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Hall of wWAR vs. Hall of Fame vs. Hall of Merit

Between my own Hall of wWAR, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and Baseball Think Factory's Hall of Merit, there are now three "Halls" that honor the game's best players. So, how do they compare?

Hall_of_wwar_vs

Click for interactive version.

There's just so much to take from this. First, there is consensus on 144 players. One would think that those would be the 144 best players of all time. Well, one would be wrong. Here is a list of the top players (by wWAR/norm) who are not in all three Halls.

First Last Position wWAR/norm wWAR/norm Rank
Jeff Bagwell 1b 132.6 50
Bob Caruthers p 120.8 57
Pete Rose lf 116.1 63
Shoeless Joe Jackson lf 115.0 66
Bill Dahlen ss 113.2 70
Deacon White 3b 107.1 81
Ross Barnes 2b 105.3 86
Jack Glasscock ss 104.3 88
Edgar Martinez dh 100.5 96
Barry Larkin ss 100.2 99
Bobby Grich 2b 99.9 100
Alan Trammell ss 99.3 102
Larry Walker rf 98.8 103
Ted Simmons c 98.3 105
Dick Allen 1b 98.1 106
Kevin Brown p 95.9 114
Jim Wynn cf 95.1 118
Lou Whitaker 2b 93.4 122
Wes Ferrell p 93.2 123
Sal Bando 3b 93.0 124
Joe Torre c 91.9 131
Rick Reuschel p 91.9 132
Mark McGwire 1b 91.3 133
Keith Hernandez 1b 90.8 134
Thurman Munson c 90.1 136
Tim Raines lf 89.8 138
Rafael Palmeiro 1b 89.6 139
Tony Mullane p 88.7 143
Charlie Buffinton p 88.4 144

That's just those who appear in the Top 144 eligible players. Here, I obviously use "eligible" as meaning "retired for five years". Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson obviously are not eligible for the Hall of Fame.

I just can't believe we have a Top 50 player who is struggling to get in the Hall of Fame.

One thing that makes me quite happy about this visual is how much more in sync the Hall of wWAR is with the Hall of Merit than it is with the Hall of Fame. For example, the Hall of Merit contains just 26 players who are not in the Hall of wWAR. Meanwhile, the Hall of Fame contains 64 players who are not in the Hall of wWAR. Those two groups have an overlap of 15 players. Five of them (Ralph Kiner, Clark Griffith, Enos Slaughter, Roger Bresnahan, and Sam Thompson) rank among the Top 25 players outside of the Hall of wWAR.

In fact, 49 players appear in the Hall of Fame but not either of the others. Just 11 players appear only in the Hall of Merit while 17 players grace only the Hall of wWAR. That's a list I'm particularly interested in—the players enshrined by my Hall of wWAR, but not the others.

First Last Position wWAR/norm
Sal Bando 3b 93.0
Thurman Munson c 90.1
Tony Mullane p 88.7
Charlie Buffinton p 88.4
Luis Tiant p 86.3
Gene Tenace c 84.9
Buddy Bell 3b 84.2
John Olerud 1b 84.0
Silver King p 82.8
Orel Hershiser p 82.3
Bobby Bonds rf 80.6
Eddie Cicotte p 79.5
Jim McCormick p 78.6
Kevin Appier p 76.7
Wilbur Wood p 76.7
Cesar Cedeno cf 76.6
Frank Tanana p 76.2

Here's another interesting table—the best players not in any of the Halls (the top 30):

First Last Position wWAR/norm
Willie Davis cf 75.9
Jerry Koosman p 75.6
Chuck Finley p 75.4
Robin Ventura 3b 75.2
Tommy Bond p 74.8
Urban Shocker p 74.5
Larry Jackson p 74.0
Carl Mays p 73.0
Ron Cey 3b 72.9
Dwight Gooden p 72.6
Babe Adams p 72.4
Tommy John p 72.4
Bob Johnson lf 72.3
Norm Cash 1b 72.1
Darrell Porter c 71.5
Tommy Bridges p 71.4
Ned Williamson 3b 71.3
Bob Elliott 3b 71.3
Tommy Leach cf 71.1
Jack Clark rf 70.8
Fred McGriff 1b 70.8
Wilbur Cooper p 70.3
Wally Schang c 70.1
Jose Cruz lf 70.0
Dale Murphy cf 69.7
Jim Fregosi ss 68.9
Mark Langston p 68.8
George Burns 1b 68.7
Mike Tiernan rf 68.7
Bernie Williams cf 68.7

What a list of excellent, somewhat forgotten players.

Update: I have tweaked this a bit because since I grabbed the data Rafael Palmeiro, David Cone, and Rick Reuschel were inducted to the Hall of Merit. (Thanks to @RAWagman)

Please be sure to check out the interactive visualization. Anything else jump out at you?


Please note that the visualization requires a modern browser (such as Chrome, Safari, or Firefox) to render properly. Are you a web development geek? This and all other Hall of wWAR-related visuals is open-sourced on GitHub.