harold baines | The Baseball Zealot

My take on the Hall of Fame balloting

The Hall of Fame balloting broken down Zealot-style…

New Hall of Famer Andre Dawson’s most compelling statistic:

He’s one of three major league players who has 400 homeruns and 300 stolen bases. The other two? Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

Andre Dawson’s least compelling statistic (and the one you hear cited by his detractors ad nauseum):

His lifetime .323 OBP. Enough said.

The 2010 HOF candidate most deserving to get into the Hall of Fame but didn’t:

My opinion?? Bert Blyleven. I’ve been on his bandwagon for a few years now. Come on, vote him in already! He has two more years of eligibility left. The good news is that since 1999, when he got 14.1% of the vote, his percentage has gone up every year with the exception of 2007. I predict that we’ll see Bert in the Hall next summer.

The reason Roberto Alomar didn’t get in his first year:

Three-fold. 1) the spitting incident didn’t help especially among the old guard of the BBWAA 2) the fact that some don’t want to vote anyone but the cream of the crop in their first of eligibility especially with reason #1 hanging around their necks and 3) I’ve heard this factoid bandied about… that Alomar was pretty much done by the time he was 35 or 36. Yes, I know… he started out (full time) in the bigs when he was 20 and subsequently put in a good 17 years of service in the majors but that kind of thing sticks with writers, I guess.

Craziest Hall of Fame vote:

Pat Hentgen 1 vote. To be fair, Hentgen won a Cy Young and won one World Series game but with 131 wins and a 4.32 ERA that can take you only so far.

The “It’s not crazy if there are two of us” award:

Eric Karros 2 votes.

and finally,

The 2010 candidate I thought was dissed this year:

Harold Baines. Should he have gotten in? I don’t know. But I was surprised that he barely hung on for next year’s ballot. Yes, I’m a Cub fan but Baines deserved more. An interesting stat: Baines had more career hits and more career rbis than any other HOF candidate.

Breakdown of #1 picks in the First-Year Player Draft

Monday: Picked first in the first.

In one week, the 2009 First-Year Player Draft will take place. This year, the Washington Nationals will have the top the top pick.

How ‘bout some interesting facts/trivia about the very top picks in the 44 year history of the major league rookie draft?

Breakdown of High School/College?

Since Rick Monday was picked #1 by the A’s in 1965, 24 top picks were drafted out of high school and 20 were drafted out of college. That’s more coming out of the hallowed halls of learning than I thought, quite honestly.

Arizona State University had some good mojo going as far as the top pick goes. They are the only institution (high school or university) that has the honor of more than one #1 pick… and they have three! Monday, Floyd Bannister, who went to the Astros in 1976 and Bob Horner who got picked by Atlanta two years later all came from ASU.

Who are the only #1 picks that never made the majors?

LHP Brien Taylor picked by the Yanks in 1991 and Steve Chilcott who was chosen by the Mets in 1966 (the second year of the draft) never made it to the bigs. I’m giving Tim Beckham and Matthew Bush (2006 and 2004 picks respectively) a mulligan here. Let’s give them a chance.

Which #1 pick has played the most in the majors?

Whether you’re judging on games or at-bats, 1977 pick Harold Baines wins on both counts with 2830 games and 9908 at-bats. Ken Griffey comes in at a close second (2559 games, 9446 at-bats).

Among pitchers, Seattle’s first round pick in 1981, Mike Moore pitched in 450 major league games and won 161 games.

What position was picked the most as the top pick?

Not surprisingly, pitchers were high on the list,

C- 5
1B- 4
SS- 10
3B- 4
OF- 9
P- 13 (4 lefties, 9 righties)

Interestingly, no players were drafted as secondbasemen. Keep in mind that these figures are the positions they were drafted at not necessarily where they ended up playing. B.J. Surhoff at short? Hah!

Which teams had the most first picks since 1965?

No, it’s not the Rays (who had four). The San Diego Padres and New York Mets tied for this honor with five apiece.

How many top picks eventually became major league All-Stars?

Among the 44 first picks to date, twenty have appeared in a major league All-Star game. At this point, no first pick has gotten in the Hall of Fame but for my money, Ken Griffey Jr and Chipper Jones both have a good chance to make it. (update- Arod too, if voters forget about the PED thing).

HOF ’09: We’re Done!

Well, with Teddy Ballgame’s write-up on Greg Vaughn earlier today, we’ve concluded HOF ’09, our series of profiles of this year’s candidates for the Hall of Fame. It’s been fun and I think we’ve even learned a bit along the way.

As for me, it was an interesting group of players to profile for a couple reasons. A big one was that most of these players were big stars while I was a teenager and young adult when I was forming my serious interest in baseball. Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson… I have fond memories. Not to mention that some of these players played in the era when the Chicago Cubs finally became a post season threat (I can still remember the ’84 series against the Padres… ugh).

Also, these players came from a time when baseball had more of a balance of power, speed, and pitching. Appropriately enough, that is reflected in the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot. With the speed of Henderson and Raines, the power of McGwire and Rice and the pitching of David Cone, Bert Blyleven and Tommy John, this class is well represented.

