3 Best Lefties Not in the HOF

[yanks0714]

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I wanna fill out a 8 team league HOF roster for simulation. Need 3 lefties to complement the 13 already in the HOF.

[RuthMayBond]

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I wanna fill out a 8 team league HOF roster for simulation. Need 3 lefties to complement the 13 already in the HOF.
Using rate stats:
John Franco (if including relievers)
Noodles Hahn
Jimmy Key
Hippo Vaughn

Using career:
Wilbur Cooper
Tommy John
Jimmy Key

[STLCards2]

Assuming no relievers, I'd be okay with Pierce, John, and Cooper. RuthMayBond's choices of Key and Vaughn are good picks too. Don't forget Kaat and Guidry as well. A few others to chew on are: Brecheen, Koosman, Tanana, and Finley.

[Ubiquitous]

Two Cubbies
Hippo Vaughn
Larry French

Unfortunately for French the war came along and his chance to pad his numbers a bit vanished. The guy was a horse

[Los Bravos]

Kaat and Finley.Two names I bring up, a lot. Jim's a HOFer, for me. Chuck's not quite that high, but I used to watch him a lot, especially when he was with the Angels, just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

[lovethegame]

Gid ,Kaat and Tanana would work for me
Tanana was the most interesting,imo, he went from fireballer(Ryan ,Tanana and some other banana) to a successful junkballer

[dgarza]

Probably Pierce and Guidry, then round it out with either Vaughn or Cooper.

I'd like to throw Larry Corcoran (kind of), David Wells, and Jesse Tannehill out there as well.

[leecemark]

--Tony Mullane?

[dgarza]

--Tony Mullane?
You know, if you take Mullane into account, he'd be my #1 pick over all the other lefties mentioned so far.

[yanks0714]

Using rate stats:
John Franco (if including relievers)
Noodles Hahn
Jimmy Key
Hippo Vaughn

Using career:
Wilbur Cooper
Tommy John
Jimmy Key

Jimmy Key! Whoa, I never even considered Jimmy Key. But you know, you have a very good point. He was underrated the more I think about it.

Very good choice there RMB!

Noodles and Hippo were good pitchers in their day. I admit I had no idea who Hahn was until I got my DiamondMind All Time Greats. I saw his anme and went to BBR to look him up. He's hardly ever talked about.

I'm glad to see you have Wilbur and Tommy on your Career list.

[yanks0714]

Tony Mullane is another I never considered. Dang! I suspect he should be in the list in place of....Pierce? I might be wrong in including Pierce as one of the three. I always felt he was very good, right with Whitey Ford in the 50s and early 60s.

For those that listed Jim Kaat I strongly considered Kaat but went with my 3 overall.

I was surprised to see Guidry, Finley, Tanana, French, Koosman, and wells mentioned. I do agree with the poster who mentioned Tanana going from a fireballer to a junk pitcher. He completely remade himself. A little like Lefty Grove did after his arm trouble.

Jesse Tannahill? I considered him. I don't really know that much about him. I think he was a highly respected pitcher in his day. Am I right on that?

[STLCards2]

--Tony Mullane?

I forgot Mullane was left-handed!:) I'd probably go with Mullane, Pierce, and John as the top 3, but I could see replacing any of them with Cooper and Vauhn too.

[Cougar]

Mullane was mainly a right-hander; he threw left handed only in a handful of games, as a combination of gimmickry and extreme change-up.

My top three lefties: Kaat, John, and Guidry...Pierce, Lolich, Hippo Vaughn, and Wilbur Cooper get honorable mentions.

I like Key a lot, but I wonder if he's one of those guys who was underrated long enough to become overrated, if you know what I mean.

[Paul Wendt]

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I wanna fill out a 8 team league HOF roster for simulation. Need 3 lefties to complement the 13 already in the HOF.

If you want best in a simulation game, that depends on how the simulation represents careers.
Does it simulate a uniform-random workday in the player's career? Or during his five best seasons? etc.
Does it make a simulation difference that John Hiller worked in relief and Wilbur Cooper did not? Or does it simulate a uniform-random inning from the relevant portions of their careers when you put a 1-1 nine-inning tie into their hands?

[Los Bravos]

Jimmy Key was a fine pitcher and a major October pain in my butt.

I was researching Glavine's place among the lefties on the all time wins list 3-4 years ago and when I ran across "Threw: B" in Total Baseball for Mullane, I did what I'm sure looked like a Three Stooges-quality double take.

[Paul Wendt]

Jimmy Key was a fine pitcher and a major October pain in my butt.
Unfortunately he didn't win the big one. (1987 October 4 (http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1987/B10040DET1987.htm))
Jimmy Key @ Frank Tanana Version 2
Why don't I remember Tanana's role?

[Los Bravos]

Actually, the main thing I remember from that game is Frank.

And that it looked like they were playing the game somewhere in the Arctic Circle.

[KCGHOST]

Billy Pierce, Harry Brecheen, and Jimmy Key,

[jjpm74]

Tony Mullane
Ron Guidry
Jim Kaat

Mullane is a borderline HOF Candidate. Guidry is in my queue for the BBFHOF. Jim Kaat and Billy Pierce are borderline just outside of my queue. Tommy John, Jimmy Key, Noodles Hahn, Hippo Vaughn were all good pitchers but came up short.

[Frank]

Jim Kaat
Wilbur Cooper
Hippo Vaughn


Sparky Lyle

[tsperti]

I noticed very few recommendations for Lolich. Based on pure statistics which is frankly what most sports writers still use rather than win shares, ops etc. he's not that bad of a selection.

[THE OX]

I'd just like to throw in Curt Simmons here for consideration.........

[Paul Wendt]

Tony Mullane was ambidextrous but he barely pitched from the left side.

Who are the 3 best lefties not in the HOF, not including active players.

My choices are: Wilbur Cooper; Billy Pierce; Tommy John

I agree.
Jesse Tannehill is another to consider.

Consider these pitchers especially if you want players who are reasonable conventional Hall of Fame candidates, which seems to fit the project, rather than probably strongest sim-game performers (Hippo Vaughn, Noodles Hahn).

The peak pitchers who have been honored, Dean and Koufax, were superstars. Lacking that, Jim and Frank aren't plausible Hall of Fame candidates.