After the 2012 Hall of Fame ballot results were announced, I thought it would be cool to take a historical look at those players who were on the standard BBWAA ballot at least once, and didn’t receive even one vote. I presented the respective “career category leaders” within that group.
I did this again with the 2013, 2014 , 2015 and 2016 results. So now that the 2017 voting is completed, we have 11! new “one and done” no-vote names to consider (Casey Blake, Pat Burrell, Orlando Cabrera, Mike Cameron, J.D. Drew, Carlos Guillen, Derrek Lee, Melvin Mora, Arthur Rhodes, Freddy Sanchez, Matt Stairs). So here are the updated leaders (it turns out none of the 2017 crowd crashed the leaderboard):
Years played: 21 – Frank Tanana, Danny Darwin, Ron Fairly
Games: 2,442 – Ron Fairly
At-bats: 8,044 – Ruben Sierra
Runs: 1,249 – Ray Durham
Hits: 2,192 – Cecil Cooper
Homers: 355 – Greg Vaughn
RBI: 1,322 – Ruben Sierra
Stolen Bases: 620 – Otis Nixon
Walks: 1,263 – Ken Singleton
Batting Average: .302 – Sean Casey
On-base Percentage: .400 – Brian Giles
Slugging Percentage: .507 – Richie Sexson
OPS: .902 – Brian Giles
OPS+: 132 – Brian Giles
Wins: 240 – Frank Tanana
ERA (starter): 3.07 – Bob Veale
ERA+ (starter): 117 – Gary Nolan
H/9 (starter): 7.03 – Sam McDowell
H/9 (reliever): 6.99 – Mitch Williams
K/9 (starter): 8.86 – Sam McDowell
K/9 (reliever): 8.74 – Dan Plesac
WHIP (starter): 1.145 – Gary Nolan
WHIP (reliever): 1.193 – Eddie Fisher
Appearances: 1,178 – Mike Stanton
Games Started: 616 – Frank Tanana
Saves: 326 – Roberto Hernandez
Innings pitched: 4,188.1 – Frank Tanana
Strikeouts: 2,773 – Frank Tanana
WAR (position players): 59.8 – Jim Wynn
WAR (pitchers): 55 Frank Tanana
Here is the updated possible 25-man roster from this group, based on highest WARs for each position. Congrats to Mike Cameron, Derrek Lee and Carlos Guillen for joining the team.
Giles’ hideous 2009 final season must be part of the reason why he received no HOF votes. He was a fine player (his closest comp is Reggie Smith), and he was certainly perceived as one of the best at his position while he was playing. However, he got his only World Series opportunity before he became a regular; was never a big factor in any of the postseason series in which he participated; spent most of his career in the baseball backwaters of Pittsburgh and San Diego; and unwisely put up his very best numbers in seasons when Barry Bonds was re-writing the record books. He drew only 80 fewer career walks than Ken Singleton.
Not a HOFer, but in my opinion he deserved better than the goose egg he got. Happy 46th birthday, Brian Giles.