Awardstown

3/31/2025 UPDATE: CHECK OUT THE “ADDENDUM” TO OUR COOPERSTOWN COMPARISON SECTION

3/27-28/2025 UPDATE SESSIONS: I see this page has been neglected for a couple of years now, so, yes, it’s probably high time for the lot to be weeded, the shutters to be repaired, and a fresh coat of paint to be applied to the structure. By the end of 3/28’s business, we’ve 1) updated our Hall Of Fame (HOF) tracker section (jump to it here) and 2) the All-OBL teams (here), and 3) uploaded a new Cooperstown Comparison file (notes on the real HOF vs. our virtual alternative (new “mental fun” here).

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/////////~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**1/4/23 EXPRESS LANE NOTIFICATION: FOR OUR FINALIZED “GALLERY” OF (300) HALL OF FAME HONOREES, SCROLL DOWN BELOW THE “RetroPlay RE-set Hall Of Fame” GOLDEN PLAQUE ICON TO VIEW THE TEN 30-MAN (VIRTUAL) PLAQUES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FIRST THINGS FIRST. ALTERNATIVE NAMES FOR THIS VIRTUAL, NUMBERS-ONLY H.O.F. —

“RetroPlay RE-set Hall Of Fame” or… the “20/20 Hindsight Hall Of Fame”

As stated below, the formula that determines who makes this virtual HOF (or whatever it’s called) is very straightforward: RetroPlay Rating (RPR) = Career WAR (to 1 decimal point) times WAR-per-162-games (full season) rate (to one decimal point, as well); if a player’s (Career WAR) X (per-162 rate) = 225 or more, and he meets the PA/IP minimums, that player is automatically  “inducted” upon retirement. And we say “players” because this is a players-only Hall; no managers, executives, or “pioneers” in this virtual gallery of the players who had the most career impact on the field.

Other things to keep in mind:

1. The RPR formula is set up to reflect BOTH a sufficiently lengthy career (counting stat of Career WAR) and a career that has been consistently productive (rate stat of average WAR-per-162-games-played, indicating that the player had All-Star-type seasons — WAR of 5+ — year in and year out); it’s also designed to bypass the voting foibles of fans or veterans committees, such as cronyism and/or bias for or against contemporaries or direct rivals;
2. If a player gets to a healthy Career WAR total of 40 or 50 or so, but his per-162 average is only about 2.5 (indicating a starter, but not an All-Star, on average), well, his RPR total will be only 100 or 125, and he’s been exposed as someone who merely accumulated those career numbers over the course of a long career, and has not been consistently dominant or a true, virtually-annual All-Star (rhetorical question: is that a Hall-of-Famer in your book?);
3. a) We’re looking objectively at the metrics only, and not trying to assess character/morality/off-field behavior in any of this, and b) only regular-season performance is being weighed in the scales (subject to change if post-season data can be normalized, supplied, and added in somehow)

A preliminary event in the “lobby” before we enter the gallery of the greats…

Here is a teaser list in two parts; A) those still-active players who are either well on their way or at least on-track to-date (RPR of 225 or more at this reckoning), and B) retired players who have already gained admission to this HOF (though not necessarily the real one in Cooperstown, New York):

ACTIVE AND ON-TRACK THROUGH THE 2024 SEASON (in order of RetroPlay Rating, or RPR):

