One-and-Done: Who Was the Best Position Player?

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From the Toronto Star’s article on Carlos Delgado’s induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame: “Some have argued he may be the best player ever to be dropped from the ballot in his first year.” (“Some have argued” links to this Jayson Stark piece: http://espn.go.com/blog/jayson-stark/post/_/id/1051/delgado-deserved-far-better-in-hof-voting.)

So here’s a list of one-and-done position players since 1979. (I’ll put up a pitchers list shortly.) I can’t seem to pinpoint the exact moment when you get kicked off for getting less than 5% of the vote--even starting in ’79, there are guys who stay on the ballot even though they didn’t meet the 5% threshold (e.g., Curt Flood). But that’s the year when Baseball Reference starts putting x’s beside the names of people who were dropped for getting less than 5%.

I used WAR as a rough guide. I think the list includes everyone with at least 50 career WAR; below 50, I occasionally used some discretion. (Example: Johnny Callison had a higher career WAR than Frank Howard, but Howard is still sort of well known, and nobody much remembers Johnny Callison.)

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Will Clark (2006)	1
Darryl Strawberry (2005)	1
Lou Whitaker (2001)	1
Carlos Delgado (2015)	1
Willie Randolph (1998)	0
Brian Downing (1998)	0
Jack Clark (1998)	0
Brett Butler (2003)	0
Tony Phillips (2005)	0
Frank Howard (1979)	0
Jose Canseco (2007)	0
Tony Fernandez (2007)	0
Mark Grace (2009)	0
Matt Williams (2009)	0
Robin Ventura (2010)	0
John Olerud (2011)	0
Kenny Lofton (2013)	0
Luis Gonzalez (2014)	0
Chet Lemon (1996)	0
Darrell Evans (1995)	0
Buddy Bell (1995)	0
Norm Cash (1980)	0
Boog Powell (1983)	0
Jimmy Wynn (1983)	0
Jim Fregosi (1984)	0
Roy White (1985)	0
Sal Bando (1987)	0
Reggie Smith (1988)	0
Bert Campenaris (1989)	0
Amos Otis (1990)	0
Ken Singleton (1990)	0
Al Oliver (1991)	0
Bobby Grich (1992)	0
Cesar Cedeno (1992)	0
Toby Harrah (1992)	0
Ron Cey (1993)	0
Ted Simmons (1994)	0
Jose Cruz (1994)	0
Brian Giles (2015)	0

― clemenza, Saturday, 7 February 2015 18:18 (ten years ago)

1) Misspelling on Campaneris's name. 2) Close call, but I included Canseco with position players rather than pitchers.

― clemenza, Saturday, 7 February 2015 18:19 (ten years ago)

without looking up their numbers, i'd say it's between grich, whitaker, lofton, and olerud

― sae nnwurd - throw sum mo ka (k3vin k.), Saturday, 7 February 2015 18:35 (ten years ago)

One thing this list does is underscore how badly third basemen get treated in HOF voting. It's not just that they don't often get elected, it's that so many good ones are gone after a single year on the ballot: Fregosi, Bando, Cey, Bell, Evans, Williams, Ventura. The multi-position Toby Harrah primarily played third, and Tony Phillips logged almost 400 games there.

My assumption is that however many people vote, Grich or Whitaker will come out on top.

― clemenza, Saturday, 7 February 2015 18:38 (ten years ago)

Graig Nettles managed to last four years, never drawing over 10%.

― clemenza, Saturday, 7 February 2015 18:41 (ten years ago)

Whitaker's case might be the most disappointing of the bunch. Nobody gave him a second thought. It's not as if you need advanced stats to see his value either. He dominated the position in the AL in the 80's . I guess it's a symptom of general 80's malaise, where a lot of guys burned out early (Strawberry, all the best 80's pitchers) or whose careers looked more ordinary when offense spiked in the 90's.

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Sunday, 8 February 2015 12:06 (ten years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Monday, 16 February 2015 00:01 (ten years ago)

I'd think Ted Simmons would be pretty high too, as he could really hit well for a catcher.

― earlnash, Monday, 16 February 2015 02:11 (ten years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Tuesday, 17 February 2015 00:01 (ten years ago)

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