I just thought I'd let everyone know I worked on revamping the Ray Lankford Wing of the Hall of Fame for most of the weekend. The Wing has been reduced in size from 270-ish players to 228 after implementing the new JAWS system along with some other changes, including using Standard Deviations to determine the appropriate average by which to induct new players. The new JAWS system required this sort of change, due to the fact that it now includes the seven best seasons overall rather than the five best in a row. For example, having the best seven overall makes Bobby Grich's JAWS look even more impressive, while hurting the JAWS of players like Todd Zeile who just barely scraped five very good seasons together.
The gap between the great and the lessers grew with the new system; using standard deviation to identify and eliminate a "superior class" of players who are one SD above the average helps to create an average that makes it easier to get into the RLWHF while at the same time eliminates lesser players (sadly, like the aforementioned Zeile) from the Hall altogether. Those removed from the Hall were those one Standard Deviation below the new average created when the "superior class" (think Blyleven, Clark, Grich, Trammell, etc.) was removed from the averages. Averages are a necessary evil when it comes to induction or rejecting future players, so this system had to be worked out somehow, and I think this works for the best. I only did the SD elimination round once, because if I continued to make the average climb up and up it would have eventually resembled Cooperstown's averages and only been a place for Cooperstown snubs. Plus, Ray Lankford is actually the lowest rated left fielder in his own Hall of Fame. I had to put a stop to it somewhere.
The other (hopefully) good news: I plan on writing a PDF (and free for download!) book on the members of the RLWHF. I'm probably not going to rush to have this out, but it will be done within a year I should say, depending on how much time (read: how single I remain) I have to myself. The plan is to have a blurb/bio/thing on each player in the Hall, along with some interesting numbers and overall stat lines if I can do that. It is just something I want to see all together, you know?
As always, I am taking suggestions for nominees for the RLWHF. I am sure there are people I've missed (I inducted about 15 new relievers today to be honest...don't get me started on how many of them had better careers than Sutter). I promise to analyze every player suggestion for the Lankford Wing, so make sure to mention them if you have an idea.