1. Mike Trout 86.0 CW x 9.2-per-162 = 791 RPR (6647 PA meets minimum); born in New Jersey
2. Mookie Betts 70.3 CW x 8.3-per-162 = 583 (6273 PA); born in Tennessee
3. Clayton Kershaw 79.3 CW x 6.3-per-162 = 499 RPR (2742 IP meets minimum); born in Texas
4. Aaron Judge 52.6 CW x 8.6-per-162 = 452 RPR (lacks minimum PA thru ’24); born in California
5. Justin Verlander 80.5 CW x 5.2-per-162 = 418 RPR (3415 IP); born in Virginia
6. Max Scherzer 75.3 CW x 5.5-per-162 = 414 RPR (2878 IP); born in Missouri
7. Paul Goldschmidt 62.6 CW x 5.3-per-162 = 331 RPR (8292 PA); born in Delaware
8. Jacob deGrom 45.0 CW x 7.0-per-162 = 315 RPR (lacks minimum IP thru ’24); born in Florida
9. Manny Machado 57.7 CW x 5.4-per-162 = 311 RPR (7517 PA); born in Florida
10. Nolan Arenado 56.5 CW x 5.4-per-162 = 305 RPR (7078 PA); born in California
11. Jose Ramirez 51.8 CW x 5.8-per-162 = 300 RPR (6086 PA); born in the Dominican Republic
12. Francisco Lindor 49.8 CW x 5.9-per-162 = 293 RPR (6116 PA); born in Puerto Rico
13. Freddie Freeman 60.7 CW x 4.8-per-162 = 291 RPR (8736 PA); born in California
14. Chris Sale 53.3 CW x 5.5-per-162 = 291 RPR (1958 IP); born in Florida
15. Carlos Correa 44.3 x 6.5-per-162 = 287 RPR (lacks minimum PA thru ’24); born in Puerto Rico
16. Shohei Ohtani 43.8 x 7.3-per-162 (Bat AND Pitch) = 262 RPR (lacking PA/IP); born in Japan
17. Bryce Harper 50.9 CW x 5.0-per-162 = 254 RPR (7085 PA); born in Nevada
18. Jose Altuve 52.9 CW x 4.7-per-162 = 248 RPR (8042 PA); born in Venezuela
19. [3 tied] Alex Bregman, Marcus Semien, Juan Soto currently at 229 RPR (thru 2024)
20. (22). Matt Chapman 37.7 CW x 6.0-per-162 = 226 RPR (lacks minimum PA); born in California

The following players have already been awarded Hall Of Fame status by the RetroPlay Project standards (retired from MLB with a 225 or better RPR and met minimum Plate Appearances or Innings Pitched requirements). These, too, are in order of RPR:

1. Alex Rodriguez 117.4 CW x 6.8-per-162 = 798 RPR (12207 PA); born in New York
2. Albert Pujols 101.2 CW x 5.3-per-162 = 536 RPR (13041 PA); born in the Dominican Republic
3. Zack Greinke 77.4 CW x 4.7-per-162 = 363 RPR (3389 IP); born in Florida
4. Chase Utley 64.6 CW x 5.4-per-162 = 348 RPR (7863 PA); born in California
5. Manny Ramirez 69.3 CW x 4.9-per-162 = 339 RPR (9774 PA); born in the Dominican Republic
6. Robinson Cano 68.7 CW x 4.9-per-162 = 336 RPR (9550 PA); born in the Dominican Republic
7. Joey Votto 63.6 CW x 5.0-per-162 = 318 RPR (8746 PA); born in Canada
8. Carlos Beltran 70.0 CW x 4.4-per-162 = 308 RPR (11031 PA); born in Puerto Rico
9. Dustin Pedroia 51.9 CW x 5.6-per-162 = 290 RPR (6777 PA); born in California
10. Andruw Jones 62.7 CW x 4.6-per-162 = 288 RPR (8664 PA); born in Curacao
11. Evan Longoria 58.9 CW x 4.8-per-162 = 282 RPR (8206 PA); born in California
12. Cole Hamels 59.0 CW x 4.7-per-162 = 277 RPR (2698 IP); born in California
13. Miguel Cabrera 67.2 CW x 3.9-per-162 = 262 RPR (11,796 PA); born in Venezuela
14. Josh Donaldson 46.8 CW x 5.5-per-162 = 257 RPR (5836 PA); born in Florida
15. Troy Tulowitzki 44.8 CW x 5.6-per-162 = 250 RPR (5415 PA); born in California
16. David Wright 49.1 CW x 5.0-per-162 = 245 RPR (6872 PA); born in Virginia
17. Bobby Abreu 60.2 CW x 4.0-per-162 = 240 RPR (10,001 PA); born in Venezuela
18. Buster Posey 45.0 CW x 5.3-per-162 = 238 RPR (5607 PA); born in Georgia
19. Mark Buehrle 59.0 CW x 4.0-per-162 = 236 RPR (3283 IP); born in Missouri
20. C.C. Sabathia 62.3 CW x 3.8-per-162 = 236 RPR (3577 IP); born in California
21. Andy Pettitte 60.2 CW x 3.9-per-162 = 234 RPR (3316 IP); born in Louisiana

2025 Notes: Of these 21 RetroPlay RE-set Hall Of Famers, only Sabathia has been voted into the actual HOF at Cooperstown so far. (His fellow real HOF inductee, Ichiro Suzuki, rates just short in this system at an RPR of 222; Billy Wagner had already made our RRHOF). Some haven’t appeared on the (MLB) ballot yet, some have been passed over so far, and one — quite oddly, I must say — dropped off the ballot after receiving ZERO votes in his first year of HOF eligibility (Tulowitzki). But remember: we go by stats only here; PED-use/allegations and character issues don’t come into play in the RRHOF criteria. It’s sufficient WAR numbers, minimum PA/IP requirements, and retirement here, and nothing else; about as objective as you can get.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*** 2/25/22 NOTE: The following section has been “grandfathered in” in order to explain how the RetroPlay system treats relief pitchers with regard to H.O.F. consideration.

