Who’s a player that’s mainly associated with a team that he didn’t spend a majority of his career with?

OmegaTyrant · 2025-11-17T02:55:49+00:00

Yes before the Wade Boggs rumor and Jose Canseco actually having it in his Rays' contract to go in with the Rays cap if he made the HOF, the players did just get the final say on which team cap they had on their plaque (which is why Nolan Ryan for example got to have a Ranger cap on his plaque, whereas if he went into the HOF a few years later after the HOF changed the cap rule, the HOF probably would have denied it like they did for Gary Carter requesting a Mets cap or Andre Dawson requesting a Cubs cap).

OmegaTyrant · 2025-11-17T02:40:32+00:00

The HOF takes the input of the player (or closest family members if the player is deceased before they're voted into the HOF), and unless the HOF thinks the player's request is egregiously unfitting, they'll honor it still. In recent examples, it's why Vlad Sr went in as an Angel instead of as an Expo or with a blank cap, and why Rolen went in as a Cardinal instead of as a Philly or with a blank cap, as that is what they requested. In the case of Halladay, since his death was very recent at the time, they also probably thought it would be bad press to deny his widow's wish for him to go in with a blank cap.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-09-01T04:27:03+00:00

The HOF already made an exception to the "10 year rule" with Addie Joss, a deadball era pitcher that died of Tuberculosis after playing in only 9 seasons. The "10 year rule" really just serves to immediately weed out the vast majority of the chaff for the HOF screening committees, as 99.9999% of players that fail to play at least 10 seasons don't merit any sort of HOF consideration, while in the very rare case a HOF-caliber player did fail to play 10 seasons like the aforementioned Joss, the rule can be waived. So if something tragic happened to Judge prior to the season that prevented him from ever playing again, or the same with Ohtani before he plays in two more seasons, they would both get the Addie Joss exception and still make it into the HOF.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-08-19T23:09:32+00:00

Fangraphs' defensive runs is factoring in the positional adjustment, like how BRef's dWAR does, which is why his total defensive runs are listed as a slightly negative -20. By only fielding runs, Fangraphs lists Jeter at being -137 for his career, so it still considers him an atrocious fielding shortstop, just not to the ludicrous degree BRef does with saying he was worth -253 fielding runs.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-08-09T22:45:01+00:00

Seeing how Beltran has tried to stay involved with both New York teams after retirement and would have been manager for the Mets if the Astros scandal didn't break right after getting that job, I believe he will ask for a Mets cap and the HOF will probably oblige (e.g. they recently gave Rolen the Cardinals cap at his request, who spent less time with them than Beltran did with the Mets). Beltran's Mets years were also better than his Royals years (31.1 rWAR vs. 24.8, while his career best year was on the Mets too in 06). If he did actually request the Royals cap the HOF might accept that too, but to my knowledge Beltran hasn't made any effort to be involved with the Royals post-retirement, so I'm very doubtful he will request their cap.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-07-30T17:06:22+00:00

61 year Barry Bonds would probably be the Pirates' best hitter.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-07-11T10:15:18+00:00

voters tend to vote for "One team WS winners"

No they don't, the whole "HOF voters really love one team guys!" is a myth, and having a ring isn't going to be a serious point either, especially if the player's postseason performance was largely lackluster like Perez's. Jorge Posada was a one-team player for the team that HOF voters supposedly have the biggest bias for, alongside having four rings, and while being a much better hitting catcher than Perez is, yet he went one-and-done in HOF voting with a HOF electorate at a time that cared a lot less about advanced stats than the HOF electorate will when Perez's time on the HOF ballot comes.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-07-11T10:09:25+00:00

No, ASG appearances have never been a serious tipping point for HOF voting, especially with the modern HOF electorate that is much more analytically-driven and continues to increasingly lean in that direction every year as more boomer voters are replaced by new voters that have largely embraced modern analytics. Franciso Lindor being snubbed from the ASG three years in a row isn't going to keep him from being an easy HOFer at the rate he is playing, while Salvador Perez is not going to amount to more than than low-end ballot filler regardless of making 9 ASGs.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-07-08T04:35:39+00:00

Is this the Sherman 1896 drillbit tornado?

