2019 MLB Regular Season running thread

I know until Trammell and Morris were added, the 1984 Tigers were one of two pre-Wild Card World Series winners without a Hall of Famer. The other? The '81 Dodgers. Here's a piece that details the chances of other champions and possible HOF nominees.

These World Series champions may never have a Hall of Fame player – Baseball Egg

 

The real players may not be there until 2202.

 

Simmons is a huge oversight. But even Mauer, Munson, Tenace, Freehan and Posada all have career OPS+ over 110 and more WAR than Campanella, Ferrell and Schalk at a position that's woefully under-represented at Cooperstown. Posey should be included in that group as well.

 

It's weird - you would think championships would give players more of a boost than they apparently do with the baseball writers. In Canton there are plenty of players who made it in by being the third, fourth or fifth best player on a dynasty - more than their numbers.

 

It probably speaks to the one-on-one nature of baseball. Your stats are your stats. They can be moderately affected by other guys on the roster, but for the most part, you're responsible for your success or failure. Football players rely so much more on each other that team success is going to boost the individual reputations.

 

If you go by WAR, these are the top 25 catchers of all time, in order:


Bench 75.2
Carter
Pudge
Fisk
Hartnett
Berra
Piazza
Dickey
Mauer (55) Not in
Simmons (50.3) Not in
Cochrane
Ewing
Schang (48) Not in
Tenace (46.8) Not in
Lombardi
Munson (46.1) Not in
Freehan (44.8) Not in
Posada (42.8) Not in
Bresnahan
Posey (42.1 and counting) Not in
Kendall (41.7) Not in
Porter (40.9) Not in
Sundberg (40.5) Not in
Molina (40.2 and counting), Not in.

The three catchers below 40 WAR who are in are Campanella, Ferrell and Schalk.

 

Campanella lost the first one-third to one-half of his career to segregation and possibly a year or two at the end to the accident, so nobody really worries about his career totals.

 

True.

Just pointing out the fact of which ones were below the current top 25 WAR are in

 

This assumes Peavy or Bumgarner don't get in. I think at least one will (probably Bum). But damn if I can't think of anyone who doesn't have a strong case other than Posey. You look at the players who were on those teams and man they were good for that time but how few of them hold up is staggering.

 

If you just look at WAR for 3B,
Beltre is a lock, his WAR is 95.6. Third best in history ahead of Boggs, Brett, Chpr Jones and FRobby. Scott Rolen is 10th and and Nettles is 11th.

 

Every regular position player on the 2014 team had an above league average OPS+. Cabrera and Pagan played out of their minds in 2012, plus the starting five combined for 160 of 162 starts. And their top six starters made 161 of 162 starts in 2010. Pat Burrell? Aubrey Huff? Andres Torrez? Now that's guys having career seasons at the perfect time.

Posey is sort of the key piece every one of those teams was built around.

 

Of course outside of catcher, third is the next most under represented position in the Hall