Last year, we did our first ever debate on Notinhalloffame.com where we tackled the Hall of Fame merit of twenty-four men who are on the Hall of Fame ballot, in what was in our opinion the most loaded ballot in our lifetime.
Since it was so much fun last time, we thought we would do it again!
One thing that has not changed is the number. We will again debate twenty-four men who are on the ballot.
What has changed are the ones debating. Last year I had the pleasure of having DDT, the curator of DDT’s Pop Flies blog and D.K. of the Phillies Archivist blog. This year, Spheniscus, who has participated in past Rock and Roll discussions, will be joining me.
Chairman: I have always had a soft spot for spray hitters. Pete Rose was my first favorite player, and he was replaced with Tony Gwynn, who is still to this day my all-time favorite. Next to my Guy LaFleur rookie card, my rookie Gwynn card holds a special place in my collection.
Maybe that is why I really liked Jason Kendall, especially when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates. With his .306 Batting Average and .387 On Base Percentage (specifically in Pittsburgh), it combined my original respect for Batting Average with the new vogue stat of OBP. It also didn’t hurt that he was a Catcher, which I now regard as the second most important position in Baseball (behind Pitcher of course).
Kendall was good (maybe Hall of Very Good caliber) but I know he won’t receive much support. Damn though, if I had a ballot it would be hard for me not to throw him a bone and cast a vote just out of respect.
Spheniscus: Well, here we have our first major disagreement. I think catcher is actually THE most important position in baseball. The Red Sox were pretty terrible this season. But they were doomed as of April 2nd, 2015 when defensive wizard Christian Vazquez underwent Tommy John surgery. Replacing him with Blake Swihart, a much better offensive player but a pretty mediocre defensive catcher, had a huge effect on pitchers who collectively had their worst years of their careers all at once. Also we had the corpse formally known as Hanley Ramirez on our team. That also did not help.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. Jason Kendall. Kendall has a shot. There are 13 catchers who have been elected to the Hall. A 14th should be elected this year in Piazza. According to JAWS, Kendall is the 18th best catcher in baseball history. Three others in front of him are not yet eligible for the Hall: Ivan Rodriguez (3), Joe Mauer (9), and Jorge Posada (16). Four others, Ted Simmons (10), Thurman Munson (12), Gene Tenace (13), and Bill Freehan (14) are off the ballot without being elected [INSERT TED SIMMONS SHOULD BE IN THE HALL ALREADY RANT HERE].
So he is clearly in the conversation. Or rather, he should be. But here’s the thing that is going to keep him out of the Hall. He made three All Star teams in 15 seasons. So regardless of his stats, he doesn’t FEEL like a Hall of Famer to people. Particularly since he spent so much time on terrible Pirates teams. If he couldn’t beat out Mike Williams or Jack Wilson to be the Pirates representative, how is he going to get into the Hall?
Without going too deeply into his stats (for once in these conversations) I think that he will get 5% or close to it. But I don’t think he is ever getting through the voting process and into Cooperstown.
Chairman: I always thought of Ramirez more as a pylon than a corpse.
JAWS does put him there in the conversation, and will probably get him a few articles on this for years to come…long after he is kicked off of the ballot this year.
Three All Star Games. That shouldn’t matter, but we know it will won’t it? I hate the fact that there are people who point to that as some sort of accomplishment when it is only a reflection of a popularity contest and/or what you did in a half season. Hell, we have had MVPs of certain years who didn’t make an All Star team, though nobody seems to remember that.
Do you remember when Sandy Alomar was constantly chosen as the American League starting Catcher? He went to the All-Star Game six times and only played in 100 Games four times. Alomar finishes 127th in JAWS by the way, and you know what? He finished with 2.8% of the ballot.
Here is my prediction. Jason Kendall does not beat that number…and that will be a travesty.
Spheniscus: Incidentally, Hanley wasn’t always a pylon. When he first came up with the Red Sox (before they sent him to Florida in the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell trade), he was touted as the Slam Dunk Champion of the Dominican Republic. Although any evidence of that does not exist on the Google. So it probably isn’t true. Much like Dice-K’s gyroball.
Anyway, Kendall should do better than Alomar. He was a waaaay better player than Alomar. But there is a possibility that he would end up with less than 2.8%. But I am sticking by my closer to 5% prediction. I understand that is like ten votes, but it is significant. He will just never be a Hall of Famer via the writers. A future veteran’s committee will have to be the ones to take care of this.
Chairman: Ah…the gyroball. I am going to severe date myself, but I wonder if scouts thought it looked like when Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) was impressing Tommy Lasorda on a Fantasy Island episode where the ball did circles complete with Looney Tunes sound affects.
Crap, I just lost everybody under 40.
Kendall should do better than Alomar…but he won’t.
I already predicted he won’t beat Alomar’s 2.8%. I will be more specific. He won’t even make half of that. He wouldn’t get my fictional vote either, but at least I gave it a lot of thought. Sandy was never going to get that.
Spheniscus: He is not one of my 15 votes either. Your 1.4% is 8 votes. I still say it is higher just because of the people making a point of not voting for steroid users. 5% is essentially 27 votes. That seems a bit high. Let’s say 20 votes or 3.6%.
2016 HOF Debate: Jason Kendall
- Written by Committee Chairman
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Published in Hall of Fame Debates
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Read 2423 times
02 Jan
2016
2016
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