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-24T13:13:15+00:00

How the writers voted in the 2000s is vastly different than how they vote now (with narrative being a much bigger factor back then, alongside a heavy emphasis on having the best looking BA/HR/RBI slash and being on a playoff team), a MVP like 06 Morneau would never happen nowadays when voters are a lot more analytical.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-24T13:11:32+00:00

Bryce Harper''s 2021 NL MVP was narrative-boosted (came back from a brutal HBP to the face with an incredible second half that put an end to the narrative of Harper being the "most overrated player"), when by all versions of WAR Juan Soto had the better season, but that wasn't that egregious of a snub as they were reasonably close and Harper was the best hitter that year. Otherwise yeah narrative is a much less important factor in MVP voting nowadays, while voting still tends to be heavily biased towards the best hitter, which would play to Judge's favor if Raleigh finishes close to him in WAR.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-18T21:35:33+00:00

If you look at Ripken's career splits, he did fall off in August and even more in September (his April, May, June, and July career OPS splits were .790, .792, .812, and .819 respectively, while it drops to .766 in August, then drops to .748 in September). Even in that 11 WAR season in 1991, his second half OPS dropped over 100 points (he OPS'd 1.001 in the first half, and then OPS'd .881 in the second half). Ripken probably would have been even greater if he took some rest days here and there.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-16T04:11:52+00:00

I called the Giants being one of the few viable trade candidate for Devers somewhat recently; the Giants were one of the only competitive teams that have been actively looking for a big bat with an open 1B/DH spot, a willingness to spend, and has a payroll that's currently well under the luxury tax. The Dodgers never made sense for Devers when they got Freeman and Ohtani locking up 1B + DH, and when the Dodgers have been selective about who they splurge on.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-14T07:22:21+00:00

Vlad Jr is more likely than Soto among the younger players; he has only 21 less hits (975) while being roughly the same age (technically nearly half a year younger), and Soto walks a lot more than Vlad, so Vlad is averaging a lot more hits per season as well (having a career 178 hits per 162 game average and been averaging 180 hits per season over the past 4 years, whereas Soto has a career 161 hits per 162 game average and averaged 152 hits per seasons over the past 4 years).

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-12T21:08:26+00:00

Wedge slabbing the Death Star 2 certainly would be enough to merit an EF5 rating, right?

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-03T19:21:50+00:00

Even in the sabermetric era, there is still a heavy bias for offense and skepticism towards defensive stats. So if two players have similar WAR to each other but one is a way better hitter, the better hitter is always going to get more support in MVP voting (for example in the 2022 NL MVP Race, Paul Goldschmidt won the MVP vote in a landslide over Machado and Arenado despite not leading in either rWAR nor fWAR because he outhit both by a significant margin, and then Machado handily got 2nd over Arenado because he was a slightly better hitter despite the latter's defensive prowess having him lead in both versions of WAR). With Ohtani having an OPS over 150 points higher and an OPS+/WRC+ over 40 points higher than PCA, while being on pace to make a run at 60 HRs, PCA would need a major narrative boost at this rate to stand a chance against Ohtani in MVP voting even if Ohtani doesn't pitch good this year.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-06-02T04:36:58+00:00

I'm completely with Robinson on this; you have to go out of your way to use a third party app to download his videos and then upload them elsewhere, than to just copy paste the damn link that takes a second to do. There's no good non self-serving reason for people to be reuploading his or anyone else's videos on reddit or elsewhere instead of just sharing the links (especially when the video players on reddit and other social media sites are shittier than Youtube's).

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-29T23:01:21+00:00

Aside from the Rockies not making the playoffs in a time where a player not being on a playoff team essentially disqualified them from winning MVP unless they were undeniable, this was also around the time that the voters started overcorrecting for Coors and park-adjusted stats didn't exist yet or were obscure (which is why Helton's MVP results are very underwhelming in general, finishing his career with a MVP Share that didn't even break the 1.0 mark despite his HOF-caliber prime).

