Red Kress

[Cowtipper]

Out of OCD I felt compelled to do this one, because he was on a Hall of Famers "most similar" list.

Over 14 years in the majors, Red Kress hit .286 with 89 home runs and 799 RBI. He had a great eye at the plate, walking 474 times and striking out only 453 times. From 1929 to 1931 he had perhaps the three best years of his career, averaging over 40 doubles, 10 home runs, 110 RBI and a .300 batting average each season. In 1930, he had a 22 game hitting streak.

A respectable fielder, he led AL shortstops in fielding percentage and double plays in 1929 and he led AL shortstops in fielding in 1938 as well.

In 1960, he received a whopping three Hall of Fame votes.

So...does any of this warrant any Hall of Fame discussion?

[Paul Wendt]

Out of OCD I felt compelled to do this one

Why do you think anyone responds?

So...does any of this warrant any Hall of Fame discussion?

Yes.

Given: Red Kress

Provide: The set of all 14-year periods in major league history 1871-1884 to 1990-2003 from which Red Kress, with his own playing record, would or should be in the discussion of Hall of Fame candidates. Briefly explain what you mean by would and should (formal definition is not appropriate).

[Freakshow]

Out of OCD
Off-base Counterproductive Disruptive? Just guessing.:dance

[Cowtipper]

Hahaha...funny.

No, I guess my project is more laughable now than anything, considering a bunch of the players on the "top 10 most similar lists" for Hall of Famers weren't even all that good to begin with...

[Brad Harris]

Hahaha...funny.

No, I guess my project is more laughable now than anything, considering a bunch of the players on the "top 10 most similar lists" for Hall of Famers weren't even all that good to begin with...

And for hundreds of other reasons that have been true from the beginning. Doesn't seem to keep us from voting though. ;)

[Cowtipper]

Out of boredom I just tallied all the results from my polls. These are the results from the 44 polls about individual players I've done so far:

171 "yeses"
750 "nos"
148 "maybes"

So therefore, my average poll gets this response:

4 "yeses"
17 "nos"
3 "maybes"

The poll that garnered me the most "yeses" was the one I did about George Van Haltren. The one that got me the most "nos" was the one about Dante Bichette. The one that got me the most "maybes" was the one about Jimmy Ryan.

My next poll has to be a doozy I guess if I want to make those averages look any better.

[leecemark]

--I think a few more exclamation points after option 2 would be apporpriate.

[RuthMayBond]

Let's make a new poll:
should Cowtipper be allowed to post polls?
Choices are
No
Never
Absolutely Not
When Pigs Grow Wings
When the Sun Freezes Over

[jalbright]

OK, folks, you've had your fun at Cowtipper's expense. It's time to stop, though. Please do not make me make more of an issue of this than I already have. Thank you.

[RuthMayBond]

OK, folks, you've had your fun at Cowtipper's expense. It's time to stop, though.cowtipper, or us?

[jalbright]

RMB's last post:
OK, folks, you've had your fun at Cowtipper's expense. It's time to stop, though.cowtipper, or us?
You (plural). Cowtipper, like his efforts or not, is complying with the rules. Personal comments about Cowtipper (and this stuff is definitely at least on the verge of that IMO) are out of bounds as personal attacks. I'm here to enforce the rules, not monitor opinions. If you don't like his stuff, use the ignore feature the site provides, or at least use your own personal discretion in deciding not to view his posts.

[Go get em Tigers]

Red Kress only had six seasons with 500+ at bats. He had a career .286 average. He had 89 career home runs. He had 47 career stolen bases, and he never won any major awards. You can't make it into the HOF that way.

[STLCards2]

Cowtipper, if you trying to make a point about the unreliability of similarity scores, it is largely uneccessary, since a huge majority of people at BBF already know how poor they are as a statistic. There are only a few people who refer to them, and it is usualy far down their lists of things to bring up. I can't think of a single regular here who uses them as the staple in their rankings/HOF criteria.

[KCGHOST]

The guy couldn't hit a lick during the 20's and 30's. No way.

[Dodgerfan1]

Next on tap: Should Joe Azcue be in the HOF?

[Brooklyn]

Whose most similar list was he on?

Interestingly enough, his #1 most similar is Thurman Munson. While no one thinks Red Kress was a HOFer (this poll in unanimous so far), some people do think Munson deserves a look (admittedly those people seem to be giving extra credit to Munson for his career being cut short)

Of course, this further illustrates a problem with similarity scores. While their counting stats and averages are similar, their careers really aren't similar at all.