Who should the Veteran's Committee elect at the Winter Meetings?

[jalbright]

This thread is for us to express our opinons as to which of the ten candidates on the ballot for the Veteran's Committee are worthy of election, not who we think will be elected (that will be another thread). If you need to know more about the candidates, see this thread: http://www.baseball-fever.com/showth...n-era-released The poll will be open for four weeks, ending a few days before the VC votes on December 2-3.

[Cowtipper]

I went with Dahlen, Mullane, Reach, Ruppert and White.

[beisbolfiebre]

I know that we previously had a thread on Dick Groat and most of you said NO, he does not belong in HOF. While his numbers weren't the greatest ever, his great defense prevented many runs from scoring and he always exhibited great on-field leadership. In my book that makes him HOF material. I well remember the great Ray Scott saying many years ago that Groat was overlooked for far too long. And he was so right!

[jalbright]

I know that we previously had a thread on Dick Groat and most of you said NO, he does not belong in HOF. While his numbers weren't the greatest ever, his great defense prevented many runs from scoring and he always exhibited great on-field leadership. In my book that makes him HOF material. I well remember the great Ray Scott saying many years ago that Groat was overlooked for far too long. And he was so right!

Groat isn't relevant to this discussion since he's not on the 2013 Veteran's Committee ballot.

[adarowski]

Thought I'd chime in, even though it's an older thread.

I voted for Dahlen, White, Ferrell… and Ruppert. Reach would be fine. Honestly, I'm not incredibly interested in the non-players since I can't quantify their value. I would also be perfectly happy if Tony Mullane was inducted.

I wrote about the ballot over at Beyond the Box Score: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/201...gration-ballot

Some excerpts:

Dahlen

WAR loves Bill Dahlen. Dahlen ranks 75th among all players (includes pitchers) in WAR. He's 47th among position players. Basically, if you even remotely believe in the concept of WAR, Bill Dahlen is a slam dunk Hall of Famer.

White

White accumulated 24.2 WAR in those 525 games [in the 1870s]. His teams played just 533 games in that time. Prorate those 533 games across nine 162-game seasons and suddenly White could have 67.2 WAR. Of course, it's impossible to say he would have accumulated that WAR total across full seasons, but it gives you an idea of White's relative value.

His career totals include a .312/.346/.393 line, good for an OPS+ of 127. He collected 2067 hits. But remember—his prime is not represented well in those totals (neither the counting stats nor the rate stats). He didn't play 100 games in a season until he was 36 years old. In fact, he played more games from ages 35 to 42 than he did from age 23 to 34.

Ferrell

In regards to the ERA, Ferrell's ERA+ comes out to 116. That's actually better than Steve Carlton, Fergie Jenkins, Nolan Ryan, Pud Galvin, and several other no-doubt Hall of Famers. So, it's not much of an issue with me. Remember, Jack Morris had a 3.90 ERA and a 105 ERA+.

In reality, if Ferrell had just stopped after 1937 (his age 29 season), he would have been surprisngly Koufaxian: 175 wins, .603 percentage, 123 ERA+, 58.4 WAR (combined hitting and pitching). Koufax's numbers: 165 wins, .655 percentage, 131 ERA+, 46.2 WAR.

[jalbright]

This poll will be in its last 24 hours a few moments after I post this. If you want to participate, now is the time.

[Bothrops Atrox]

Here is something I posted a few days ago:

Imagine a modern pitcher winning 20 games six times, leading the league in IP three times (six top fours), finishing in the top seven in ERA seven times, garnered MVP votes four times, finished in the top ten in strikeouts seven times, and leading the league in complete games four times.

Now imagine the pitcher was such a good hitter, that he basically allowed your team to be the only team in your league that had a DH every 4th game during most of those seasons. That would be Wes Ferrell.

For those of you that like WAR: Ferrell accumulated 58 WAR over those nine seasons. That is 6.4 per season. This is a massive peak. Even though the rest of his career was pretty much worthless, I think that 9 years of total-baseball dominance earns him a pretty easy place in the HOF.

I am shocked to see so little support for Ferrell.

[Bothrops Atrox]

BTY, I voted for Dahlen, Ferrell, and White. Could go either way with Mullane.

[jalbright]

They elected guys we approved by 66.67 % (White), 37.5 % (Ruppert) and 16.67 % (O'Day).

[Cougar]

I'm a little disappointed that they missed Dahlen, who I think was the best player on the ballot.

But, they got the second best player on the ballot in White, the best umpire available period in O'Day, and the executive in Col. Ruppert that was the most glaring oversight (even if Reach and Breadon also have their merits).

That's not bad by VC standards.

[Cougar]

http://baseballhall.org/news/press-releases/hank-oday-jacob-ruppert-deacon-white-elected-national-baseball-hall-fame-pre

Here's the Hall's announcement, which reveals the only other person to get more than 3 votes out of 16 was Dahlen, who got 10.

That's auspicious for 2016, should Dahlen make the ballot again.