An evidence based discussion about the players who've been overlooked for Cooperstown

[the 'stache]

This has been knocking around in my head for some time now. I've been wanting to lead a discussion about the players who, for one reason or another, have been overlooked by the Baseball Writers, and even the Veterans Committee. Players that we feel merit further consideration for the Hall of Fame. Only this discussion is going to be different than the other ones that have been going on since the first Hall of Fame class was voted into Cooperstown in 1936. It's going to be different than the Hall of Fame debate that just popped up on the pre-war main forum earlier today. In this discussion, we are going to remove emotion, and team loyalty, from the equation. There will be no hyperbole. This discussion will revolve around facts. Statistics. Comparisons of the players we are considering to the others who were in the Major Leagues at the same time. We are, in essence, going to be creating our own arguments for these players. We are going to look at it as if we were making the case for these players to the BBWAA, or the Veterans Committee themselves. Gentlemen, we are going to be advocates for some of the greats of the game who have fallen in between the cracks.

In mid August, I received an e-mail from Ken (earlywynnfan) asking if I could do an analysis of some players, and their Hall of Fame chances. He wanted to look at Carl Mays, Minnie Minoso and Omar Vizquel. I think all three men warrant consideration. Vizquel has not yet met the 5 year waiting period, as he last played in 2012. So it will be interesting to see how he does in the actual BBWAA vote, and how that vote compares to what we find here.

I am also going to ask you all to come up with suggestions of players you feel should be looked at again. Keep in mind that the Hall of Fame exists to recognize the true greats of the game, so these players should have been exceptional.

The first player I will be looking at is one of the worst hitters in the history of Major League Baseball. That player is Mark Belanger. Belanger is, in my opinion, one of the finest defensive baseball player in the game's history.