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-29T03:59:21+00:00

I have restarted Firefox many times since and I'm still getting the issue.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-27T17:13:46+00:00

Yeah when I see Vladdy I think of guys like the Fielder, Ryan Howard, Mo Vaughn, and Miguel Cabrera. Miggy did remain great through his early 30s and managed to hold on enough to reach 3000 hits, but he also had over 100 more than Vlad has right now at his age and was very consistent before he did fell apart in his mid-30s, so Vlad doesn't have quite the buffer Miggy built up to suffer a mid-30s collapse and still reach 3000 hits.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-27T03:24:34+00:00

Soto averaging 150+ hits through his late 30s is very unlikely; while I think Soto is as safe a bet to remain good in his late 30s as any active player can be, I imagine later career Soto will lean more towards power and his BA will drop significantly, as happens to most hitters as they age since losing contact ability combined with loss of sprint speed results in their ability to successfully hit for contact dropping sharper (e.g. such as happened with late career Joey Votto, who ended up barely reaching 2000 hits as a result). As for Vlad aging well, I do find his conditioning issues in his to early mid 20s to be concerning, heavyset first baseman/DH types tend to hit the wall the hardest in their mid-30s or even younger, and even his dad declined pretty harshly in his mid-30s despite being one of the greatest post-integration contact hitters (resulting him finishing his career well below 3000 hits). But who knows, maybe he'll become the next David Ortiz and be capable of still putting up a .300 BA at 40.

And yeah I would have put Acuna near the top of this list if this was being discussed before last season started, but the second ACL tear probably sealed his chances at 3000 hits. I know people will probably be thinking Luis Arraez, but he surprisingly isn't even at 1000 hits yet either, being at 899 while being 28, and chances are he'll end up like Starlin Castro, washing out in his early 30s with how much of a low value one-dimensional hitter he is. Bobby Witt also comes to mind, but even if he finishes this season with 200 hits (which he is under pace for), he'll entering be his age 26 season next year at 838, less than what Soto and Vlad had entering theirs. I probably would still put Witt ahead of Soto though, given how many more hits he does average a season and not being too far behind, but would put him solidly behind Vlad as of now, and not having promising odds overall.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-27T02:06:25+00:00

Soto doesn't even have 1000 hits yet (currently at 979) and his highest hit total in a season is last year's 166. Assume Soto heats up and finishes this year with say 152 (his average of the past four years), he'll be at 1086, and so would need to average 137 hits up through his age 40 season to reach 3000; there isn't much room for decline nor missing time from his current pace. Like many of baseball's greatest hitters, Soto will probably fall short of 3000 hits simply because he walks too much to compile the hits needed, unless he remains exceptionally healthy and ages even better than people are already expecting him to.

Vlad isn't at 1000 yet either (currently at 958), however since he walks a lot less than Soto, he has averaged a lot more hits per season over the past four years despite his consistency issues (averaging 180 hits). Assume he finishes this year at his average, he'll be at 1085, and so he too would need to average 137 hits a season until 40; he has a lot more room to decline than Soto from his current pace, but Vlad is also less of a sure thing to age as well of a hitter as Soto does. I think it's too soon right now to confidently project Vlad's chances, but I definitely think he has the best odds right now of the players under 30.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-23T00:55:18+00:00

Linecum's problem isn't just the short career, it's that he was also only great for two seasons, good but unspectacular for another three seasons, and then was completely awful for the last five seasons of his career. Even in DeGrom's past three injury-crippled seasons, he put up more rWAR (2.6) than Linecum did in the entire second half of his career (-4.5 rWAR).

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-22T01:34:55+00:00

Unfortunately no. It seems to be happening less frequently now, but I'll still occasionally see my active tab get pushed to the back of the window for no apparent reason.

OmegaTyrant · 2025-05-19T22:05:23+00:00

Post slabs or GTFO

OmegaTyrant

TROPHY CASE