Curt Walker

[Cowtipper]

Curt Walker spent 12 years in the big leagues, from 1919 to 1930, hitting .304 with 1,475 hits, 117 triples, 535 walks and only 254 strikeouts. He received MVP votes in 1926 and was an "All-Star" once according to the Retrospective All-Star Game project.

The rightfielder hit at least 10 triples in a season eight times, peaking at 20 in 1926. He reached the plateau seven seasons in a row, including his final year. He also scored at least 100 runs once, in 1922 when he hit .337 with 196 hits, 36 doubles, 11 triples and 102 runs scored.

Though he proved to be a solid player (by today's standards, at least) throughout his career, his big league career was over at age 33, despite posting a .307 average in his last season. He played in the minor leagues until 1932.

Statistically, he is similar to one Hall of Famer: Ross Youngs. He is also similar to Carl Reynolds, John Stone, Chick Stahl, Tommy Holmes, Buddy Lewis, Roy Johnson, Bibb Falk, Mike Smith and Henry Larkin.

What do you think about Curt Walker? Should he be in the Hall of Fame? Did he have Hall of Fame potential?

[1905 Giants]

Not a bad player, but no Hall.

I say he had the potential.

Where is this Retrospective All-Star Game Project?

[Cowtipper]

It was a really fun project DJC ran a couple years ago. Here's the results thread:

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?96275-Retrospective-All-Star-Game-Election-Results

[Cowtipper]

Not a bad player, but no Hall.

I say he had the potential.

Where is this Retrospective All-Star Game Project?

To address your first point, I don't think he had Hall of Fame potential. When I think of Hall of Fame potential, I think of a guy who either started off super hot but fell off earlier than expected, like Nomar Garciaparra, started off consistently well young and performed that way for years, but fell off, like Mark Kotsay, or a guy who started the bulk of his career really late, but had great success in spite of his late start, like Rip Sewell. Walker didn't really do any of that.

Though he started off well and saw his career end early (he was done by 33) he didn't perform at an excellent level early enough (age 24 was his first great, albeit stinted, year, with his age 25 season being the best year of his career). Kotsay, on the other hand, was a full-time starter by the age 22 and performed consistently through age 30.