Hall of Fame Season 36

So once again I have taken a hard look at this season Hall of Fame nominees. Using MLB's Hall of Fame Monitor as a reference I have calculated a point total for all the players up for vote.

VOTE ME IN NOW:

Babe Denny 3rd  221
Vern Craddock 2nd 192
Willie Martinez Closer  174
Phil Corino  Starter 173
Junior Valdiva Starter 165

I SHOULD PROBABLY BE IN THE HOF
Che Abe   OF 184
Rich White  3rd 180
Guillermo Sivilla Closer 157
BC Garland  Closer  149


MAYBE NEXT SEASON
Aurelio Zorrilla   DH 166
Tom Lieber   Starter 139
Jesus Benitez  Starter 136

JUST ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
Erubiel Pineda RF 132
Mel Haywood  1st 113
Willie Johnson CF 108
Clarence Wood  Starter 126
Jamie Martin   Starter 125
Steve Hoffman  Starter 124

GOOD PLAYER JUST NOT A HOF'ER
Victor Jose C  99.5
Billy Corey  1st 95
Pedro James OF  93
Carlos Arias 3rd  89
Chip Stark 3rd  80
Vin Austin  SS 78
Santos Quixote  Starter 89
Ross Brennan Starter 88
Yamid Astacio  Closer 73

PLEASE DONT NOMINATE ME ANYOMRE
Brian Dresden   SS 63
Bey Morris RF 56
Tony Guerrero OF 40

Goodbye to a Friend

Written by Mrbill99

Kevin Drake
Keeid12x
"The Kid"
"The Drake"

Creator of the "Elite Ducks"

The above nicknames are how we identified Kevin Drake my friend, fellow HBD comrade and rival. I met Kevin not quite 20 years ago when both of our boys played T-Ball. Though we were rivals I learned quick he had a spirit of cooperation and we both learned from each other by coordinating practices together though we had separate teams. About the time I met Kevin WIS Sports had going its SIM baseball leagues where you draft former major league player's seasons and create a team. Kevin had not heard of WIS at the time and agreed to join me in a league. He instantly loved it. Before that he played a game similar to Strat-o-matic by himself creating his own 6 team league and did all the stats by hand. Soon after getting him hooked HBD was introduced. He jumped in with both feet and abandoned SIM Ball. It took him two years of begging to get me to join HBD and I too became hooked. He called the players on his rosters "his guys" they were like real children to him. One thing he did that I found peculiar was name all his teams ELITE DUCKS. I asked him about getting more creative. OH NO Mr. Bill he said these are my guys. They are all Elite Ducks. How can I name my team anything else since my name is Drake. Thats the male duck you know. Kevin suffered greatly in the time I knew him. He had some rare disease that attacked him every 7 years that left a crippling mark. He had digits out of place because of it and other scars he could not show. But he would still compete. he told me he was a stud when he played high school ball hence the nickname "The Kid". I was always clutch he would say. I believed him, for you see for all his infirmity the man could bowl. he maintained a 200 average until his last bout with the disease this past year.He pounded the vicodins to be able to play. It hurt too much otherwise. I'll always remember Kevin for his love of family. Loved hearing his sharing of his love for Nancy his wife and Brett his son. He loved all of us HBD owners and wanted to get a golf outing going in Kaline. Alas not to be. Complications from his disease took him from his this week. I already miss him.. I can almost hear him trying to sell me on his next venture. I not ready to join you yet in Heaven Kevin. I know you will be excited to see us but we kind of like it down here in the minors. God be with you my friend.

The Rule of Five

Just taking a quick look at what players taken in this seasons Rule Five Draft have had the biggest impact at the Major League Level this season.

#1 Fergie Fitzgerald (SP)  Taken pretty late in the draft by Tampa, Fergie has exceeded any projections that would have been put on him. Has an 8-5 record on a team that is way below .500, 110 K's in 149 Innings, with a stellar 1.21 WHIP and 3.62 ERA. At just 22 years of age has room to grow but I dont know if he will ever have a season as good as this one.


#2 Pat Rooney (RP)  The 2nd player taken in the rule five draft, Rooney has been a very stable arm in the Timbers bullpen this season. 60 games 72 innings with 6 saves in just 7 tries. the WHIP of 1.51 is a little high but 3.73 ERA is solid.

#3 Billy Matthews (3rd) Another later pick that is playing above his ratings would suggest he be able to. Runs well (13 steals in 92 games) and has a little bit of pop (7 homers-13 doubles). His fielding is about league average as he has made 15 Errors at 3rd in 86 games.

#4 Milt Ray (LR)  A bit of a surprise, most rule 5's are minor leaguers looking for a shot at the bigs. Milt is a 35 year old pitcher with 109 career big league wins and career earnings over 50 million. Either way he has been a huge help to the Fake Cubbies Pen. 4 saves and 74 Innings, his WHIP is a solid 1.24.

