Historic Photos: 1937 AL All-Stars

Described in the original caption as "a million dollar baseball flesh," the seven All-Stars in this photo represented a combined million dollars in annual salary.  Today, you might be able to buy a utility infielder with a million dollars, but in 1937 it was enough for seven future Hall of Famers.

From left to right, they were: Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg.  All seven would eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and to this day are still among the all-time greats, even when compared to other Hall of Famers.  In his New Historical Baseball Abstract (2001), Bill James ranks Gehrig, Foxx, and Greenberg first, second, and eighth respectively in his list of the all-time greatest first basemen.  He also ranks Dickey seventh at catcher, Gehringer eighth at second base, Cronin eighth at shortstop, and DiMaggio fifth in center field.  In short, every single player in the photo ranks among the top ten all-time at their position, including three of the top ten first basemen.

Worst Pitchers in the Hall of Fame

In continuing my theme of the best and worst players & pitchers in and out of the Hall of Fame, here's my list of the ten worst pitchers in the Hall of Fame, according to WAR (Wins Above Replacement). This list excludes those, such as Babe Ruth, Candy Cummings, or John Montgomery Ward, who pitched extensively, but are in the Hall of Fame for other reasons.

10. Bob Lemon 1946-1958 (42.4)
9. Addie Joss 1902-1910 (40.9)
8. Dizzy Dean 1930-1947 (39.6)
7. Chief Bender 1903-1925 (38.5)
6. Burleigh Grimes 1916-1934 (37.2)
5. Herb Pennock 1912-1934 (36.9)
4. Jesse Haines 1918-1937 (33.8)
3. Jack Chesbro 1899-1909 (33.2)
2. Catfish Hunter 1965-1979 (32.5)
1. Rube Marquard 1908-1925 (28.5)

Certainly, some of these players do in fact deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. For players like Lemon, Joss, and Chesbro, their low WAR numbers have a lot to do with the fact that they pitched very well, but over relatively short MLB careers. Joss, in fact, only pitched for nine seasons, yet the Hall of Fame waived the 10-year requirement for him, since he died before the start of his tenth season.

However, for others such as Chief Bender and Jesse Haines, they were not particularly dominating at any point in their careers, yet they were rather inexplicably elected to the Hall of Fame anyway. Haines, for example, never led the league in any significant statistic, and finished with a mediocre 3.64 ERA and just 210 wins, which is fairly low for a Hall of Famer.

According to the list, Rube Marquard is the worst pitcher in the Hall of Fame, and I would tend to agree with this conclusion. With a 201-177 win-loss record, a 103 ERA+, and one season in which he led the NL in wins, there isn't really much that stands out about him, yet he was somehow elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971 anyway.

Interestingly, only one of the players on this list retired fairly recently (Hunter, in 1979); everyone else has been retired for over 50 years. Perhaps the Hall of Fame voters have decided upon stricter standards for pitchers? After all, it took Bert Blyleven 14 years to get elected, and while his stats aren't amazing, they make him look like Cy Young when compared to Rube Marquard. And then there's Luis Tiant, who I still think deserves to be elected, especially when considering some of the ones who have already been elected. But, then again, what is standard for electing someone to the Hall of Fame? Do you just have to be better than the worst person in, or is the standard somewhere above that? We may never know.

Best Pitchers Not in the Hall of Fame

Last year, I took a look at the top ten eligible position players who are not in the Hall of Fame, based solely on the Wins Above Replacement Player statistic. Now, I decided to take a look at the top ten pitchers who have not yet made it into Cooperstown. Whether or not they deserve to be included remains to be seen, although I would argue that at least a few of them certainly are deserving. The list excludes a number of recently retired players (Maddux, Clemens, Glavine, Schilling, etc.) who would be ranked higher than these pitchers. Because they are not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame, they are not included here.

