Average WAR for 2013 Hall of Fame Candidates

December 6, 2012 by TheUmpire

Led by Barry Bonds, this year's ballot features five avgWAR 5+ players. Sammy Sosa ain't one of 'em, despite his 609 career home runs.

Jeff Bagwell leads the pack of first-year candidates.

José Mesa 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:


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 avgWAR
Barry Bonds 8.58
Roger Clemens 6.43
Jeff Bagwell 5.78
Larry Walker 5.68
Curt Schilling 5.15
Edgar Martinez 5.07
Mark McGwire 5.07
Kenny Lofton 5.00
Mike Piazza 4.75
Alan Trammell 4.74
Tim Raines 4.29
Rafael Palmeiro 3.78
Sammy Sosa 3.77
Don Mattingly 3.61
Bernie Williams 3.58
Craig Biggio 3.53
Reggie Sanders 3.35
Jeff Cirillo 3.21
Fred McGriff 3.17
Dale Murphy 3.16
David Wells 2.91
Rondell White 2.80
Shawn Green 2.61
Julio Franco 2.54
Steve Finley 2.53
Woody Williams 2.53
Jack Morris 2.48
Ryan Klesko 2.29
Lee Smith 1.83
Aaron Sele 1.57
Sandy Alomar 1.36
Jeff Conine 1.30
Royce Clayton 1.26
Roberto Hernandez 1.15
Todd Walker 1.04
Mike Stanton 0.77
José Mesa 0.58

Stats from Lahman's Baseball Database and Baseball-Reference.com.