Admittedly, something had to be done to accommodate the relief specialists, since WAR smiles on the innings-chewers, and not even one RP met even the original (experimental) threshold of 200 points, with the final cutoff settling in around 220. Even Mariano Rivera, the Gold Standard by which all relievers can be measured, came in short at 191 (career WAR of 56.2 multiplied by WAR-per-162-games of 3.4). Since we all should be able to agree that at least a small, representative contingent of the Relief-Specialist variety belongs in the Hall of Fame or a “Hall of Achievement,” if you prefer, some different criteria had to be developed to correct any across-the-board injustice at the hands of WAR and/or my use of it for all other players. So here’s what I hit upon, called the Relief-Specialists Index (RSI):

1. Set Rivera’s totals of Saves (652), Career WAR (56.2), and WAR Per 162 Games (3.4) at the 100th percentile in each of those 3 categories (RSI of 300);
2. Looked at each Relief Specialist inducted into Cooperstown and all relievers in MLB history with 300+ saves to compare their numbers with Rivera’s in each of the 3 categories (expressed as a ratio and resulting percentile; e.g, 326 saves would be 326/652, or 50% — for a total of 50 points in that category);
3. Worked through the numbers, added ’em up, and the top 8 were named RRHOF members in good standing (picked 8 because there were 8 official HOFers who had made the Hall primarily as relievers to that point). This way, apples are compared with apples, and ultimately with the “Golden Apple,” the only HOFer to go in with unanimous backing (100% of the vote).

Now with this RE-set HOF in place, all of the ensuing controversy can begin (if that’s your thing). In any case, what you’ll find here (all of this is IMHO, you understand, right?) is a more objective, numbers-only (and players-only) gallery of the very best diamond achievers; call it a “Hall of Achievement,” if you will, rather than a Hall of Fame. Admittedly, I’m leaning very heavily on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) as the best one-figure measure of seasonal or career performance (with any apology due to Bill James cheerfully offered; the fact is, WAR numbers are just so readily available and fairly-well standardized, even if the Win Shares system of Mr. James should prove to be a truer measure). I started out way back at the tail end of the 20th Century with the Batter-Fielder- and Pitcher- Wins system (Palmer and Thorn, et al, as seen in the Total Baseball encyclopedia series), but since I had to put the whole birthplace-based historical replay project on the shelf for almost two decades — as life took me in other directions — WAR came roaring in and supplanted previous systems. So I cast my lot with WAR as the most readily-available-yet-quite-accurate stat, and I’m sticking with that, building upon that statistical base.

Hence, the whole RRHOF “selection” process hinges on only two WAR figures, multiplied by each other. If a player’s career WAR total (__._) times his “per 162 games” average WAR (_._) equals or exceeds 225, he’s in (automatically, upon retirement; all questions of character, PED-usage, etc. are irrelevant here as factors, though I do have my opinions on how relevant they should be with regard to THE National Baseball HOF in Cooperstown). I think that when you see the “new” (RE-set) roll call of superior players (only, and according to less subjective criteria), the overall picture will be improved. But by all means, check out my claims, compare the numbers of the “ins” and the “outs,”and form your own opinion. Even controversy can be fun, right?

FORMULA, R.R.H.O.F. : RetroPlay Rating (RPR) = CAREER WAR (__._) X WAR AVG. PER 162 GAMES (_._). TOTALS OF 225+ EARN AUTOMATIC INDUCTION WHEN FULL CAREER IS “IN THE BOOKS” [NOTE, HOWEVER: RELIEF-SPECIALISTS GAUGED BY SEPARATE RELIEF-SPECIALIST INDEX (RSI)]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not to take anything away from those making the Top 300 list here in this virtual HOF, OR… from those who have been inducted into the real one at Cooperstown, but a few disclaimers are probably in order here, right at the top;

