Left Out In The Cold
While the Veteran's Committee appears poised to recognize the usual big market suspects (incl a deserving Ron Santo) later today, Diamondhacks peacefully counter demonstrates by highlighting three seldom discussed candidates who clearly wont get in - but who should.
If a pitcher had five twenty win seasons and a career 2.92 ERA, would you believe he's not in the Hall of Fame? What if his 207-126 lifetime mark was more games over .500 (81) than Bob Gibson or Sandy Koufax? Or more than Nolan Ryan and Bert Blyleven combined, and he still wasnt in Cooperstown? You might say I'm nuts, 
but I'd say his name is Carl Mays.
The submarining Mays, infamous for fatally beaning Ray Chapman in 1920, was not as spectacular as those initial stats suggest. He pitched on several marvelous teams when ERAs in the threes and twos wasn't unusual - and when four man rotations facilitated 20 win seasons. So he wasnt Christy Mathewson or Roger Clemens - but that's not the standard with which the Veteran's Committee is tasked. Their job is to determine second rung Hall of Famers, a station that Carl Mays comfortably occupies, alongside deserving HOFers like Jim Bunning, Bob Lemon and Bruce Sutter.
When a pitcher wins 200 games and finishes 81 games above .500, there oughtta be a law he gets in regardless. It's somewhat analogous to a batter who accumulates 2000 hits and hits .350 lifetime - at some point the context slips away and you're left with a heckuva player who shouldn't be denied recognition.
Another statistically deserving but unpopular candidate is **** Allen. It seemed Allen was always at odds with fans or teammates or managers or the press, but he could really, really hit. A few months ago, BoSox partisans regaled us with tales of and how universally feared Jim Rice was. I remember. I was there.
I'm also old enough to know he wasnt nearly as scary as **** Allen was over the span of their respective careers. Allen's career park adjusted OPS+ was 156 - the same as Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. He obviously wasnt the all around players they were, nor was his career as long, but he was an MVP caliber player in six separate seasons, winning just once. Allen finished in the league's top ten in OPS+ in ten different seasons, and on that basis was likely one of the fifty or so greatest hitters of all time.
It must be hard for Allen, who's been snubbed by the writers and the Veteran's Committee, to listen to fans of Jim Rice and Andre Dawson caterwaul about the injustices of the BBWAA system. The truth is that Rice and Dawson, good as they were, couldn't launder Richie Allen's jock. He was as far above them, as hitters, as they were above Khalil Greene and Orlando Hudson.
The third underrated oldtimer deserving a shout is Cuban Minnie Minoso. Best known for playing in five different decades, the speedy White Sox leftfielder was a remarkable Hall 
of Fame caliber player. Minoso (pictured, far right) actually wasnt a very good base stealer(61%), but here's what else he did. Three gold gloves. Seven all star teams. He led the AL in HBP ten of eleven years and was Top 10 in AL OPS+ eight times, which is as often as Jim Rice and Andre Dawson combined. A Top 10 performance was easier when the league had fewer teams, but bear in mind that, due to his race, this unusually well rounded, efficient player didnt play regularly in the bigs til age 28.
In 1955, Ted Williams said of all the sluggers, Minoso had the best shot to hit .400 and Bill James rates Minnie as the tenth best left fielder ever, between enshrinees Stargell and Billy Williams. What is the Veteran's Committee thinking, warming up to Bill Mazeroski and Tommy LaSorda, while leaving giants like Minnie out in the cold?
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Yes to Mays.
If you put in Santo, you have to put in Graig Nettles because Nettles was a better player.
As for Minoso and Allen, you have to look at similar players and decide whether they're HOFers or not. Is George Foster a HOFer? Rusty Staub? Vada Pinson? If you put in Allen, there will be a "similar player" argument for the others mentioned. As far as I'm concerned Pinson, Staub and Foster aren't HOFers.