#5 Jim Decker (CF) Tampa came thru with another solid pick in Jim Decker, one of the fastest players in the majors he has been a nice spark plug for the Turtlenecks offense. In just 140 at bats he has driven in 20 runs, scored 22 and stolen 8 bases while batting .314  His defense in Center has been just OK.

Notables: Glenn James (SU),  Wyatt Tracy (C), Carlos James (LR), Freddy Patterson (SU)

Those Who Grace the Hall Part #4...Closer then you think

Felipe Cairo (230) retired season 22, I think we missed the vote on this one...by a lot. Has the 2nd most saves in league history (758), yes its only 86.6%, but it's still pretty incredible. Between seasons 1-18 he only missed 2 all-star games. I really don't care what his ERA was, he was one of the best the league has ever seen.

Julio Cedeno (77) retired season 24, A lot of wins (247), a lot of K's (3292) but a super high ERA (4.71) and no hardware on his shelf bring him way up short.

Jolbert Cordero  (141) retired season 23, probably just under the HOF standard meet by the guys who made it, but for about 10 seasons was as dependable as anyone else in the league. If he could have had 1-2 more dominate seasons would probably be in the hall.

Miguel Acevedo (144) retired season 16, a poor mans John Smoltz, Easily could have a won Cy Young as a starter and a closer. If he had gotten to 200 wins or saves would probably be in the hall.

Bobby Stephenson (167) retired season 23, another Smoltz type guy, had some pretty good seasons as a closer but enjoyed his best success as a starter winning two CY's.

Those Who Grace the Hall...Part #3 Pitchers Report

So we have only 8 pitchers in the HOF...that doesn't seem like enough. They are all pretty deserving however. Here they are in order.



Tony Blair  (275) Season 25, not just a one year wonder (4 CY Young Awards) he was very good almost every season he played (9 All-Star Games). 6 Wins shy of 300 and only pitcher to surpass 3,500 K's in their careers. He is the best in league history...but not by much

Harry Velazquez (263) Season 33, also won 4 CY Youngs...and made the all-Star team 10 times.  Did get to 300 wins but falls a little short in K's with just under 3500. Probably hung around one season too long.

Ryan Politte  (209) Season 34, only the second closer to get voted in. An incredible 14 time All-Star tells you all you really need to know about him.  The nearly 800 career saves will likely never be surpassed. the best relief pitcher the league has ever seen, and by scoring only 209 points he shows how hard it will be for other closers to get into the Hall.

Pedro Alarcon (208) Season 26, in his career only had 3 seasons in which he wasnt at least .500...and those where the last three years of his career. An amazing career winning % of .671 and an ERA of just 3.06. a little light in the K department when compared to Blair and Velazquez.

Wilfredo Encarnacion  (179) Season  30, very similar to Alarncon, without the hardware to match. iIwould say this is the point level for pitchers to achieve to be a lock into our HOF. Was an All-Star 7 times and it be argued that in his 21 year career only had one bad season.

Donaldo Gonzalez   (145) Season 15, a great score and we cant even see his whole career. If you subtract season 1 from him  (3-29 13.74 ERA)  and ad in the missing potential numbers and he scores a 250, and that doesnt include any All-Star Games or CY Young awards.

Joey Montgomery  (144) Season 18, only missing 3 season off his career but we can probably say his point total would be higher as he would be approaching 3,000 K's and 250 wins. He is probably somewhere in-between Alarcon and Encarnacion.

Peter Anderson  (106) Season 15, Was the only closer in the hall for 18 seasons. We are missing about 4 seasons from his career view. If he was a closer for those 4 years he would probably be around 450 Saves. Not a crazy high total but factor in he would be close to 2,000 career innings 100 wins and well over 1,000 K's for a guy who never started a game it becomes even more impressive. I peg him at about 175 points.

Mid-Season report

Just a little bit of mid season house keeping, first I want to thank all the people who stepped in and took over some of our struggling teams. it looks as though they are all starting to come around and at the very least play competitive baseball on most nights.  I really hope that you new owners can see how great this league is and decide to stick around.

Second thing, looks like all the teams are well on their ways to reaching the needed win totals for this season. A reminder that new owners are only required to win 100 games combined over their first two seasons after that we have a 4 year win total needed. Detroit needed to win 60 games this season and Baltimore needs 63 wins. Both teams are on pace to surpass those win totals with ease. Beyond that all established owners need to win 57 games this season.

Third thing, I offered up a cash prize for new owners that joined us this season that stuck it out for two seasons. the winner is the team that wins the most games combined over the two seasons between all levels of their organization.  As off right now the standings are as follows...


1. Ct_Duck       217
2. jimt1420       213
3. Jkbernadt      199
4. dmaxie61      186
5. sol_phenom3  183
6. Drummer66    179
7. mktulu2          157
8. stonewalter   148

Still anyones game, so make sure all levels of your team are playing to the best of their abilities.

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