Torre, La Rusa & Cox get the call.....

[the 'stache]

Whitaker and Alan Trammell were spectacular together. And I do find it interesting that Trammell continues on the ballot every year, yet Whitaker was off after his first shot. Consider their lifetime stats:


Trammell: 1,231 runs, 2,365 hits, 412 doubles, 185 HR, 1003 RBI, 236 SB. A slash line of .285/.352/.415/.767. 6-time AL All Star, 4 Gold Gloves, 3 Silver Sluggers. Only a career year from Jorge Bell kept Trammell from winning the 1987 AL MVP.

Whitaker: 1,386 runs, 2,369 hits, 420 doubles, 244 HR, 1,084 RBI, 143 SB. A slash line of .276/.363/.426/.789. 5-time AL All Star, 3 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers.

If you look at the similarity scores on Baseball Reference, Whitaker most closely compares to Ryne Sandberg, Trammell, Roberto Alomar, Buddy Bell and Joe Morgan. Of course, Sandberg, Alomar and Morgan are Hall of Famers.

Al Oliver is a real head scratcher to me. Like Whitaker, I don't know if he should be in the Hall of Fame. But both men should have received more consideration than they received. Oliver was a seven time All Star. He was a career .303 hitter, with 2,743 hits, 529 doubles, 219 home runs and 1,326 RBI. He was a career .300 hitter in 6,768 career at bats in the National League, and a .313 hitter in 2,281 at bats in the AL. He hit over .300 eleven times, and won the 1982 AL batting title.