1. While many observers have been questioning for decades — with good reason, IMO — the validity of the National Baseball Hall Of Fame’s ever-changing balloting procedures and some — okay, several — selections that have resulted from those inconsistent procedures and the personalities involved, the reality is that it is what it is; it’s all actual history, the way things did happen, and nobody can change the past.
2. While I have no desire to try to “rewrite” history (truth be told, I despise that sort of thing), it seems to me that some (many?) players who are NOT honored with a plaque in Cooperstown are actually more deserving of that recognition than some who “reside” there; that, if things were less political and subjective, and more objectively considered, there would be a justifiable “swapping-out” of the luckier sorts with those who actually accomplished more on the field, only to be shortchanged well after the fact when it came to the ultimate honor for a baseball player (read: due to cronyism and voting foibles).
3. For me, a player’s career has two overarching benchmarks: TOTAL production/contributions for his teams and CONSISTENT DOMINANCE (compared with his contemporaries in his own leagues and eras). It’s my opinion that the RetroPlay Rating (RPR) does a good job of combining both aspects into a single number, so that’s our HOF measuring-stick.
4. IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: A) Probably the major difference between “Halls” is that here, ONLY regular-season performance has been measured and rated; no post-season accomplishments are factored in, and I’ll readily admit to this weakness in my system (I’m saying, “Uncle!” on that one); and, B) As I’ve mentioned in other places, while I do have my opinions on how much a “moral” component should play a part in the actual HOF (Cooperstown) voting, in this system — for better or worse — we’re looking at the numbers only.
5. MOST importantly, nobody is going to come to me and ask me to overhaul THE Hall; what is offered here is merely a virtual, alternative, what-if-things-had-been-different-all-along gallery of baseball greats, where the idea is more to give overdue recognition to some truly excellent players, than it is to diminish the reputations of others; if this is a “re-set” Hall at all, the whole effort is aimed at more objective justice in the arena of career-impact recognition.

Final notes of comparison, and on the process: When I recently consulted the official tally coming out of Cooperstown at the HOF site, the number of inductees voted in as players (to date) is close to 300 (out of 340 total, with the others going in as managers, executives, or pioneers). Since we don’t include any of those other categories here, it seemed appropriate to match those nearly-300 with the RetroPlay 300. Oddly enough — and I love it when things work out like this — the RPR cutoff that I’d chosen that seemed to be the most fair (225 or more “points”) drew a line that separated out almost exactly 300 players as Hall-worthy. But among those, 18 are still active (through 2021), and two (Dobie Moore and Charlie Keller) lacked plate appearances to qualify, so they’re tossed out. And when our Top 8 Relief Pitchers were added in (SEE ABOVE UNDER THE “2/25/22 NOTE”): Rivera, with 300 points in the separate Relief-Specialist Index (RSI); Eckersley (256 points in that computation); Wilhelm (200); Gossage (200); Hoffman (195); Lee Smith (180); Wagner (179); and Nathan (171), the RetroPlay RE-set HOF list came to include 284 retired players.

Feeling especially good through “self-confirmation bias” (delighted that my 225-point cutoff was fairly spot-on), I “generously” dropped the qualifying line to include exactly 300 retired players (remember once again, I’d included those still-active players in my rankings, and all of the close-to-300 players currently in Cooperstown are retired; in the interest of comparing apples with apples, there is now — by dropping the cutoff just a tad — something approximating a one-to-one correspondence (roughly 300 to 300) between the two “honor rolls”). [It should also be mentioned here that there’s a nice symmetry in the 300 being extracted from 150 seasons, or an average of 2 standout representatives per year; another one of those things where I’m just sayin’…]. As a result of these adjustments, the next 16 (retired) players in the RetroPlay Ratings could be granted admission (and probably, justifiably so). All in all, then, here’s who made the Top-300 cut, displayed via ten 30-player virtual plaques:

THE RETROPLAY.NET RE-SET HALL OF FAME GALLERY

To those who are veteran HOF-watchers, around 90% of the names will look quite familiar, as they appear in both “galleries.” In other cases, the new names might provoke some head-scratching, puzzled expressions, scrambling for statistical records, cursing, or even — just maybe — some more-positive commentary along the lines of, “Yeah, I thought so! I thought that [so-and-so] deserved to be in the Hall, and here are some reasons why he should be there!” I must say, putting as much weight on W.A.R. data and formulas as I do, I still ran across some real surprises. But after cross-checking the math, the same players emerged as worthy candidates, and unless extreme and arbitrary gerrymandering would be employed to subjectively bar certain players or types of players, these candidates could justifiably step across the threshold and into the elite gathering. For me, that was the lion’s share of the fun: I knew — we all knew, didn’t we? — that some Hall “residents” were there UN-worthily, if truth be told, but what about those who should be there, if the selection processes had been conducted more fairly and consistently? Ah,… there’s the real satisfaction: finding the largely-unrecognized diamonds of the diamond, and giving them their overdue moments in the sun.

