Hall of Very Good

Creating a list of the best players retired for 5+ years, Willie Mays (153 wins) and Hank Aaron (148) come out on top, shouldn't surprise too much. Going down the list, every player with at least 73 wins (Gary Carter) above replacement (WAR) is in the Hall. Every eligible player that is, sorry Charlie Hustle. So 73 is the magic number for HOF inclusion.

There are 7 players between 70 and 73, but only two are in the HOF, Carlton Fisk and Eddie Murray. The other five are the the greatest members of the Hall of Very Good.

They are:
Tim Raines (72), best of the group
Lou Whitaker
Reggie Smith
Willie Davis
Ron Santo

Before I did this systematically, I thought 60 WAR was a strong qualification for HOF inclusion, but there are 23 players over 60 but under 70, and only 7 have made it to Cooperstown. They are: McCovey, Winfield, Killebrew, Stargell, Sandberg, Billy Williams, and Banks. Lessons learned: Get your counting stats, your 3000 hits or 500 homers, or be a Cub with a working pancreas.

The second tier of the HOVG:
Bobby Grich
Graig Nettles
Alan Trammell
Buddy Bell
Keith Hernandez
Mark McGwire
Jimmy Wynn
Andre Dawson
Willie Randalph
Dwight Evans
Dick Allen
Darrell Evans
Ken Boyer
Will Clark
Sal Bando
Bobby Bonds

There are 17 players in the 50-60 range. Only two, Tony Perez and Luis Aparicio, are in the hall.

Then there are 45 players in the 40-50 range. This is the lower tier of the HOVG, but three players of this group have made it to the HOF: Kirby Puckett, Orlando Cepeda, and Lou Brock. These are very questionable choices for the Hall, as there are many better players who have not received the honor. If Jim Rice (43 WAR) makes it this year, this is his group.

For now I'll settle on 40 WAR as the minimum standard for the Hall of Very Good. The dividing line is Bobby Murcer, in, Rick Monday (39.9) out. Maybe I'll have to go a bit lower to 35 or so - some players just below 40 who would commonly be described as very good: Harold Baines, Dave Concepcion, Doug DeCinces, Tim Salmon.

This is all subject to revision, there is a good chance that I'll need to adjust the position adjustments - they work for the most recent era, 2000+, but may need to be changed a bit for the past.