Average WAR for 2012 Hall of Fame Candidates
December 18, 2011 by TheUmpire
Jeff Bagwell tops the list again for Baseball Hall of Fame candidates. None of the first-year 2012 candidates makes the cut.
Brian Jordan leads the pack of non-worthy rookies, largely due to an impressive defensive WAR.
Tony Womack looks to be this year’s Lenny Harris.
We have converted a baseball player's career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) into a rate statistic which indicates the average number of wins above replacement a player would give his team per single season (avgWAR). Baseball-Reference.com uses the following scale for WAR values:
- 8+ MVP Quality
- 5+ All-Star Quality
- 2+ Starter
- 0-2 Reserve
- <0 Replacement Level
It is our proposal that players having an avgWAR of 5.0 or higher are worthy of induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
| Player | Avg WAR |
| Jeff Bagwell | 6.02 |
| Larry Walker | 5.48 |
| Mark McGwire | 5.45 |
| Edgar Martinez | 5.30 |
| Barry Larkin | 5.12 |
| Alan Trammell | 4.73 |
| Tim Raines | 4.18 |
| Rafael Palmeiro | 3.78 |
| Brian Jordan | 3.73 |
| Bernie Williams | 3.69 |
| Brad Radke | 3.68 |
| Tim Salmon | 3.64 |
| Don Mattingly | 3.61 |
| Fred McGriff | 3.33 |
| Dale Murphy | 3.28 |
| Juan Gonzalez | 3.21 |
| Bill Mueller | 3.01 |
| Javy Lopez | 3.01 |
| Jack Morris | 2.48 |
| Phil Nevin | 2.12 |
| Lee Smith | 1.96 |
| Jeromy Burnitz | 1.68 |
| Eric Young | 1.59 |
| Vinny Castilla | 1.43 |
| Ruben Sierra | 1.01 |
| Terry Mulholland | 0.49 |
| Tony Womack | 0.15 |
Stats from Lahman's Baseball Database and Baseball-Reference.com.