One of the more disappointing story lines arising from the 2016 Hall of Fame voting results on Wednesday, was center fielder Jim Edmonds falling off the ballot in his very first year of eligibility.
Edmonds only received votes from 11 of the 440 BBWAA members and failed to accrue the 5% minimum needed to remain on the ballot. In other words – Edmonds was one and done.
Now I’m not entirely certain that Jim Edmonds had a commanding case for enshrinement to Cooperstown, but I did believe he had a distinguishing enough career that merited a much longer discussion and examination than just one year. I believe he deserved a better fate than fellow first year dropouts like Brad Ausmus, Mark Grudzielanek and Luis Castillo.
Check this out:
Player A – .284/.376/.527 – 437 2B – 393 HR – 1,251 R – 1,199 RBI – 7,980 PA
Player B – .295/.380/.540 – 358 2B – 407 HR – 1,259 R – 1,333 RBI – 8,237 PA
One of these players is a Hall of Famer, the other one will never be a Hall of Famer. Player A is Jim Edmonds and Player B is Duke Snider. And that doesn’t account for Edmond’s eight Gold Gloves compared to none for Snider. Edmonds was one of the best defensive center fielders to ever play the game.
When you consider that Snider had over 250 more plate appearances, it’s amazing that Edmonds edges out the Dodger great 64.5 to 63.5 in fWAR.
I keep hearing the case for Larry Walker as a Hall of Famer, and he certainly deserves to be in the conversation and has been for the six years he’s been on the ballot. But when I compare him to Edmonds I see two very similar players. In fact, Edmonds out-homers Walker despite not playing the majority of his career at Coors Field. Adjust for park effects and Edmonds may have had the better career.
It just appears to me that any system that bounces a player like Jim Edmonds off the ballot in one year is flawed and needs to be fixed. I don’t pretend to know how to do that, but I can’t shake this feeling that Edmonds was wronged on Wednesday. That’s all.
