Starting pitching is a considerably more difficult group to profile when it comes to the Hall of Fame. There are just too many differences across time to effectively treat all starting pitchers the same. If we were to take the top five starting pitchers according to the index on the

The common refrain from most baseball fans is that they know a Hall of Famer when they see one. I would politely point out that this is not necessarily the case. Let’s consider the following Player A and Player B test as it pertains to a statistic called Bases Per

One of the obstacles we encounter with analysis is overcoming the notion that all skills are created equal. Scouts begin this with the so-called five tools. Each tool is treated as sacrosanct and it those five tools even leaves out the most valuable tool on top of that (plate discipline).

When we get into left field we get into one of those situations where we have to eliminate a couple of players from consideration. Barry Bonds might have the highest index score in baseball history. We covered him in great detail in the book. Manny Ramirez obviously also has the

Sometimes the numbers are so overwhelmingly obvious that there is no sense in offering commentary to that end. Bill Dahlen is not only the most qualified shortstop not in the Hall of Fame. Is the most qualified player that is not connected to PEDs or gambling that is not in

When we get to third base, we get to one of those positions where we find a player that can have his situation rectified fairly easily. Scott Rolen has been on the ballot for three seasons and had his percentage jump to 35.3 percent in year three. If it jumps

The common refrain from the traditionalist and average fan is that they know a Hall of Famer when they see one. They don’t need fancy numbers to tell them who deserves to be in. The funny thing is that these folks often then quote numbers to argue their point. I’ve

One of the challenges of Hall of Fame analysis is bridging the gap between what the public wants and what the numbers bear out. The Hall of Fame Indexwas designed to crystallize the debate. One of the problems we often find is that people end up trumpeting players that have

The main idea behind The Hall of Fame Indexis that the question of whether any individual player is a Hall of Famer is the wrong question. The real question is which player is the most qualified player not in the Hall of Fame. This can only be broken down by

We finally get to the pitchers. This is the last of our series of articles where we compare current players with those they are similar to. In this edition we actually get a two for one. There are two active pitchers that are similar according to the Hall of Fame