by Erwin Wardman, Yellow Springs Nine Beat Reporter
Yellow Springs, OH - I'm simply delighted to have been invited by the BBA Writers Association to start voting for the Hall of Fame. I was told they would have asked me sooner, but it's almost like I didn't exist until a week ago. I've been watching baseball for many years, going back to before I was even able to go to school. I remember finding baseball cards and being delighted at them, obsessing over their stats. And now here I am, writing about the Yellow Springs Nine, one of the most successful counting stats teams of all time. Obsessed with remaining winners, yet afraid to go for it all.
I think because of how I first came to baseball, I'm probably a little bit old-fashioned in that I prefer solid, countable stats that I can sink my teeth into and feel on the diamond rather than the more advanced metrics that start putting x in front of them all the time. To me, if I see an x-rating, I want to be watching people enjoying themselves naked, not trying to decipher which person was two feet away from the bag while the pitcher spat towards first base. I believe that the Hall should be a reward for players who end their careers at the top of the leaderboards. You can call 3000 hits or 3000 strikeouts counting stats that don't matter, but I will tell you their teams valued every single one of a man's 500 home runs. And you can gauge those counting stats to see how they were acquired. Did they get to 200 wins by begging to be the reliver in a tied game their final few times out to the mound? Then don't give them credit. But I'd still take them over a man who had insane exit velocity. That's NASCAR, son, who cares about speed.
All that being said, it doesn't mean I think everyone should be enshrined. We get 10 spaces on the ballot and if I think there's 10 going forward, I'll fill every space every time. But I'm selective. I look closely, digging into the history books, seeing how long you were good for (I'm not a huge fan of "he was amazing for 5 years" types), and how often were you recognized for being outstanding by the writers of the time? I want to pick players that showed they shined in some way. Here's the three players, all on the offense, I think belong in the Hall of Fame – even if I'm not so sure my fellow voters will agree:
William Moreland1b
Teams: Des Moines Kernels (2028-2036), San Fernando Bears (2037-2038), Nashville Goats (2038), Phoenix Talons (2039-2041), Atlantic City Gamblers (2042-2043)
Key Stats:
6x All Star
561 Home Runs
2142 Hits
Career OPS .929
Why hasn't Moreland made it to the Hall of Fame Yet? Over 500 home runs, combined with over 2142 hits and his career didn't extend out to get the counting numbers, either. Is it because he retired early, at age 36? Did his final 2 years in Atlantic City really sour voters that much? 7 seasons of 40+ home runs with another 5 of 30+ out of 14 full years of playing? Yes, power at first base is fairly common and he only led the league twice (only one of those was home runs) but the absolute consistency of his (relatively short) career, is outstanding. His OPS was over 900 ten seasons, topping out at 1.012 in 2037. The biggest knock on Moreland is that he played against those who were even more elite, apparently, but that's never stopped great players from the honor before. Proud to put in my vote for him, and hoping that the increase in new voters to the BBA Writers Association will change the math and bring him up over 50% - and perhaps even more.
Carlos Gonzales, RF
Teams: Tucson Cactus (2028), Long Beach Surfers (2029-2039, 2043), Boise Spuds (2037), New Orleans Crawdads (2040-2041), Charlotte Cougars (2042)
Key Stats:
5x All Star
1x MVP
511 Home Runs
2610 Hits
366 Doubles
Career BA .293
Gonzales, the long-time Surfer, is another player where the numbers appear to be there but the call hasn't been made. Unlike Moreland, he did play longer to reach his 500 HR mark, but he held a .250 or better batting average for all but his final season, so the time spent in the league was no fluke. He also has significant time with post-season success. In 103 playoff games, Carlos (who won it all in 2029 with Long Beach), Gonzales hit another 26 HR, good for 6th all time. His insane 2031 season found him leading the league in runs, home runs (65, good for 6th here as well), RBI, slugging, and OPS. If that was a one-off, I could see the skepticism, but he had 4 40+ home run seasons and 10 of 30 or more dingers. A peer of Moreland, he's had more success (63%) with the voters and so might have a chance to take home the trophy this year.
Juan Karyabwite, LF
Team: Calgary Pioneers (2032-2049)
Key Stats:
Rookie of the Year
4x All Star
6x Gold Glove
3057 Hits
602 Doubles
797 Stolen Bases
I really think the main reason Juan Karyabwite isn't in the Hall yet is because the writers are too lazy to complete his full name OR perhaps they've just kept misspelling it and that's why his percentage for induction was only 30 percent. His 3057 regular season hits are 19th all time in the BBA, though admittedly, it was because of the final two, not great seasons, that he got over the hump. That probably hurts him in the eyes of some voters, but thus far, every single 3000+ hitter in the BBA is also in the Hall of Fame. It's clearly lazy, misspelling voters who are blocking this guy, because his 602 doubles (which means he practically hit a double every 5 hits!) are also 19th and he's 17th in steals. I can't think of a single reason why Karryabywhite shouldn't be enshrined.
As I mentioned, I'm a small-Hall style voter. There's a lot of very good players in the BBA. Not all of them can go into the Hall or it loses its meaning.
So that means that while I'm impressed by some of his stats compared to his peers at Catcher, new-to-the-ballot Francisco Flores doesn'r merit a vote for me. He had over 2500 hits, and a very steady batting average, .303, but that's not enough for me. He's not high on the catcher leaderboards in any offensive categories except hits and his lack of topping the fielding charts at a defensive position is the deal killer.
Similarly, I'm not going to ding Cisco Morales for not getting to 200 wins, but without them, his pedestrian 2561Ks, 1.174 WHIP and 3.86 ERA just aren't enough. He's got one Cy Young but that's the only award he'll be getting, I think. And none of the other pitchers are even close.
That's my vote! Feel free to tell me how wrong (or even better, how right!) I am in the comments section. Yes, we still have one! Our readers are the best!
