Simmons may not have the hardware of Hall of Fame catching peers Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk, but he really isn't that far off. He was a key piece in four World Series titles for the Yankees, delivering numerous clutch hits along the way. He is hurt by the fact that he really only played 11 full seasons in the major leagues. Please seek professional guidance. The general rule is that 3,000 career hits is an automatic ticket to induction in the Hall of Fame and that generally remains the case, though there are a handful still on the outside looking. He ended with 2,712 hits, 1,493 RBI and a .290 average. Here are the best Hall of Fame candidates at each position. Considered one of the top dead-ball era players not in the Hall of Fame, Daubert was an excellent all-around players for the Brooklyn Superbas and Cincinnati Reds in the early 20th century. Ichiro is only renting space on this list. Claim to fame: Quietly, Oliver may have been one of the best hitters of the 1970s and '80s, amassing 2,743 hits and a .303 lifetime batting average, hitting above .300 eleven of his 18 seasons. Even though he hasn't played a Major League game in 109 years, Van Haltren still holds the National League record for reaching base in 60 straight games, accomplishing the feat in 1893. Notes: A minimum of 1,000 career games played and 1,000 career at-bats are needed to make this list, raw averages are presented to further clarify the one-thousand greatest career batting averages of all-time, and a bold faced entry denotes that the player was active during the previous Major League season. Hall of Fame Batting Register | Baseball-Reference.com Hall of Fame Batting Register Average Batting HOFer's stats include batters and player inductees only. I don't think Votto catches him in the power numbers even with 8 . The very worst position player ever selected to the Hall of Fame was Tommy McCarthy, a 19th-century outfielder. Total WAR. Some players are kept out because of theirtemperament, some didn't have a long enough peak and others are just totallyunderappreciated. Ryan racked up over 2,500 hits playing mostly for the Chicago Colts as the 19th century came to a close. His Hall of Fame case remains one of the most controversial and hes been bypassed by the Veterans Committee four times. His vote total was better than 12 players who eventually would be enshrined, including legendary players like Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Lefty Grove and Gabby Hartnett. Like Allen, Freehan played during baseball's second dead-ball period in the 1960s, causing his offensive statistics to be hindered. His 288 home runs ranked eighth in MLB history at the time of his retirement. It was the same year that Old Hoss Radbourn won 59 games. He ranked fifth in all-time hits when he retired. While his career .263 average is not too impressive, the .394 OBP and .588 slugging percentage more than make up for it, especially when we add his 584 career homers. Maris was considered a power show more content McCarthy had 170 Win Shares but only 14.6 WAR, for a Hall of Fame Value of 228.4. The 1945 NL MVP, Cavarretta played more seasons with the Cubs than anybody in the 20th century. The best argument Trammell supporters have in their quest for his enshrinement is that many people feel Trammell was superior to Ozzie Smith, a contemporary of his who waltzed into Cooperstown on the first ballot with 91.7 percent of the vote. One of the great crimes in modern Hall of Fame balloting is that Bill Freehan received just two votes in 1982, his only year on the ballot. Yost was a supremely talented defender who set American League records for third basemen in career putouts, assists and total chances by the end of his career. Palmeiro topped 30 home runs 11 times and batted over .300 six times. Be respectful even if you disagree. Reynolds made five All-Star games and had two top-three MVP finishes. The Hall of Fame case for Keith Hernandez starts with his brilliant glove-work at first base. Good ole Donnie Baseball Don Mattingly hit .307 and is not in the Hall of Fame. Since McCarthy was not BETTER than any other Hall of Famer, he also has a "zero" in front of his name. As Freehan's career was ending, catchers like Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter ushered in a new era of catcher. Walker batted .357 between 1997 and 2001, leading the National League in batting three of the four years in which he was eligible. He was also the premier first baseman in his league (the National League) while he was playing. Second, a player has to be eligible for induction. In the era between 1965 and 1990, Foster was the only player to hit 50 home runs. Pujols will obviously make the Hall of Fame one day, but right now the biggest question is if he reached the top 10 for most hits ever. Staub was an excellent player early in his career, and by the age of 27, he was already a five-time All-Star. Garvey was a remarkably consistent and clutch performer for the great Dodgers teams for