One name that pops up is Don Mattingly. Now that I think about it, Kirby Puckett made it to the HOF with borderline stats because he had an injury that derailed his career. Wouldn't Mattingly's bad back qualify as an injury that derailed a sure-fire HOF career? Their numbers are very, very similar and the end of their careers came at about the same age due to injury. Does Puckett's glaucoma gain precedence over Mattingly's bad back as a legitimate way to end a potential HOF career and get the player inducted?
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I just can't see how leading the league in getting hit by pitches is an HOF credential.
But if it is, then maybe Carlos Quentin has HOF potential.
Byrnesblogger1
Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes
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Cooperstown wouldn't spontaneously combust if Nettles got in, but I'm surprised you think he was better, or even as good as, Ron Santo. Even conceding Graig was the superior fielder(despite Santo's better range factor and 5 gold gloves to Nettles' two), Santo was such a better hitter than Nettles that I hardly think the glove discussion matters much. Santo slugged .464, Nettles .421. Big difference. Nettles walked a fair amount to augment a .248 lifetime BA, but Santo hit .277 and led the NL in walks four times, despite the fact Ernie Banks often hit behind him. And he did it in the heart of the sixties when runs were relatively scarce, even at Wrigley Field. I know there's this image of Santo as just another overrated Cub who hit 30 HRs every year, and why are we electing all these Cubs to the HOF when the teams never won anything, but he was a deceptively efficient and grossly underrated player.
I agree the stats for Kirby and Donnie B are a wash, and that their overall HOF credentials are very similar. Beyond Puck's popularity, however, perhaps the biggest difference between them was that Matty was a GG first baseman and Kirby a GG centerfielder.
Are you nominating any other LH hitting New Yorkers for consideration, Chris Chambliss or HoJo perhaps? ;-)
I often use your 'similar players' argument to rail against Rice, Dawson,etc. but I dont believe any of the fellas you mentioned hit anything like **** Allen. Foster may've been closest and he wasnt anywhere near Allen - not in context anyway.
And Minoso's race-truncated career is different from an injury shortened one in that when we extrapolate "what could have been", we're not dreaming about a guy with a bad back or glaucoma,or a Cessna for that matter, but rather a guy who actually played great baseball outside of MLB for many years as well as finally playing great within it.
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Kellia,
You're right that HBP certainly isnt a stand alone HOF critera. I was mostly trying to convey a flavor for what kind of player Minoso was, and also to help explain how a basically overlooked oldtimer could have compiled some startling OPS figures.
The HBPs weren't his most valuable attribute - he simply did that on top of everything else. Despite his severely truncated career, he still played more MLB games (1835) than DiMaggio and hit .298. Killer .389 OBP. And note how Ted Williams referred to him as a 'slugger'. He was all that and a bag of chips.
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Y'know what? I've changed my mind on Santo. I may have been biased for Nettles because I remember seeing him play. In looking at the stats, Santo was a better player with much better stats. I find it hard to believe he could've been a better fielder than Nettles, but the hitting stats are there for Santo to be inducted. Not so for Nettles. Robin Ventura was a better player than Nettles in fact and Ventura's no HOFer.
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I grew up with Nettles too and he was quite good. I was surprised to learn he only won two gold gloves actually, cuz he could pick it. I think he's pretty clearly one of the top twenty at his position ever, but for some reason, voters dont care much for third base. There's only ten third sackers (excluding negro leaguers) in Cooperstown, fewer than any other position.
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Nettles would have won a bunch more, but he got caught in the tail end of Brooks Robinson's run; then there were his contemporaries such as the late Aurelio Rodriguez who was a GREAT fielder; and Buddy Bell who won six straight from 1979-1984
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Yeah, I forgot about all those other guys. Auerelio threw so hard, I'd almost feel bad for the first baseman. I found this creepy nugget on his wiki page:
"There have been three players in major league history named Aurelio, and all three were killed in car accidents between the ages of 44 and 53. See also Aurelio Lopez and Aurelio Monteagudo"
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