The One and Done Dream Team

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Issue #216

The recent BBWAA Hall of Fame vote saw three new members elected: OF Ichiro Suzuki, SP CC Sabathia, and RP Billy Wagner. We also had ten players—all of them first-time candidates—fail to get the required minimum of 5% of the votes needed to remain on the ballot for another shot next year. These were: Ian Kinsler, Russell Martin, Brian McCann, Tory Tulowitzki, Adam Jones, Curtis Granderson, Ben Zobrist, Fernando Rodney, and Hanley Ramirez.

This made me wonder: how do these ten “one and done” players compare with the many other players throughout the years who were also only on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot for one year?

The Hall of Fame voting criteria for the BBWAA has shifted a bit over the years. For instance, the limit of 10 years on the ballot started in 2014 (from 1962-2014 it was 15 years). But for this exercise, a key rule change came in 1979: up until the limit of years is reached, a player will stay on the ballot for another year if they achieve a minimum of 5% of the vote.

So for this analysis, that is how far back I went. Here is the Dream Team roster I came up with of players who only appeared on the BBWAA roster one time since 1979:

I would argue that some of these players are amongst the very best, from their respective positions, who are not (yet) in the Hall of Fame: 2B Lou Whitaker and Bobby Grich, CF Kenny Lofton, and RP Dan Quisenberry come to mind for sure.

Bobby Grich certainly has his advocates for the Hall, but the more blatant issue at 2B to me is Lou Whitaker. His long-time Detroit double-play partner Alan Trammell was given 15 chances and saw his vote total rise from an initial 15.7% in 2002 to a high of 40.9% in 2016. He was selected by the Veterans committee two years later with 81% of that vote. Whitaker only got 2.9% of the vote in 2001 and so never had another look by the BBWAA. He did get 37.5% of a Veterans Committee vote in 2020, so hopefully he’ll get selected the next time he is up for consideration.

Although not literally teammates, relievers Bruce Sutter (1976-86, 88) and Dan Quisenberry (1979-90) were certainly contemporaries. They have a high 902.5 similarity rating, a concept that Bill James came up with in the mid-1980s. Interestingly, they pitched almost the exact same number of career innings: 1,043.1 for Quisenberry and 1,042 for Sutter. They both essentially had eight effective seasons, and their career ERAs were similar, with Quisenberry’s actually being a bit better: 2.76 ERA and 146 ERA+ vs. 2.83 ERA and 136 ERA+ for Sutter. They also both had a unique pitching attribute: Sutter’s was his split-fingered fastball, which led to a lot of whiffs, while Quisenberry threw not just sidearm but submarine, leading to a lot of groundouts.

Yes, Sutter had 300 career saves vs. only 244 for Quisenberry. But they both led their respective leagues in saves five times. And frankly, both of those career saves totals have been diminished over time given the way relievers are used today, and the longer careers that some closers have had since the time of Bruce and Dan.

Sutter was an All-Star five times, vs. only three times for Quisenberry. And Sutter won the NL Cy Young Award in 1979. But they both placed sixth or higher in the Cy Young Award voting an impressive five times. So all of this similarity is why it is rather odd that Sutter started with 23.9% of the Hall of Fame vote in 1994, and eventually was elected with 76.9% of the vote in 2006 in his 13th year… while Quisenberry only managed to get 3.8% of the vote in 1996 and therefore fell off the ballot.

There are many other names on the roster above that I sometimes hear deserve another look by a committee vote, such as CF Kenny Lofton, CF Jim Edmonds, RF Reggie Smith, C Bill Freehan, C Jorge Posada, SP Johan Santana, SP Rick Reuschel, SP David Cone, and others.

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No votes at all!

A related and also interesting question is: who are the best players who were not only “one and done,” but who didn’t even get any votes at all (that is, not just under 5% in their one year on the ballot, but 0%)? Here my analysis comes up with this interesting Dream Team roster of players:

I see many fine ballplayers here, but admittedly few if any that I’d advocate for the Hall of Fame. So if I wouldn’t vote for them, how could I expect anyone else to either? In that sense, their not getting any votes in their one year on the ballot makes sense—though comparatively speaking, I think some of these guys are better than some others who received at least a little voting love.

So… what do you think? Let me know in the comments, or vote in the poll below!