over a decade in the 1970s and 1980s. According to not in WC! By. McNally may have had a short peak with the Baltimore Orioles, but what a peak it was. John was another compiler, but the fact that he was able to stick around long enough to compile those statistics is incredible in itself. Still, he should have gotten a little more support on the Hall of Fame ballot. No advertising or spamming is permitted. He drove home 1,707 runs while scoring 1,524 times. Belle finished his career on a run of nine straight seasons of 100 RBI. By the time it came to vote for Freehan in 1982, his numbers paled in comparison to those catching at the time. Smith had a long, productive career and while he was never great, he was often very good. A number of baseball's best hitters have come close to garnering 3,000 base hits over their major league careers. He lingered on the Hall of Fame ballot for the full 15-year run, never really threatening to be elected or dropped off the ballot. The 1960 National League MVP teamed with Bill Mazeroski to form one of the best defensive middle infields of his era. However, he remarkably made it back, and he was better than before. Vaughn middled around during the first six years of his career before winning 21 games for the Cubs in 1914. + - Indicates Hall of Famer. His career total of 1,614 walks ranks 11th all time. McInnis was a fine defender who set numerous fielding records as a first baseman. NL in hits in 1999 with 206. And replacing him with Jose Abreu, who just posted a 137 wRC+ and is a career .292/.354/.506 hitter is an unbelievable win for this front office. Bill Buckner Only four players who are eligible for the Hall of Fame and not enshrined have more hits than Buckner's. He still holds the Reds' franchise records for most wins by a righty with 161, and his 579 games pitched ranked eighth in NL history when he retired in 1945 after a 15-year career. His peak came in 1967 when he finished with 29 percent of the vote, ahead of 10 future Hall of Famers, including pitchers Hal Newhouser and Bob Lemon. Like Dave McNally, who appeared earlier on this list, Cuellar had a terrific, but brief, peak as a pitcher for the great Orioles' staff of the 1970s. He finished in the top 10 in MVP voting in each of his first four full seasons and six times overall. Glasscock got his start during baseball's infancy in 1879 as a shortstop for the Cleveland Blues. In five years, he will enter the Hall of Fame as one of the . Palmeiros steroid use led to everyone discounting his monstrous numbers. He also didn't thrive in the postseason, going 0-2 with an 8.44 ERA in four games. Dark received constant moderate support during his 15-year run on the MLB Hall of Fame ballot, frequently drawing more support than current Hall of Famers Bill Mazeroski, Richie Ashburn and Nellie Fox. His Hall of Fame candidacy peaked in 1995, his third year on the ballot. Pinson is a somewhat forgotten star of the 1960s Reds and a great bat to have atop the lineup. The two-time World Series winner finished his career with 2,182 hits and two injury-plagued seasons at the end of his career dropped his lifetime average below .300 to .296. Only four players who are eligible for the Hall of Fame and not enshrined have more hits than Buckner's 2,715. Hernandez was the 1979 MVP for the Cardinals and finished in the top 10 of MVP voting three straight years for the Mets. Reulbach led the league in winning percentage for three straight years from 1906 to 1908 when he compiled a record of 60-15 over the three-year period. His .688 winning percentage ranks fifth all time. The 10-time All-Star won the NL MVP in 1974 and led the NL in hits in both 1978 and 1980. In terms of overall productivity, the sweet spot for the average Hall of Famer is a WAR between 50 and 70. Only 40 of those 77 cross over onto . When Bill Veeck brought him back to the White Sox for a two-game stint in 1980, he became the first player to appear in five different decades and also became the last active former Negro League baseball player. He was a four-time All-Star and received MVP votes in eight consecutive seasons from 1938 to 1945. A young and promising Derringer was traded from the Cardinals to the Reds in 1932 for Hall of Famer Leo Durocher, and he would go on to become one of the great Reds pitchers of all time. O'Doul had just seven full seasons as an offensive player, but he had two top-three finishes in MVP voting. All four won at least 20 games in 1971. Herman's best seasons came in 1929 and 1930 when he combined to hit .387 over the two-year span. There are not a ton of pitchers in the Hall of Fame - the elections of Glavine and Maddux brings the total to 77 beginning with the inaugural class of 1936. He won just 43 games over his final seven seasons. He was the 1997 NL MVP after hitting .366 with 49 home runs, 130 RBI and 33 stolen bases. . White was the first-ever batter in National Association history. Staub may have cost himself an enshrinement when he chose to return to the Mets to mentor young players in a part-time role rather than seeking full-time work elsewhere late in his career. With Clark in the fold, it's easy to think that another World Series flag, or two, would be flying at Kauffman. There has been a "rule of thumb" in baseball for quite some time that any player who accumulates 3000 hits in his career will be elected to the Hall of Fame. Clark's career trajectory didn't continue on that path, though, as injuries robbed him of hundreds of games in the 1990s. He was the 1910 batting champion and was one of the top hitters on the Phillies during the first years of the 20th century. Raines' candidacy has been gaining momentum in the past few seasons, and it seems that one day he will take his place in Cooperstown. He will earn a salary of $32 million for the 2023 season, the Tigers will buy out his 2024 option for $8 million, and he will retire. Not only was he able to go far to his left and right, but he charged the bunt as well as anyone and had range back into foul territory. The 1964 NL MVP was a seven-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner. But when he was at his best, Reynolds could pitch with anybody. However, in his prime, he made seven straight All-Star games, had eight top-20 MVP finishes, won three Gold Gloves and three World Series titles. From 1988 to 1993, he batted .234 and averaged just 15 homers a season. Minoso is a player whose importance transcends hisaccomplishmentson the diamond. Because of this and a quick downfall to his production after age 35, Hodges amassed only 1,921 hits. The years he did play, though, he was unquestionably one of the top hitters in the league. His support waned from there, though. While he wasn't a superstar on the level of contemporaries like George Brett or Mike Schmidt, he wasn't far off from players like Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. Home Runs. He lasted just five years before falling off after getting just 4.8 percent of the vote in 2011. Ryne Sandberg : in his first year of eligibility in 2003 received 49.2% of the vote and gets enshrined in 2005 in his third year on the ballot receiving 76.2 . There just is no way to pick and choose who definitely did use steroids, who didn't and just what kind of impact they had on their play. He batted .398 that season and led the league with a .465 on-base percentage. Johnson played just 13 years, but topped 100 RBI eight times, 100 runs six times and 25 home runs six times. Despite his 119-121 record, Vander Meer consistently received over 20 percent of the votes in Hall of Fame balloting throughout hiseligibility. He was the 1978 NL MVP, won two World Series titles and received MVP votes in nine seasons, finishing in the top five of the voting five times. Even for people who think Smith was better than Trammell, it wasn't as much as their Hall of Fame ballot gaps suggest. 01, 2023, 6:00 a.m. 9. White became the second batting champion ever in the National League when he hit .387 in 1877. In the nine years prior to World War II, Travis had compiled a .327 average, topping .300 in eight of the nine seasons he played. Top 3 Seaons. Belle has a laundry list of reasons why this happened, so he has nobody to blame but himself, but there's no denying his ability as a player before his career was cut short by injuries. Edgar Martinez, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, could really hit the baseball. Overall, he received MVP votes in eightdifferentyears and won three Gold Gloves. Coombs, however, didn't have the longevity of his teammates and faded fast. Hodges lost three years early in his career to World War II, causing his breakout as a player to be delayed until he was 25 years old. Brown was a six-time All-Star and finished in the top six in Cy Young voting five times. The plaque dedicated to Sanford 'Sandy' Koufax at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New . His .564 slugging percentage ranks 14th all time. From 1946 to 1950, he won 20 games four times, leading the league with 24 wins and 28 complete games in 1948. Baseball Hall of Fame after playing much of his career as a designated hitter. It was one of the truly remarkable runs of success in the decade. Not for me. He was a six-time All-Star and a three-time top-five MVP finisher. Of his 310 career starts, 298 of them were complete games. Lopat didn't have the longevity to be seriously considered for the Hall of Fame. Raines' role as a part-time player over his last six years caused him to miss out on reaching 3,000 hits, as he fell short with 2,605. He had enough support to stay on the Hall of Fame ballot for the maximum of 15 years, garnering 88 votes in 2008, his final year. His best representation on the Hall of Fame ballot came in 1981 when he received 62 votes, which was more than Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski and just shy of Orlando Cepeda's total. You won't find Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe or Eddie Cicotte on this list. 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