Framber Valdez joined the Houston organization in 2015 as an international free agent, a late bloomer who signed at 21, a time when many of his contemporaries were already reaching the upper levels of the minors. Despite the late start and a modest $10,000 signing bonus, he utilized a heavy, high-velocity sinker to power through the system, making his debut in 2018.

After struggling with his command in 2019, he credits a focus on mental fortitude with his 2020 breakout, in which he demonstrated a specialized ability to handle adversity on the mound. He finished 11th in the Cy Young voting during that shortened season.  By 2021, he had officially seized a permanent role at the top of the rotation, providing the high-frequency output and veteran-like poise that helped the Astros return to the World Series.

During the 2022 campaign, he evolved into the most durable southpaw in the American League, recording a record-breaking 25 consecutive quality starts. He demonstrated a specialized ability to keep the ball on the ground, leading the league with 201.1 innings pitched and finishing fifth in the Cy Young voting. Most importantly, he showed the organization that he was a big-game performer, going 3-for-3 in the 2022 postseason, including two dominant wins in the World Series, helping secure the franchise's second championship. He followed this with back-to-back All-Star selections and two more top-ten Cy Young finishes in 2023 and 2024, amassing 200 strikeouts in a season for the first time in his career.

The heart of his final years in Houston was characterized by elite durability, though not without moments of intense internal friction. In September 2025, Valdez was at the center of a controversial "cross-up" incident where he struck his own catcher, César Salazar, in the chest with a 93 mph sinker immediately after surrendering a grand slam. While Valdez apologized and maintained it was accidental, the moment highlighted the "mercurial" side of his competitive drive that occasionally flared up during high-leverage games.

Valdez was a free agent after the season, and Houston did not aggressively pursue him, though he signed with Detroit.  As an Astro, he compiled a 68-45 record, 881 strikeouts, and a 2022 World Series Championship.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB. Once that is done, we will examine how each team honors its past players, coaches, and executives. As such, it is important to us that the Chicago Cubs will induct Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee to their franchise Hall of Fame this year.

The induction of Sosa is the culmination of two decades of acrimony between Sosa and the Cubs.  Sosa, who was a beloved figure in Chicago in the 90s as he was going deep at an astronomical level saw the tide turn against him when it was believed that he took PEDs.  The last days of his run at Wrigley saw him leave early in the 2004 Season Finale.  The Cubs had stated that Sosa would not be welcomed back to the organization unless an apology occurred, which happened, albeit cryptically last December.

“There were times I did whatever I could to recovery from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games.  I never broke any laws.  But in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize.”

Sosa joined the Cubs in 1992 in what turned out to be one of the most lopsided trades in team history.  By the mid-90s, Sosa had at least 35 Home Runs from 1995 to 2004, winning two Home Run Titles (2000 & 2002), two RBI Titles (1997 & 2001) and won the 1998 MVP.  Sosa also won six Silver Sluggers, and as a Cub would compile 545 Home Runs, 1414 RBIs and a .928 OPS.

Derrek Lee played for the Cubs from 2004 to 2010 amassing 179 Home Runs, 1,046 Hits with two All-Star Games.  His best season was in 2005, where he led the National League in Hits (199) and Doubles (50) and was third in MVP voting.  He also won two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers as a Cub.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the impending members of the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while! 

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists and consistently look to update them when necessary and based on necessity. As such, we are delighted to present our post-2024 revision of our top 50 Detroit Tigers.

As for all of our top 50 players in baseball, we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note that our algorithm has changed, which yielded minor changes throughout the baseball lists.

Last year, the Tigers returned to the playoffs in a what was considered a surprise.  They won 86 Games, and made it to the second round, losing to Cleveland in five games in the Divisional Series.  Despite the success, there were no new entrants, but one return based on the new algorithm.

As always, we present our top five, which saw some significant changes.

1. Ty Cobb

2. Al Kaline

3. Charlie Gehringer

4. Harry Heilmann

5. Hal Newhouser

You can find the entire list here.

The top five saw some major changes.  Charlie Gehringer went from #4 to #3 and Harry Helmann went from #6 to #4.  This knocked Miguel Cabrera off the top five, as he went from #5 to #6.

With the new algorithm, Carlos Guillen returns to the list.  He is ranked #49.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

1972 SEMI-FINAL RESULTS:

Thank you for all of your participation in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project. If you are unaware of what that is, we acted like the PFHOF had its first class in January 1946.

We have completed the years up to 1971.

For “1972,” a Preliminary Vote with nearly 100 players whose playing career ended by 1965. We are also following the structure in that players have 20 years of eligibility, and if they do not make it into the Hall, they are relegated to the Senior Pool.

Each voter was asked to select 25 names from the preliminary list, and the top 25 vote-getters were named Semi-Finalists.

A week later, the voters were asked to pick 15 names from the 25 Semi-Finalists, and next week, they will pick five from the remaining 15. We will continue this process weekly until we catch up to the current year.

30 Votes took place, with the top fifteen advancing.

This is for the “Modern Era”

Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals: 

This is for the “Senior Era” 

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:

This is for the “Coaches/Contributors Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:

We will post the Class of the 1972 Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project next Saturday.

Thank you to all who contributed. If you want to be part of this project, please let us know!