Tom Brown

[Cowtipper]

Some of Tom Brown's statistics don't look very impressive. For example, he hit only .265, he holds the record for most errors by an outfielder with 490, he led the league in strikeouts five times and he held the career record for strikeouts until Babe Ruth broke it in 1926.

However, he did score 1521 runs in his career, and he stole 657 bases (as many as 106 in a season). He is one of only five eligible players with at least 1500 runs scored to not be in the Hall of Fame - the others are Jimmy Ryan, George Van Haltren, Bill Dahlen and Tim Raines. In 1891 and 1892 he led the league in at-bats, in 1892 he led the league in plate appearances, in 1891 he led the league in runs scored (177, second most all-time), he led the league in hits, total bases, triples and stolen bases in 1891 as well. He also led the league in stolen bases in 1893.

So...should Tom Brown be in the Hall of Fame?

[jjpm74]

I put down maybe because I don't know that much about his fielding ability. Committing a lot of errors in that era didn't necessarily mean that the player was a bad fielder per se. His OPS+ of 100 suggests to me that he was a good player but never great.

[KCGHOST]

League average hitters just don't cut it.

I guess you could argue he is the best major league player that was born in England.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Brown's Offensive Winning Percentage for his career is .504. Playing CF, that would mean that if Brown, why not Jimmie Piersall? (Piersall was, possibly, the best defensive outfielder in history.) If Brown, why not Andy Van Slyke, whose OWP is 120 points better than Brown's (.624 to .504)? If Brown, why not Amos Otis, whose OWP is in the .590s?

This proposed induction would open the door for so many guys that no one here would think twice about as HOFers, that I can say, unquestionably, that Tom Brown would be the worst player in the HOF by far, if he were inducted. He would be worse than the worst Frankie Frisch VC Cabal pick, and by a lot, I might add. He's MUCH worse than George Kelly, considered by many to be the worst player in the HOF. (Someone's gotta be on the bottom, I guess.)

No, no, a thousand times no on Tom Brown.

[jalbright]

League average hitters just don't cut it.

I guess you could argue he is the best major league player that was born in England.

A quibble:
If Brown had been a good-glove shortstop and played a long time, being a league average hitter could easily cut it. However, he was a centerfielder, at which point being a league average hitter does not cut it.

[jalbright]

Tom Brown gets a C+ for his fielding from Win Shares. The error total suggests that mark is reasonable. Unfortunately, that is a pathetic mark for a CF, and not good for a corner OF. Marry that kind of glovework in the outfield to a 100 OPS+ and you've got a guy who is so far away from the HOF discussion, you wonder if it's not a relative of his asking the question.

[leecemark]

--The Cowtipper series has featured many a player I had never thought of in a Hal of Fame context before. Tom Brown goes that one better though. I had never heard of him at all and a quick look at his record suggests I wasn't missing out on much.

[RuthMayBond]

Marry that kind of glovework in the outfield to a 100 OPS+ and you've got a guy who is so far away from the HOF discussion, you wonder if it's not a relative of his asking the question.If you don't think the player's worthy, I've heard that you don't have to reply to the thread

[Gee Walker]

--The Cowtipper series has featured many a player I had never thought of in a Hal of Fame context before. Tom Brown goes that one better though. I had never heard of him at all and a quick look at his record suggests I wasn't missing out on much.

My first thought was that he was arguing for the guy who hit a couple of home runs at age 17 in 1945... after all, he does share the all-time lead for home runs hit by a 17-year old.