Question for the group regarding Hall of Fame eligibility....

[paul]

Forgive my ignorance, but what new Veterans Committees were formed last weekend?

[nat]

They split baseball history up into four segments, with a Vet's committee for each. They'll meet according to some arcane schedule (so they don't all meet every year, or even on a regularly rotating basis).

Did they change the way that the ballot works? If not, they're not going to start electing people. The VC had a hard time electing people because committee members could list at most four people on their ballots, and they needed 75% (IIRC) to get elected. Since the candidates that the VC looks over almost by definition don't stand out (Willie Mays gets elected before the VC gets to take a look at him), there's unlikely to be enough of a consensus among the voters to get anyone over that 75% bar. If they wanted the VC to elect people they need to drop the % requirement or let voters vote for more than four candidates.

But really, I'm okay with the VC not electing anybody. We've already got Lloyd Waner, Jesse Haines, Highpockets Kelly, George Kell, and on and on in the hall of fame. For every Lou Whitaker who really deserves it but gets passed over, there's legions of very iffy candidates whom they could (and probably would) enshrine. Cooperstown doesn't need a plaque for Carlos Zambrano (to pick a random pitcher with more WAR than Jesse Haines).

[SAllen2556]

Whitaker and Trammell are going to get in - bet on it. And when they do, I don't want to hear any whining or complaining from you guys!

[darkhorse9]

The committee will fail without a Dale Murphy selection.

[DBesse27]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

The committee will fail without a Dale Murphy selection.

Murphy and Garvey are the 2 snubs that stand out to me. More deserving than Raines, btw.

[Johnny630]

My two are Ken Boyer and Gil Hodges, followed closely by Dick Allen and Minnie Minoso.

The boat has probably left the pier on all of these guys, who knows, it's fun to talk about :-)

[DBesse27]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

My two are Ken Boyer and Gil Hodges, followed closely by Dick Allen and Minnie Minoso.

The boat has probably left the pier on all of these guys, who knows, it's fun to talk about :-)

Minoso is a good one I forgot.

[savedfrommyspokes]

If Puckett is in with 2 WS championships during a shortened career, why in the world is Munson with 2 WS championships, a ROY and MVP not in? Okay, so Munson only averaged 13 HR/80 RBI/.292 a season vs Puckett who averaged 19 HR/99 RBI/ .318 a season, but Munson was a catcher.

[bravos4evr]

Originally Posted by DBesse27

Murphy and Garvey are the 2 snubs that stand out to me. More deserving than Raines, btw.

Nobody is a bigger Braves fan than I, BUT, Murph's career just fell off too quickly.

Garvey has the problem of playing a position of power and not bringing much to the table. If we just look at 1b WAR since 1945,Garvey falls 40th (behind guys like McGriff, Texiera, Will Clark, Mark Grace and Giambi)

Both of their counting stats and metrics fall below guys like Raines Raines is one of the top lead off men of all time. 66.4 WAR career, (more than Murph or Garvey) 808 stolen bases too! I think voters have punished him too much for having the bad luck to play at the same time as Henderson.

That being said, I think next year's ballot gets he and Bagwell in.