2018 Topps Baseball Forum

I can't fully answer your question, but I know Baseball reference.com has a system through which they compare all players to Hall of Famers. I think 50 is the average Hall of Famer at the position. They compare a player's stats to Hall of Famers at that position. Above 50, you should get in. Under 50, got a chance. Under 20, they'd say no way. I'd guess that Hoffman is low because there are so few relievers in the Hall, and the focus is probably on things like wins and Ks and innings pitched compared to all other pitchers in the Hall. Hoffman doesn't look great using those stats against, say, Greg Maddux.

v3

Not in this order, but these are the ones on the list that I would vote for:

Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Fred McGriff
Trevor Hoffman
Gary Sheffield
Mike Mussina
Jamie Moyer
Chris Carpenter

RE: Points and Hoffman

Hoffman needs to be compared to Sutter, Fingers, Gossage, etc. When Mariano Rivera has a "score" of 30, you know there is a flaw in that system. Especially when you know he's a first ballot, maybe the first unanimous, HOFer.

And if you look at WAR, Hoffman's is higher than Fingers and Sutter (but below Gossage).

It's pretty obvious they should use a different metric for relievers.

Not to single you out AK...but how do you vote for Manny when he actually failed two PED tests and retired after the second failure in order to avoid punishment, and not put Bonds and Clemens on your ballot? 

My ballot, in no particular order:

Chipper, Thome, Wagner, Vlad, Manny, Bonds, Clemens, Mussina, Schilling

Yup. Agree with all of that. Since relievers are becoming such an integral part of the game, analysts need to look at things differently. Sutter, Fingers, and Gossage, whatever their numbers -- sabermetric or otherwise -- helped redefine the game. Then Lee Smith and others were very, very good at that redefined game and racked up big stats compared to those guys, but maybe aren't worthy of the Hall of Fame. Rivera and Hoffman took that role to its ultimate level. Now guys like Andrew Miller and Kenley Jansen are redefining the role again. And down the line, analysts will have to account for that change.

WAR and the like are great, and help compare players over eras, but there's never going to be a stat that can quite capture the impact a player had on the game. That's where the voting comes in. Flawed as it may be, overall the baseball Hall of Fame is pretty well constituted.

v3 

My ballot:

Bonds, Clemens, Jones, Thome, Guerrero, Martinez, Schilling, Hoffman, Walker, Ramierez

Jones, Guerrero, Thome, Mussina, Martinez, McGriff, Wagner, Hoffman

I’d love to see Carpenter hang around, but don’t think he’ll make it. Bias though, not many New Hampshire players make it to the bigs and he had a heck of a career once in StL. Oh, played against him in HS too…

That's a completely fair question. The short answer is, I wouldn't give him a vote. I had a difficult time just picking the first 5. Anybody in my list could have been using PEDs as they're all 90s players. I picked Manny over Bonds and Clemens because of likeability. I know that's not really relative to picking a HOF inductee but I had to pick from a very difficult list. Had I only got to pick players based on wether or not I believed they took steroids, I would only have picked Hoffman and E. Martinez.

Definitely Trevor Hoffman. Such a great guy. When I was stationed in San Diego, he would come up to MCAS Miramar and play softball with us Marines.

Chipper, Thome, Mussina, Edgar, Hoffman