COOPERSTOWN COMPARISON

3/28/25 SESSION NOTE: Finally got around to updating this 3-year-old file. Download an Excel-compatible version (first) and/or the PDF (below that). KEY: BP=Birthplace; REG=Region; CW=Career WAR; POS=Most-frequent/primary position; POS=other position(s); AVG FULL SEASON WAR=Pro-rated WAR over 162-games on average; RPR=RetroPlay Rating; RC=Regional Code; PC=Position Code (by official scorer’s numbering, generally in order of games played at the positions); Grid(s) in which the player’s included follow; and lastly, the pertinent comments (possible explanations for why this player is not in the real HOF, though he’s made it into our RetroPlay virtual Hall Of Fame, OR why the RetroPlay rating system seems to identify the player as possibly overrated (inducted into Cooperstown for reasons other than superior on-field (career, regular-season) performance (e.g., voter bias, post-season heroics, or mere anecdotal support, which tends toward subjective observations). Red-letter players have actually qualified at more than one position (500+ game appearances there, in most cases); they’re listed under the position at which they appeared most frequently during their MLB careers. The files are only 5 pages long, so be sure to check out the summary of our findings at the end of either version. Hope you enjoy this…

It probably goes without saying that a lot more could be done in this HOF-comparison area, and maybe down the road, the selection-processes of others will be imported and included here for further comparison. But for now, on Friday night, March 28, 2025, that’s your ballgame, folks.

3/31/2025 ADDENDUM: More to the Story

Here’s a brief follow-up to our Cooperstown (real HOF) vs. RRHOF (RetroPlay RE-set virtual HOF) comparison. The upshots were these: according to RPR criteria (career WAR x WAR rate-per-average-full-season), it seems we could swap out, one-for-one, 55 “residents of Cooperstown” with 55 players who seem to have been just as worthy to make it into the HOF (and would’ve been better selections if only the objective numbers were used as the determining basis, right from the start). This is in reference to “position players” (catchers, infielders, and outfielders, but not pitchers). When we applied RetroPlay Ratings to those who spent the vast majority of their careers as pitchers, we found 33 pitchers who exceeded 225 in RPR but were NOT voted into Cooperstown (at least, not yet), and 23 pitchers who fell short of that cut-off, but DID get elected to the real HOF. The reasons for being passed over vary widely, and they range from being fairly obvious in nature to completely speculative (see last column of the comparison chart above). Some of “our 88” simply have not been on the official ballot so far, or for only a year or two; they’re likely to make it eventually. But others have been unfairly overlooked — we contend — for years or even decades. Below is a table that’s been worked up to help illustrate how a case could be made for many of “our [suggested] 55” position players or “our [suggested] 33” pitchers as just-as-good or better HOF inductees. The objective numbers included in the table tell the story quite well, in my opinion (ACW=AVERAGE CAREER WAR; ARPR=AVERAGE RPR; TOTALS EXPRESS AVERAGES OF ALL POSITIONS):

As Cooperstown expands with its new inductees in the years to come, many of “our 88” will set up residence there, too, of course. But just look at the disparity between the stats and rates of many who remain “on the outside looking in” in comparison with many who have — it certainly seems — disproportionately benefitted from aggressive campaigners and anecdotal, more subjective “evidence” of on-field superiority to gain admission. Tommy McCarthy? Ray Dandridge? Lloyd Waner? Harold Baines? Really? And I’ll take Wes Ferrell over Rick (just sayin’…). But the point here is not to “kick out” any of those who got in, but to recommend — for further close consideration — the many who are most worthy, in “our” view, of election to the National Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. [Note: yes, I know that Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod, Sosa, and all of the others known as/regarded as cheaters skew the numbers of the non-Cooperstown RRHOFers, but remember: our virtual HOF is a numbers-only group, and there are still dozens of NON-cheaters that we see as real-deal worthies. They should be recognized as such; that’s the main point].

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All-OBL Teams (1901-1970)

***** Table of OBL All-League Teams (1901-1970); Best players by WAR, observing positional integrity in the context of where they played for their OBL team, and not necessarily for their MLB/NLB team that year. Hint: Use the slider to facilitate a widescreen view as needed.

O.B.L. 100TH-ANNIVERSARY TEAM (TOP 30 [37 WITH TIES] BY ALL-OBL SELECTIONS, 1871-1970)

ALL-OBL SELECTIONS FROM 1971 THROUGH 2020 (updated 3/27/2025)