The best player not in the Baseball Hall of Fame at each position

The Hall of Fame has been at a crossroads for over a decade due to uncertainty over how to consider what I call the ‘PED Five’, which sounds like a gang of outlaws who used to rob stagecoaches and salons in Dodge City: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro. A group that has now expanded to also include Manny Ramírez and Alex Rodríguez.

To make the Hall of Fame debates even more disorienting, in recent years the various veterans committees have been enormously (what’s the correct term here?) Magnanimous in their selections. Don’t get me wrong, Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Harold Baines, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva and Gil Hodges were excellent players and it will be especially nice to see Kaat and Oliva, both in their 80s, consecrated this summer. It is also fair to say that none of these players went up the overall level of the Hall of Fame. Kaat has his career-highest WAR of that group at 50.5, a total surpassed by 18 of the 30 players on the ballot this year.

Before you jump into my case, no, it’s not the Hall of WAR. That’s just a barometer to consider, although career value and stats have generally been the talking points for a player’s candidacy, not fame or popularity or even contributions made in the postseason.

In a sense, the lack of a clear bar has turned off some fans in the entire process, myself included. I am still a couple of years away from being eligible to vote, but my general philosophy would be as follows:

(1) The Hall has chosen Bud Selig, John Schuerholz, Pat Gillick, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, and Tony La Russa, all of whom enabled, ignored, or simply did not care about substance use in baseball. I don’t see how Bud Selig can be inducted into the Hall of Fame after he presided over the sport during the steroid era and not Barry Bonds.

(2) Does this player raise the average Hall of Fame level?

With that second factor in mind, there is a follow-up question to ask: Who is the best player at each position who is not currently in the Hall of Fame? Each candidate should not be analyzed in isolation. So let’s take a look at the top players not currently in Cooperstown at each position: