SLAM DUNK
Best hitter during the Fingers League's first decade. Currently the career leader in home runs and runs batted in. Hit over 60 home runs in a season five times including 77 in Season 2. Took home four MVP awards - two in each league. Won three WS rings for froidl's MAPS. Six-time all-star, four-time silver slugger, and one gold glove.
career - 2046 G / .295/.375/.590/.965 / 601 HR / 1652 RBI / 2211 H / 1388 R
playoffs - 81 G / .276/.345/.571/.916 / 27 HR / 59 RBI / 89 H / 52 R
THE REST
There's only one postion player eligible that has a reasonable case to get into the Hall. And I'm even stretching for it with him. Harry Hinch. He leads the rest of the eligble players in runs, home runs and runs batted in. Had eight straight season of 100+ runs, nine straight seasons of 40+ home runs and ten straight seasons of 100+ RBIs.
The knocks against him are: low career batting average, playoff regressions and peer comparison.
Hinch is a .263 lifetime hitter. That's 30 points lower than both Pedro Alvarez and Season 15 HOF inductee Nolan Wall. He did walk the third most times in league history but he also struck out the most times (struck out one more time than Alvarez did). Only hit .234 in 214 playoff at bats. AB per HR jumps from 12.8 in regular season to 21.4 in playoffs. He also had more strikeouts than hits during October.
1737 G / .263/.368/.541/.909 / 503 HR / 1335 RBI / 1697 H / 1187 R - HINCH
1729 G / .293/.378/.581/.959 / 475 HR / 1457 RBI / 1908 H / 1270 R - WALL
2046 G / .295/.375/.590/.965 / 601 HR / 1652 RBI / 2211 H / 1388 R - ALVAREZ
The first thing is Wall and Hinch played nearly the same amount of games. But even though Wall hit 28 less home runs than Hinch in that time, Wall's SLG is 40 points higher and OPS is 50 points higher. Wall also drove in more runs, scored more times and had more hits. You can clearly see that Alvarez and Wall are more comparable than Wall and Hinch.
PITCHERS
There's around five pitchers that will draw some HOF consideration. Though it's doubtful that any one of the five will receive enough votes to be inducted. Two are former starting pitchers and the three others closed ball games.
Former NL East rivals Steven Morgan and Dario Thomas are the most qualified starting pitcher candidates. But like any HOF starting pitcher candidate they will need to uphold to the Frank Chong test. Here's a look how well do these two stack up against the greatest pitcher in Fingers League's first decade.
385 GS / 182-104 / 3.78 ERA / 2616.0 IP / 1885 K / 639 BB / .266/.313/.409/ 1.28 WHIP - MORGAN
356 GS / 170-88 / 3.68 ERA / 2328.2 IP / 1639 K / 710 BB / .250/.311/.380/ 1.26 WHIP - THOMAS
397 GS / 189-108 / 3.17 ERA / 2913.0 IP / 2284 K / 697 BB / .238/.290/.361/ 1.15 WHIP - CHONG
Chong trumps both players in nearly every category. Neither stands toe-to-toe with Chonger. With 13 All-Star appearances between Morgan and Thomas it's easy to see that they were at one time great pitchers. But were they HOF-caliber?
CLOSERS
Who will be the Fingers League's first closer to make the HOF? Will it be one of the three former elite closers with over 248 career saves up for debate? David Walsh, Miguel Santana and Tino Kimura are those three closers. Here's how their numbers stack up:
727 G / 56-65 / 321 SV / 3.81 ERA / 818.2 IP / 566 K / 222 BB/ .251/.307/.383/ 1.25 WHIP - WALSH
765 G / 50-55 / 248 SV / 3.06 ERA / 892.1 IP / 698 K / 209 BB/ .215/.267/.318/ 1.03 WHIP - SANTANA
556 G / 40-37 / 276 SV / 3.63 ERA / 575.0 IP / 426 K / 209 BB/ .253/.320/.372/ 1.35 WHIP - KIMURA
Despite having the least amount of saves and personal accolades of the three Santana was clearly the most dominating pitcher. I would think any owner would want the guy with the .215 OAV and 1.03 WHIP to shut the door of our games. In five different seasons Santana had a WHIP below 1.00. The other two closers did it once combined.
The question for you is: Did any of them do enough for the HOF?
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