VC success rate

[brett]

Which VC electees have been good catches for the HOF. What is there success rate?

[Paul Wendt]

They elected two of the most important pioneers and all-around candidates, Harry Wright at their first meeting in 1953 and Rube Foster in 1981. Both had been passed over by earlier committees with more specialized purposes that should have covered them.

In 1995 they elected the founder and 1877-82 president of the National League, William Hulbert. That was from a special ballot. For judging how well or poorly the committee operated normally, the special ballots of 1995 to 2001 should not be included. There were 12 people elected: Hulbert, mlb managers Ned Hanlon and Frank Selee, mlb players George Davis and Bid McPhee, and seven Negro Leagues players. (Rube Foster and Ray Dandridge are the only Negro Leaguers elected by the VC normal operations.)

[mwiggins]

Johnny Mize and Arky Vaughan and Sam Crawford really stand out for me as great picks.

[SABR Matt]

George Davis and Bid McPhee are outstanding choices...I do not have the list on hand as to which players the VC picked, but they generally do a good job IMHO...though their refusal to elect living ballplayers is annoying.

[Ace Venom]

That is a bit annoying. Joe Morgan has tried to make the election process more fair and he's been a long time supporter of Ron Santo and Maury Wills despite some people saying that Morgan is one of the people keeping Santo out.

''I played against him, and when you look at third basemen, he was the best third baseman of his era,'' said Morgan, the Hall of Fame second baseman and ESPN broadcaster. ''I thought that's the way you judged it. Every year I voted for Maury Wills and Ron Santo. Those are my first two guys. To me, they were both a no-brainer.''
http://maurywills.com/News_ViewItem.aspx?ID=17

Of course, Morgan irked me with his silence about Ron Santo on a Sunday Night Baseball broadcast where Steve Phillips was praising Ron Santo. Did he change his mind? We'll never know. What I do know is Bert Blyleven had a lot to say when Joe Gordon was elected. He said Gordon would have enjoyed it more when he was alive, which is obviously true. There are obviously some people on the VC who want to push certain players, but the inability to elect living players recently is a bit annoying. I almost think it would take Pete Rose getting reinstated for the VC to elect a living player.

[Freakshow]

Johnny Mize and Arky Vaughan and Sam Crawford really stand out for me as great picks.Top 100 players, for sure. Other VC selections who may fall into that class are Frank Baker, Roger Connor and Billy Hamilton.

Some VC electees who could be considered among the top 200 players are John Clarkson, Tim Keefe, George Davis, Pee Wee Reese, Amos Rusie, Enos Slaughter, Goose Goslin, Hal Newhouser, Richie Ashburn; and perhaps Billy Herman, Larry Doby, Jim Bunning, Bid McPhee, Max Carey, Stan Coveleski and Zack Wheat.

[mwiggins]

Top 100 players, for sure.

I would say they're all top 50 players, though Crawford is pretty borderline.

[SABR Matt]

Top 100 players, for sure. Other VC selections who may fall into that class are Frank Baker, Roger Connor and Billy Hamilton.

Some VC electees who could be considered among the top 200 players are John Clarkson, Tim Keefe, George Davis, Pee Wee Reese, Amos Rusie, Enos Slaughter, Goose Goslin, Hal Newhouser, Richie Ashburn; and perhaps Billy Herman, Larry Doby, Jim Bunning, Bid McPhee, Max Carey, Stan Coveleski and Zack Wheat.

There's no "perhaps" when it comes to Wheat, Carey and McPhee...don't underestimate just how a great fielders Carey and McPhee (and to a slightly lesser extent Wheat) were. They are most definitely top-200 players.

[Freakshow]

I would say they're all top 50 players, though Crawford is pretty borderline.The consensus from the Collaboration Game v2.0 rankes them like this:

#49 Vaughan
#62 Crawford
#63 Mize

#82 Connor
#88 Baker
#92 Hamilton

#108 Davis
#115 Keefe
#117 Clarkson

[SABR Matt]

Davis 108 = LOL

[jalbright]

I'll assume you're excluding the Negro Leaguers from this discussion for now (if you included them, I'm really only against Ben Taylor and Judy Johnson among the players).

I did a project in which I did polls on VC inductions by various incarnations of the VC, picking up all the players inducted by that route to that time. Sticking to the MLB types, the following got at least 75% from that set of polls: Cap Anson, Buck Ewing, Charlie Radbourn, Dan Brouthers, Fred Clarke, Jimmy Collins, Ed Delahanty, King Kelly, Joe McGinnity, Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell, Ed Walsh, Frank (Home Run) Baker, Mordecai (Three Finger) Brown, Sam Crawford, Hal Newhouser, Kid Nichols, Zack Wheat, John Clarkson, Billy Hamilton, Tim Keefe, Goose Goslin, Roger Connor, Billy Herman, Amos Rusie, Sam Thompson, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Mize, Pee Wee Reese, Arky Vaughn, Richie Ashburn, Jim Bunning, George Davis, and Nellie Fox. If I count right, that's 37 names.

[jalbright]

As an addendum, the Negro Leaguers had 21 players reach 75% or above positive votes in that set of polls.

Another way of looking at it is how many poor choices there were. Only 2 Negro Leaguers got below 40% support (and Judy Johnson wasn't one of them). Five MLB VC choices made before 1967 got less than 40%, and three from 1990 on got less than 40%--but nineteen selections from 1967 to 1989 got less than 40% support. Many incarnations of the VC were decent or better--but that bunch from 1967-1989 outside of those dealing with Negro Leaguers in that time made some terrible picks.

[bambambaseball]

Take away the croneyism of a second baseman and catcher who elected all their friends and they did an ok job.