After checking my automated scripts that generate yearly top and bottom ten lists at both the league and team level I ran across Larry Walker who scored very high in both WAR and WAA results. I googled to see when Larry Walker got inducted into the HOF to find that he hasn’t. Here is a blurb from Sports Illustrated article written 1/11/2013.
Larry Walker, who played 17 years with the Expos, Rockies and Cardinals, received 21.6 percent of this year’s Hall of Fame vote in his third year on the ballot after receiving 20.3 percent and 22.9 percent his first two years. (Seventy-five percent is needed for election; five percent is needed to remain on the ballot.) Despite Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Curt Schilling, among others, joining the ballot for the first time, no player received enough votes for Hall enshrinement.
via Larry Walker on Hall of Fame ballot results, controversy – MLB – SI.com.
This is a good opportunity to introduce a new career presentation that will be generated for every MLB baseball player. Below is the script output for Larry Walker.
Larry Walker 1989 – 2005
The first table represents this data model. War is shown in the Extended Stats section. WAA is the weighting factor that is generated by the mathematics used in this data model. The Score column is a new concept described in this post.
Year | WAA | BA | OBP | PA | RBI | R | Name_Tm | Pos | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | -0.4 | 0.170 | 0.264 | 56 | 4 | 4 | Larry_Walker WAS | RF | 0 |
1990 | 0.7 | 0.241 | 0.326 | 478 | 51 | 59 | Larry_Walker WAS | RF | 36 |
1991 | 0.2 | 0.290 | 0.349 | 539 | 64 | 59 | Larry_Walker WAS | RF-1B | 0 |
1992 | 6.0 | 0.301 | 0.353 | 583 | 93 | 85 | Larry_Walker WAS | RF | 277 |
1993 | 4.0 | 0.265 | 0.371 | 582 | 86 | 85 | Larry_Walker WAS | RF | 232 |
1994 | 5.8 | 0.322 | 0.394 | 452 | 86 | 76 | Larry_Walker WAS | RF-1B | 284 |
1995 | 6.8 | 0.306 | 0.381 | 562 | 101 | 96 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 285 |
1996 | 4.4 | 0.276 | 0.342 | 304 | 58 | 58 | Larry_Walker COL | CF-RF | 229 |
1997 | 12.7 | 0.366 | 0.452 | 664 | 130 | 143 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 298 |
1998 | 5.9 | 0.363 | 0.445 | 524 | 67 | 113 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 261 |
1999 | 10.3 | 0.379 | 0.458 | 513 | 115 | 108 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 295 |
2000 | 2.4 | 0.309 | 0.409 | 372 | 51 | 64 | Larry_Walker COL | RF-LF | 138 |
2001 | 9.7 | 0.350 | 0.449 | 601 | 123 | 107 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 292 |
2002 | 7.5 | 0.338 | 0.421 | 553 | 104 | 95 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 283 |
2003 | 3.4 | 0.284 | 0.422 | 564 | 79 | 86 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 195 |
2004 | 1.0 | 0.324 | 0.464 | 138 | 20 | 22 | Larry_Walker COL | RF | 148 |
2004 | 1.4 | 0.280 | 0.393 | 178 | 27 | 29 | Larry_Walker SLN | RF | X |
2005 | 3.6 | 0.289 | 0.384 | 367 | 52 | 66 | Larry_Walker SLN | RF | 214 |
Career WAA BAT Value = 85.4
Career WAA Ranking Score = 3467
Extended Stats
Year | WAR | AB | HR | SB | Name_Tm | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | -0.2 | 47 | 0 | 1 | Larry_Walker WAS | -43 |
1990 | 3.4 | 419 | 19 | 21 | Larry_Walker WAS | 211 |
1991 | 3.4 | 487 | 16 | 14 | Larry_Walker WAS | 207 |
1992 | 5.4 | 528 | 23 | 18 | Larry_Walker WAS | 264 |
1993 | 4.3 | 490 | 22 | 29 | Larry_Walker WAS | 241 |
1994 | 4.7 | 395 | 19 | 15 | Larry_Walker WAS | 282 |
1995 | 4.7 | 494 | 36 | 16 | Larry_Walker COL | 266 |
1996 | 1.2 | 272 | 18 | 18 | Larry_Walker COL | 0 |
1997 | 9.8 | 568 | 49 | 33 | Larry_Walker COL | 299 |
1998 | 5.7 | 454 | 23 | 14 | Larry_Walker COL | 261 |
1999 | 5.1 | 438 | 37 | 11 | Larry_Walker COL | 260 |
2000 | 1.6 | 314 | 9 | 5 | Larry_Walker COL | 21 |
2001 | 7.8 | 497 | 38 | 14 | Larry_Walker COL | 291 |
2002 | 6.0 | 477 | 26 | 6 | Larry_Walker COL | 278 |
2003 | 4.4 | 454 | 16 | 7 | Larry_Walker COL | 235 |
2004 | 2.7 | 258 | 17 | 6 | Larry_Walker TOT | 138 |
2005 | 2.4 | 315 | 15 | 2 | Larry_Walker SLN | 108 |
Career WAR BAT Value = 72.4
Career WAR Ranking Score = 3319
The two systems are very much in agreement over Larry Walker with respect to ranking score. I have not yet done a historical analysis as to what scores qualifies for HOF but off the top of my head any WAA over 80 should be voted in on first ballot. Other than PEDs which Walker hasn’t been linked to in any way there is no excuse why Larry Walker has not been voted in other than perhaps HOF voters cannot properly discern baseball stats.