a situation where players will have to be "kicked out" because of an artificial limit. So I say more than 400 players; essentially, no change.

[BigRon]

I like the size of the HOF. Obviously there are some mistakes, and considerable disagreement about how many. I think there are about 10 REALLY obvious mistakes, plus another 10 or so grey zone guys, but I would never advocate their removal. What I would like to do is add perhaps 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 guys who I think merit inclusion. This would make the current HOF around 240 player members.

[J W]

In an alternate universe, I would retroactively select 2 major league players per season starting in 1901, bringing me to a total of 224 major leaguers, about the size of Cooperstown. Then I would induct players from other leagues (Negro, AA, NA, Nippon) based on the value of of the major leaguers. So the grand total would be around 260 players.

In our timeline, I would increase the size to 301-350 to largely fill in the holes left by inducting gray-zone candidates, but not the by inducting the worst mistakes. I would not kick anyone out.

[Tyrus4189Cobb]

As a small Hall guy, I gotta go with 200-250 (as of now). I disagree with anything above 300

[brett]

Right now I have about 100 LOCK hitters and 50 LOCK pitchers. There are maybe 120 more on the border given all consideration for things like historical importance. I'd probably put just under half in so I said 150-200 but really its right at the 200 mark as of today. I may be mis-estimating how many negro league players are rightly in. I just know that by the time I get to down close to 100 position players and 50 pitchers MLB I start to really wonder about some of them.

[csh19792001]

150 players, MAX. Look at who got in and who had to wait from the 30's to 60's, and you'll see the intention of the Hall of Fame was NOT to have about half of the guys now elected, elected!!!!

If you got rid of all the "very good for a long time" or "great for a few years and overhyped" or "got in because of their Veterans' Committee cronies", you'd be left with the true Hall of Famers.

[thefeckcampaign]

Right now I have about 100 LOCK hitters and 50 LOCK pitchers. There are maybe 120 more on the border given all consideration for things like historical importance. I'd probably put just under half in so I said 150-200 but really its right at the 200 mark as of today. I may be mis-estimating how many negro league players are rightly in. I just know that by the time I get to down close to 100 position players and 50 pitchers MLB I start to really wonder about some of them.

Curious who makes that cut of yours? Would you mind sharing it?

[DoubleX]

I think the current number of 236 (after this year's inductions) is just about right, but I would certainly change the composition.

I also wouldn't have a problem with a bigger Hall. The game has been played professionally for over 140 years, the Hall of Fame serves as something of a chronicle of this long history. A more inclusive Hall of Fame may help to better preserve the game's history and of players of (increasingly) long ago.

[brett]

Curious who makes that cut of yours? Would you mind sharing it?

I'll try to get to it. I reserve spots for a few guys like Dizzy Dean and Willie Keeler and some borderline value guys who had the talent which was valued in their time like Sisler. Not sure about Terry, Medwick, Traynor who were certainly a big part of history.

So I'd say I have really only about 80 and 40 position and pitcher spots based on value and only from the pool of eligible 20th century MLB players. I can try to fill in that list.

Then there may be a good 30 negro leaguers, 30 19th century guys, and maybe up to 20 spots saved for guys like Dizzy Dean.
This would be basically the top 8 position players and 4 pitchers per decade. I'd say that if a player was one of the top 8 position players in MLB for any 10 year period they should get strongly considered, so maybe it goes up a little.

And I am not saying that Dean does not deserve to be in on equal ground with those guys, just that he definitely should be in, and he might not qualify on a 10 year standard. Was he a top 4 pitcher for a 10 year period?

[brett]

Here are the eligible pitchers who played significantly in the 1900s. First is the list I would put in, and second are the borderline guys:

Young
Johnson
Alexander
Nichols
Grove
Seaver
Niekro
Blyleven
Perry
Mathewson
Spahn
Carlton
Gibson
Ryan
Plank
Jenkins
Roberts
Hubbell
Feller
Palmer
Waddell
Ed Walsh
Koufax
Marichal
Drysdale
Newhouser
Mordecai Brown
Whitey Ford
Dizzy Dean


Eckersley
Kevin Brown
Vic Willis
Tiant
Vance
Faber
Coveleski
Cone
Lyons
Joss
Sutton
Saberhagen
Stieb
Gossage
Wilhelm

Among active or not yet eligible guys, if they never played again:
Maddux
Randy Johnson
Rivera
Glavine
Mussina
Halladay
Pedro

probable:
Schilling
Smoltz

not sure for various reasons:
Clemens
Santana
Hoffmann

[StanTheMan]

Slightly smaller than it is now. Certainly no bigger. Veterans committee selections under the highest scrutiny, at least that's where I'd start