Who will get elected? Well, we put our opinions down who we think SHOULD get the call but as to who WILL get elected is another matter. The BBWAA has been rather stingy lately and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s very possible that just one (Rickey Henderson??) will get elected and others will have to wait.

Time is running out for some, though. The midnight hour is chiming for Jim Rice as it’s his last ballot. There are some (myself included) who feel that his career and contribution is worthy of the Hall.

We’ll find out tomorrow and the chips will fall where they may. No doubt, many bloggers and pundits will be unhappy no matter how it goes. I’ll predict at least one writer will have his credentials questioned and will be asked to step down from the BBWAA. Unfortunately, THAT is the safest prediction I make right now.

All that said, here are the opinions we’ve made in the last month. Links go to our profiles on the players.

Thanks for reading!

	Hall of Fame	Hall of Very Good	Why is he even on the Ballot?
Harold Baines
Jay Bell
Bert Blyleven
David Cone
*Andre Dawson*
Ron Gant
Mark Grace
Rickey Henderson
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Jesse Orosco
Dave Parker
Dan Plesac
Tim Raines
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell
Greg Vaughn
Mo Vaughn
Matt Williams

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Teddy Ballgame and DonS for their help with his project.

Also, a lot of research went in to this. I’d like to give props to the websites that were helpful.

Baseball Reference: I can’t say enough about this web site. If there are baseball fans out there who haven’t seen this site and what it can do, you need to check it out.

Baseball Page: Very helpful for bios and such.

Baseball Musings’ Day by Day Database: Good for finding stats between established periods of time (and lots of other stuff).

Baseball Almanac: another good bio site. Good for the quotes too :)

HOF ’09: Harold Baines

“(Baines) was on his way to the Hall of Fame. He just stopped by Comiskey Park for 20 years or so.”

GM Paul Richards on the White Sox pick of Harold Baines in the first round of the 1977 draft.

First up in our lineup of HOF09 is Harold Baines. Now, as a Cub fan, I normally have no use for White Sox players but I have to admit a fondness for Baines. So, apparently do the Sox who took on Harold for three separate stints.

Baines Facts

Drafted First round in 1977 by the Chicago White Sox
Played for ChW, Tex, Oak, Bal, and Cle (1980-2001)
Six time All-Star
Led AL in Slugging in 1984(.541)
19th all-time in intentional walks (187)

Let’s get this out of the way. Baines won’t be known for his glove. Though he was a solid outfielder during his first part of his career, an injury and subsequent knee surgery in 1986 pretty much made him useless in the field and relegated him to DH duties thereafter. So much so, that the This Week in Baseball’s skit where those in on the joke were “trying to find Baines’ glove” is still remembered.

Yet, some talk about how pure Baines’ swing was. From the start, he showed he was for real, hitting double figures in homers at the age of 21. Two years later, he broke out for the Sox with 25 home runs and 105 rbis. Baines continued his consistent style of hitting always putting up 20+ homers and 90+ rbis.

After his 1986 knee surgery and resulting move to the DH role, his hitting numbers didn’t suffer… until 1988 when he banged out only 13 with a subpar .277 average. The next year came the famous trade to Texas which brought young Sammy Sosa to Chicago.

The 90s didn’t have the luster that the 80s did but Baines always found a way to find playing time as a DH. I remember being amazed that year in and year out Baines would be in the lineup, busted knees and all. He traveled from Texas to Oakland to Baltimore (his homestate). Finally, after a half season stint with Cleveland, he came back to Chicago again where he finished the last two years of his career.

Pros: There’s probably no one with better character. Clutch hitter, his career numbers look decent (1299 runs, 1628 rbis, more rbis than Mantle, (that comment should p–s somebody off).

Cons: Not a dominating hitter not even in his era (only three 100-rbi seasons, no MVPs, not even close in voting), defense, we’ve already talked about that.

As much as I like Baines personally, I don’t see him making the Hall. If the White Sox have their own Hall, he should be the first one inducted. He’s Mr White Sox in my book. But for Cooperstown, there are those with better credentials. He makes the Hall of Very Good.

	Hall of Fame
	Hall of Very Good
	Why is he even on the Ballot?

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. Read the rest the of the profiles.

HOF ’09: Profiling the Candidates

This winter, The Baseball Zealot will be doing profiles of the Hall of Fame candidates for 2009. In addition, we’ll give our opinion on their inclusion in the Hall. This post will serve as the entry point for the HOF ’09 series.

Here is the link to all the profiles written to date.

The results will be announced on January 12th, 2009. With any luck, we’ll get them all in before then.

Harold Baines to be honored

Good on the Sox.

They announced that Harold Baines, personally one of my favorite White Sox player of my generation, will be immortalized with a life-sized statue outside the Cell. The unveiling of the statue will take place July 22 of this year.

I’ve never been a fan of the DH but despite that, Harold Baines amazed me with the way he kept coming back year after year. Some of us have forgotten that he was a decent fielder and even an ok baserunner before knee problems got in the way. Regardless, Baines made a career out of the designated hitter.

He is the seventh Sox player to have a likeness erected on the concourse near centerfield. He will join Charles A. Comiskey, Minnie Minoso, Carlton Fisk, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Bill Pierce.

For his 22-year career, Baines hit .289 with 384 homeruns and 1628 rbis.