Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Those How Grace the Hall Part #2...Don't forget us now that we are gone.

So we have a list of the players who have made the Hall of Fame, and I have done my best to provide numbers or a score that backs up their induction to it. But what about the guys who didn’t make it? Surely someone got looked over for some reason? What was it about them that caused the votes to go the other way? Here is a look at some of the players who maybe should have gotten a plaque in our hallowed hall


      Cesar Amaral  (176) Retired Season 26, Cesar started 2726 games in the big leagues, all but four of those where at Catcher.  Threw out almost 200 more runners then the next highest catcher Sun-Woo Ma who won 3 Gold Gloves in his career. Amaral never won a Gold Glove in his career but does sport a career 3.76 CERA. Was a five time all-star and 2 time silver slugger at his position.  Part of his problem might be the fact that he played so long that his career numbers look like the product of a long good career rather then a great short career. but the facts for him are...3174 career hits, 1300 career runs, 1400 career rbi, a .297 career avg including three seasons where he hit over .320. Three times he had over 100 RBI in a season as well. This guy was a work horse...a work horse that was also one of the best his position has ever seen.

     Kirt Crane   (169) Retired Season 13, did you know in season one when he drove in a league record 229 runs....109 of them came with 2 outs. His 2000 hits and 500+ homers probably seem inflated due to the early years in this league, but even his last three seasons 10-11-12 average out to 35HR-104runs-107RBI  not bad for a guy who played the bulk of his career 3rd base and SS and even won 2 gold gloves.

      Aurelio Zorrilla (167) Just retired this past season, so hopefully is coming up for the vote soon. Mostly a DH over his very long career, is 5th all-time in games played. 
      Has a .301 career avg and 3000+hits on his resume, the 500+ homers and 1800+ RBI are just icing.

     Milt Wood (157) retired Season 11, one of the early Toronto Toros who helped bring them two World series titles. Scores a solid 157 points and that's without guessing at to what he might have done in the two unseen seasons of his career. A run at 600 homers was probably in the cards for him.

Tanner Magnante  (156) retired Season 24, was probably overshadowed on vote day by the era's other big name 1st basemen, Palacios, Gabriel, Allen and even Darron Pierce who was a player cut from the same mold. Won the MVP in his second season, then had two seasons that were just as good right after. His .320 career average is nothing to be scoffed at as he hit .347 as late as season 21. Maybe not a lock for the Hall, but should have received a closer look by us all.

      Bruce King (155) retired season 20, King was one of the better hitting second basemen this league has ever seen. He didnt get the same love from the voters as Blanco did, even though overall his game was probably better. 535 doubles, including 5 seasons with 40+, 348 career steals and an incredible .316 career batting average.

      Luther Stanley (153) retired season 32, Stanley is kind of the opposite of every player we put in the HOF. Came up just 18 hits shy of 3000 in his career, and did it without hitting 50 Homers. Stole 500+bases but was never one of the leaders in that stat.  9 Times had over 200 hits a season, add that to the 2000+ games he played at 2nd base where he made 129+ plays against only 19 negative and I think we have a Hall of Famer.

     WHAT ABOUT THIS GUY...

     Antonio Ming (40)  Yeah that is a pretty low score, but I would argue if not for some odd career choices by him and by the teams that held his contract he would have passed some major career milestones.  Spent seasons 17 and 18 in AAA where he made one all-star game and stole over 200 bases. After season 29 in the majors where he hit .298 with 40 steals he went to AAA again. He won the MVP and Silver slugger that year in AAA while hitting .328 with 19 homers and 29 steals. the next two seasons he spends playing ball in Japan. In season 33 he comes back for one more year in AAA. A solid .265 avg and 12 more steals. while he was never a Gold Glove winner he was pretty solid at both 3rd base and 2nd base in the 1500 games he played between the two positions.  I think if he had played even portions of those seasons he would have easily blown past the 2000 hit mark and the 1,000 steals. The score might have looked low, but I probably would have thrown a vote his way











1 comment:

  1. Re:Tanner Magnante. Thanks for including him. There are a few of us who recognized his talent and voted for him for the HOF each year. Not enough though. That .347 he hit in his next to last full season actually led the league. He hit over .300(usually well over) 11 times in addition to the MVP, 5 AS appearances, 4 1B Silver Sluggers, AS MVP, HR Derby Champ, and even a GG at 1B. Pretty good resume.

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