10. Larry Jackson 1955-1968 (55.6)
9. Charlie Buffinton 1882-1892 (56.1)
8. David Cone 1986-2003 (57.5)
7. Jerry Koosman 1967-1985 (58.8)
6. Tommy John 1963-1989 (59.0)
5. Luis Tiant 1964-1982 (60.1)
4. Jim McCormick 1878-1887 (64.7)
3. Kevin Brown 1986-2005 (64.8)
2. Tony Mullane 1881-1894 (65.1)
1. Rick Reuschel 1972-1991 (66.3)

For purpose of comparison, Cy Young is the all-time pitching WAR leader, at 146. Roger Clemens and Walter Johnson are second and third, respectively, with 128.4 and 127.7. Interestingly, while most of the top position players who are not in the Hall of Fame are recently retired, only Cone and Brown have just recently become eligible. All of the other players have had years of consideration for the Hall of Fame, with some, such as Tiant and John, becoming controversial borderline candidates. If it were up to me, both of them would be in Cooperstown, and I would probably give some consideration to Tony Mullane, although I'm not too familiar with him or other 19th century players. The other seven, however, I would say would not end up on my ballot if I had a say in it.

Worst Position Players in the Hall of Fame

While looking at the top 10 players who are not in the Hall of Fame, I decided to take a look at the 10 Hall of Famers who have the lowest WAR, or wins above replacement. THe list is as follows:

10. Jim Bottomley 1B 1922-1937 (32.4)
9. Chick Hafey OF 1924-1937 (29.5)
8. Freddie Lindstrom 3B 1924-1936 (29.2)
7. Bill Mazeroski 2B 1956-1972 (26.9)
6. George Kelly 1B 1915-1932 (24.3)
5. Lloyd Waner OF 1927-1945 (24.3)
4. Rick Ferrell C 1929-1947 (22.9)
3. Ray Shalk C 1912-1929 (22.6)
2. Monte Irvin* OF 1949-1956 (20.5)
1. Tommy McCarthy OF 1884-1896 (19.0)

*Monte Irvin played about half of his career in the Negro Leagues prior to the integration of Major League Baseball.

This list wasn't too surprising; I have heard all of these names, aside from Irvin, come up in the past in regards to some of the least deserving Hall of Famers. And I have to say, Tommy McCarthy definitely has a good case for being the worst player in the Hall of Fame. Even the oft-criticized George Kelly looks like Babe Ruth compared to him. His WAR places him as #797 on the list, which is slightly lower than modern players like Adam Kennedy and Orlando Cabrera. The Fan EloRater at baseball-reference.com ranks him as the 847th best hitter in baseball history, putting him just ahead of B.J. Upton. Go figure.

Best Position Players Not in the Hall of Fame

For this post, I decided to take a look at the best players who, so far, have not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although there's no single statistic that can accurately and objectively measure a player's worthiness in the Hall of Fame, I decided to examine the WAR (wins above replacement) statistic, which takes into account how valuable a player has been to his team over the course of his career, when compared to a "replacement player," a hypothetical player whose ability is about the same as that of a typical minor league call-up or readily available free agent. So, if a player has a WAR of 50, he would have, statistically speaking, enabled the teams that he was playing for to win about 50 more games over the course of his career than if those teams had gone with a marginal major league player/minor leaguer.

For the purposes of this list, I have selected the top 10 players who are eligible for the Hall of Fame (retired for 5 years and not on any ineligible list, i.e. Pete Rose and Joe Jackson), but have not yet been elected. The list is as follows:

10. Rafael Palmeiro 1B 1986-2005 (66)
9. Ron Santo 3B 1960-1974 (66.4)
8. Alan Trammell SS 1977-1996 (66.9)
7. Edgar Martinez DH 1987-2004 (67.2)
6. Larry Walker OF 1989-2005 (67.3)
5. Bobby Grich 2B 1970-1986 (67.6)
4. Barry Larkin SS 1986-2004 (68.9)
3. Lou Whitaker 2B 1977-1995 (69.7)
2. Bill Dahlen SS 1891-1911 (75.9)
1. Jeff Bagwell 1B 1991-2005 (79.9)

Not surprisingly, half of the players on this list have been on the Hall of Fame ballot only once or twice so far. it often takes years for even highly qualified candidates to make it, so some of them will likely be in soon. A few however, such as Palmeiro and Bagwell, might have some trouble because of steroid questions. More surprising is the lack of support for players such as Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, and Bobby Grich. Although their stats compare favorably to other middle infielders, I think part of the problem for them is that they did not play for big market teams, so their achievements often went unnoticed. I would have a hard time imagining them not being in the Hall of Fame had they played for New York, Boston, St. Louis, Los Angeles, or Chicago.