Hollow Leg Baseball | Veterans Committee Results, and Discussion of Missed Candidates

Hollow Leg Podcast

Here I go over the guys missed on the HoF Vet ballot this year.

The Case for Whitaker

He was a star 2B for the Detroit Tigers his entire career, spanning 1977-1995. His .276 average, 2369 hits, and 244 homers don’t look impressive on their own, but they’re only part of a larger skill set. Whitaker had a great batting eye, taking 1197 walks and bumping his OBP up to a very respectable .363. And while he wasn’t a slugger, he had solid doubles power, adding 420 of them to his totals and bumping his slugging percentage up to .426. All in all, that makes for a .789 OPS and a 117 OPS+. When he retired, he was also #4 on HR leaders at 2B, only surpassed by Joe Gordon, Joe Morgan, Rogers Hornsby, all hall of famers at the time.

On top of that, his OPS+ never went below the league average of 100 after 1980, which shows remarkable consistency with the bat. On top of providing a lot of offense at a tough position, he was a really good fielder there, as well! WAR has him in the top-25 all-time defensively at second. He even managed three Gold Gloves. Whitaker is very likely one of the twenty best hitters and fielders all-time at his position; that should be enough for Cooperstown.

The case for Tommy John.

If you think you recognize this name, that's because he was the first pitcher to get the Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery that now bears his name. His career numbers are "respectable" with a couple standouts but with the caveat that is was more of a "compiler" than a overwhelming pitcher. His 61.5 WAR is good, but not what you would expect from the loft Hall standards for starting pitchers. He didn't get the sacred 300 wins, only won 20+ games 3 seasons out of 26... oh did I not mention this guy pitched for 26 seasons?

That's right, he had surprising longevity, compiling 4710.1 innings good for 11th on the liveball era for innings pitched, and the only other pitchers with 4500+ innings not in Cooperstown right now are Roger Clemens and Jim Kaat. Back in the day , that was probably written off as part of his eponymous surgery, but given that so few people since has matched him, it’s probably just as much that he was extremely durable, especially given how he pitched til 46 on a rebuilt ligament.

He wasn't an overpowering pitcher, but he did compile 2245 K's, limited HR's with only a 0.6 HR/9, and an above average ERA+ of 111. He also had an extremely long, albeit not steep, peak, posting solid season numbers from 1965 all the way until 1984 when his numbers and analytics start to fall off. I normally prefer players who had better peaks to players who "compiled" as it were, but I think Tommy did enough to join the Hall.

The Case for Thurmon Munson

Saving the best for last, we come to Thurman Munson. Thurman Monson was the catcher for the New York Yankees from 1969-1979. His is a tragic case, as he passed away in the middle of the 1979 season due to a plane accident. He was only 32 years old. Even with his career cut short, he is 12th all time on the JAWS ranking for catchers, with every catcher above him already in the hall, save for Joe Mauer who only just retired last season. In his 11 seasons, he managed 1558 hits, 113 HR, a .292 BA, and an 116 OPS+. He was also great on defence, saving 32 runs defensively over his career. He made the all star squad 7 times, took home the 1976 AL MVP, and was the 1970 RoY. So why isn't he in the hall?

He played at an unfortunate time. Not only was he not the best catcher in baseball, but he wasn't even the best catcher in his league. His career started at the same time as Johnny Bench, and Carlton Fisk, while the mid 70's saw the emergence of Gary Carter. Remember how I said he was 12th all-time according to JAWS? He shared his career with the top 3 all-time (until Ivan Rodriguez). To have half the career and still be that good is amazing.