BBWAA: “We Are Not Smart”

By , 1/6/2010 6:46 pm

Allow me to present you with two hypothetical baseball players.  Both are primarily right fielders, both skilled defenders and accomplished power hitters.  Both played during the same era.

Player “A”

Player “B”
AGE PA EQA WARP3

AGE PA EQA WARP3
21 92 0.211 -0.30 20 64 0.291 0.10
22 566 0.283 3.90 21 328 0.255 0.40
23 660 0.273 3.00 22 514 0.270 2.60
24 684 0.279 2.40 23 470 0.277 4.00
25 638 0.311 6.70 24 571 0.266 2.00
26 441 0.330 9.30 25 265 0.287 0.90
27 660 0.305 7.30 26 572 0.269 2.00
28 698 0.311 5.60 27 563 0.270 2.30
29 583 0.268 2.40 28 542 0.285 2.00
30 570 0.273 1.20 29 504 0.332 8.90
31 546 0.289 2.20 30 727 0.312 6.60
32 662 0.290 3.30 31 544 0.267 1.40
33 640 0.304 4.10 32 738 0.312 4.70
34 459 0.276 2.90 33 744 0.291 4.80
35 581 0.304 3.20 34 640 0.293 2.40
36 596 0.276 1.30 35 657 0.319 4.10
37 582 0.281 3.30 36 645 0.301 3.40
38 498 0.248 0.10 37 630 0.305 4.60
39 306 0.232 -1.00 38 522 0.264 0.80
40 246 0.255 -1.00 39 329 0.288 1.50
41 61 0.253 -0.30
Career Equivalent Average
 Career Equivalent Average
0.288
0.290
Total Wins Over Replacement Player
 Total Wins Over Replacement Player
59.6 59.5

Also, note that Player “B” appeared in the World Series on two occasions, where he hit .300/.397/.580 in 59 plate appearances.

Player “A” of course is Andre Dawson, who was just elected to the Hall of Fame.  Which is fine.  I think Dawson is a borderline case in the same stratosphere as someone like Jim Rice.  I don’t think his selection is egregious.   But, how on earth do you reconcile Dawson’s induction with the misfortunes of Dwight Evans (Player “B”)?

You’ll notice that Evans is not anywhere on the ballot.  Well, that’s because he only received 3.6% of the vote back in 1999.  THREE POINT SIX PERCENT. A lot of this can probably be attributed to the era in which the voting took place.  1999 was the pinnacle of the long-ball spike.  Dwight Evans was a boring guy with a mustache; watching him hitting 29 home runs and playing good defense doesn’t really compare to someone like Sammy Sosa belting 66 home runs and making all sorts of wacky gestures to the crowd as he gallivants around the bases.

When I look at the above Player A / Player B comparison, and compare that to their HoF voting results, I see a bunch of sportswriters who should be fired immediately.

To be fair, I think a lot of these writers (especially those obsessed with the whole steroid issue) would love to have a mulligan on their ballots from the past 15 years.  Due to a system that defies logic and reason, they cannot.  We now turn our weary eyes to the coven of geezers who constitute the Veterans Committee, and hope that they can one day muster up enough lucidity to reverse the errors made by the BBWAA.

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