2064 Hall of Fame Presser
The 2064 CBA Hall of Fame Ballot features seven new faces: three hitters and four pitchers. We will take a moment to look at each of the new candidates’ career and offer some predictions on whether they make it into the Hall this year or ever.
2B Asjita “Big Dumb” Pandit (Galveston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Houston, Tampa Bay, Mexico, and Cleveland) – 19 year career (~9 seasons prior to 2050), .265/.382/.431 slash line, accumulating 28.3 WAR in the major leagues.
Pandit was one of the big prizes of the Inaugural CBA draft, but he did sink to the 2nd round due to his age (already 30 in 2050) and the prohibitive cost attached to him (42,500,000 in 2050). Still, Pandit proved to have one of the best Eyes in the game, accumulating 630 walks in his career. His 257 PL BBs ranks 20th all time, while his 211 SL BBs are good for 18th all time. His career WAR is probably a little lower than a typical Hall of Famer, but we can only see statistics for 10 seasons of his 19-year career. If we could see the whole picture, Pandit would likely be a slam dunk Hall of Famer. As it stands, he’ll probably garner some votes but struggle to win enshrinement.
RF Jeremy Nadeau (San Diego, Toronto, Mexico City) – 9 year career, .252/.351/.505 slash line, 24.3 WAR
Nadeau, who spent the bulk of his career with the San Diego Steam, was never really on a lot of radars. He’s almost certainly not a Hall of Famer, but his peak was something to behold. From 2052 through 2056, Nadeau was worth 19.5 WAR, bashed 173 home runs, helped the Steam get over the hump and into the Silver League, and was unquestionably one of the most feared hitters in the game. The rest of his career, unfortunately, failed to live up to the lofty heights of this peak.
1B Dylan Marsh (Phoenix, Boston, Denver, Toronto, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Las Vegas) – 9 year career, .321/.359/.490 slash line, 18.4 WAR
Marsh’s career can’t help but feel like a case of “What could have been?” A 12th round pick in the Inaugural Draft, Marsh hit the ground running for Phoenix in 2050 at the age of 23, slashing .373/.405/.594 to earn black ink in each category and accumulating 4.9 WAR. That would be the most he would accumulate in a eason until 2054 with Boston when he hit .342/.383/.564 for the Shoremen. The big problem for Marsh was always his defense – he was an incapable fielder, which kept him on the bench too often. Unfortunately, this will likely be a brief stay on the ballot.
SP Juan “Rash” Gonzalez (Austin, Salt Lake City, and Houston) – 14 year career (~2 prior to 2050) 35.8 Pitching WAR, 2054 PL Pitcher of the Year Award
Not a lot of ink has been dedicated to one of Mexico’s greatest baseball products, but that somehow seems appropriate. Gonzalez spent nearly his entire career on Austin and Salt Lake City teams that were better at winning baseball games than earning headlines, and Gonzalez’s brilliance was rarely blinding. He won the Chad Armbruster award in 2054, and deservedly so, but he rarely did it with flash. He was always very good – he’d show up, stay healthy, pitch 150-170 high quality innings a season – but he was less-frequently great. He was never the highest-paid player on his team, nor was he ever the consensus best player on his team. In essence, he’s the first Hall of Fame candidate to be much more of a stat accumulator than a star, and his candidacy will be a good litmus test for the future.
SP Sean Wheeler (Minnesota, Cleveland, Toronto, Boston, Denver) – 14 year career (~2 prior to 2050) 21.0 Pitching WAR
I’ll be blunt: this is going to be Wheeler’s first and last year on the ballot (unless something unforeseen happens), but that is not to say he’s undeserving. Though not quite the pitcher Juan Gonzalez is, Wheeler mostly spent his career doing the exact same thing: showing up and being good enough. Most seasons he was a league-average innings eater, but he was a different beast in 2055 with Cleveland. In that season, he posted an ERA of just 2.59, struck out 185 batters, and gave up only 7 home runs in total. His Career ERA+ of 108 suggests he was a slightly-above-average innings eater outside of that season, which is likely not Hall material.
RP Guan-cai Guo (Toronto and Tampa Bay) – 9 year career, 10.0 Pitching WAR
Relief Pitchers are always going to have a strange relationship with the Hall of Fame. While there are relievers, like Xavier Owens, who are already Hall of Fame locks, there’s always going to be a huge cluster of relievers like Guo: Really good reliever who was absolutely one of the best in the league each year, but who just really didn’t have a commensurate impact on the game. When he entered the league in 2051 as an International Major League Free Agent, he was seen as one of the best free agent relievers, and he had a career befitting of that. It was a great career, but it probably wasn’t a Hall of Fame career.
CL Sean Johnson (Houston, San Diego, Kentucky, Carolina, and Phoenix) – All time leader in Saves for the Silver League, 14-year career, 20.6 Pitching WAR, 2056 and 2057 SL Reliever of the Year Award
You’re forgiven if this name is surprising to you. Johnson spent the bulk of his career on Kentucky during a time when the franchise was exceptionally quiet, but he was absolutely one the best relievers in the entire CBA, and perhaps the best reliever in the Silver League period. His 156 Silver League Saves is 50 more than 2nd place, and 53 more than the highest active total. His career ERA of 2.73, outstanding K/9 of 13.1, and career ERA+ of 152 speak to his sustained dominance, and he should be an easy selection for enshrinement.
For the remaining members on the ballot:
CF Victor Villa (DC/BOS/CAR) – Looking just by offensive statistics, Villa would be a Hall of Fame afterthought. There’s nothing special about his .296/.327/.401 line or his steal success rate (205 SB, 82 CS), and he only swatted 22 home runs in his entire career. BUT, Villa perhaps should go down as the GOAT when it comes to defense. Premier League Gold Glove winner in CF in ‘50, ‘51, ‘52, ‘53, ‘54, and ‘55, Villa is still simply without comparison. An anchor at one of the most important and demanding defensive positions, we may never see another season like his 2052, when he led the league in ZR with 22.7, and at a Defensive EFF of 1.129, easily tops in the league.
Rico Santellan (Retired 2058) – Santellan only has 20 career WAR, but his career in the CBA started at age 27 and he spent the heart of his career on contending teams in the Silver League and Premier League. Santellan led the league in HRs and BBs twice.
CF Alberto Avila (SEA/SD/DC) – If we look solely at 2053, Avila is a shoe-in Hall of Fame talent: .318/.383/.618 slash line to go with 37 home runs, 24 steals, and 107 hits, the most in the league. Until you look at the big picture and see he finished with a slash line of .281/.346/.490; and that he only had 80 hits in a season one more time. Oh, and that big 2053 season only resulted in a BL Silver Slugger Award (MVP: Chicago’s Jose Villa). It’s unfortunate that the bulk of his career was spent on a San Diego team that was asleep at the wheel, but as it stands right now there’s just not a lot to make him stand out.
1B Cort Hansen (CHI/GAL/SLC/BAL/CIN) – Hansen had the hardware: 2-time gold glove, 3-time silver slugger, and perhaps the only player with a BL, SL, and PL ring in his case. The problem, however, is that of his 21.6 career WAR, 51.8% of it (11.2) came before 2053. And Hansen played until 2060. He did have some pretty good offensive seasons and was a pretty good defender, but that unfortunately be what his career boils down to: pretty good.
C Bobby Skelly (KTY/NO/NY/LA) – Simply owing to the demands of the position, the Hall of Fame bar for catchers must always be lower compared to other positions: it’s rare to see a truly gifted offensive or defensive catcher who puts together a long career. Skelly, at least, had a long career. He won a singular gold glove in 2050, and of his 10.1 career WAR, 8.3 came before 2053.
SP Bob McCarthy (MIN/DET/VAN) – McCarthy is a pitcher who pitched his entire career in the PL. He won one Pitcher of the Year award, in 2053. He posted 24.7 career WAR and is roughly in the same tier as Alberto Munoz. His candidacy would likely be more clear-cut if we could see the first four years of his career, but McCarthy was certainly a dominant pitching force in the Premier League for the better part of half a decade.
SP Javier Jimenez (PHI/TB/DET/ATL) – Entering the CBA at age 30 as a pitcher, Jimenez was a reliable force at the front of the rotation for the entirety of his career in the CBA. He was the PL’s best pitcher in 2052, but only put up 18.0 WAR for his CBA career. One must wonder what his resume would look like if we could see the other 5 years.
SP Nick Vitale (ATL/SD/SEA/MEX) – Nick Vitale was pretty good for a pretty long time. He won the ERA crown in the Bronze League in 2058 as a 35 year old (that 2.17 ERA is seriously impressive, but his BABIP was .047 below career average). He did win the Bronze League with Atlanta in 2055, and while he was a workhorse, Sandy Torres was clearly their best starter.
CL Volkmar Arikan (GAL/AUS/DEN/DET) Arikan had an impressive peak to his career from 2052 to 2054, winning the PL Reliever of the Year award in 2053 with Austin. Arikan was never truly dominant, but he was definitely one of the best handful of relievers in the PL during his career, and his candidacy will be a great litmus test for future relievers.
SP D.J. “The Dick” Alvarado (CHR/DET/PHI/PHO/GAL/DC/ATL) – If nothing else, Alvarado is known throughout the league for his petulant and, frankly ‘dickish’ behavior. Drafted in the 1st round of the Inaugural Draft by Detroit, Alvarado never had the type of season that would cement him as one of the premier starting pitchers in the game. Ultimately, he was probably more trouble than he was worth for a majority of his career. Perhaps if a historical wing of the Hall is ever opened he will have an exhibit next to Craig “Icebox” Bannon.