The most-deserving players not in the Hall of Fame: Shortstops

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Derek Jeter’s time approaches. In just a few months, the 14-time All Star and New York Yankees great will debut on the Baseball Writers Association of America’s ballot for Cooperstown. The only question at this point, really, is if Jeter can duplicate teammate Mariano Rivera’s unanimous induction with the writers.

Given Jeter’s underwhelming 72.4 WAR lifetime and porous defense according to sabermetrics (-243 defensive runs worse than average, lowest in baseball history), a few writers might withhold votes to make a statement. Still, Jeter will undoubtedly be close, if not unanimous. He nails the Fame part of Hall of Fame as well as few players of his generation.

Unsurprisingly, Jeter also heads up the latest round of results for my survey on the most-deserving players not in the Hall of Fame. As a reminder, I recently asked 425 respondents to rank 10 players at each position, from 1 for most-deserving of induction to 10 for least-deserving. Previous results have focused on pitchers, catchers, first basemen, second basemen, and third basemen. (As a disclaimer, I put Alex Rodriguez at third base for the survey. More about my rationale can be found in the third base results post.)

Here’s how voting for shortstops went.

Q6 – Rank the following shortstops, ranging from 1 for most-deserving of Hall of Fame induction to 10 for least-deserving

Player	Average ranking
Derek Jeter	1.63
Dave Concepcion	4.03
Nomar Garciaparra	4.61
Omar Vizquel	4.63
Bill Dahlen	4.98
Mark Belanger	5.92
Jack Glasscock	6.52
Maury Wills	6.70
Marty Marion	7.63
Cecil Travis	8.36

[From a survey of 425 respondents, fielded via Qualtrics]

Sabermetrically, these might be some of the least-inspiring results in the bunch. Jeter’s long had his detractors. Concepcion, who’s come moderately close on the veterans’ ballot for Cooperstown in recent years, doesn’t have any advanced stats to write home about either. Nor does Vizquel, who’s already crossed 40 percent on the writers’ ballot and looks destined for future induction. Meanwhile, Bill Dahlen, whose case is built around a re-examining of his career on the strength of his 75.4 WAR, is a ways down here.

As always, here’s a more detailed breakdown of how people voted:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Belanger	10	22	44	59	70	57	49	26	29	59
Cncpcn.	19	74	89	85	79	39	21	12	4	3
Dahlen	19	84	37	34	50	68	76	31	14	12
Grcprra.	4	54	72	100	66	63	31	18	8	9
Glasscock	7	21	43	24	29	47	80	92	47	35
Jeter	340	29	22	7	4	10	2	2	1	8
Marion	2	6	9	11	30	37	58	112	116	44
Travis	0	6	7	13	15	21	35	69	122	137
Vizquel	15	103	68	52	40	46	26	16	40	19
Wills	9	26	34	40	42	37	47	47	44	99
Total	425	425	425	425	425	425	425	425	425	425

A few thoughts based on these numbers:

• That 391 of 425 voters rated Jeter a 3 or better here is one more sign to me he’ll sail into Cooperstown. But the scattering of lower votes hints to me that Jeter might not be unanimous. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
• I’m also struck to see the wide chasm in votes between Dahlen and Jack Glasscock, with nearly twice as many voters ranking Dahlen in the top five. By Wins Above Average, which might be a fairer measure for 19th century players than WAR since the seasons were shorter, Dahlen and Glasscock are fairly even players.
• I’d like to talk to the 10 people who voted Mark Belanger most-deserving of induction. This is a brave claim to stake.
• Of the 34 respondents who voted Jeter a 4 or worse, Belanger, Concepcion, and Vizquel got the most first-place votes, with eight, seven, and five respectively. Don’t ask me how these things work.
• Cecil Travis is the only player of the 90 in this survey to receive zero first-place votes. He’s one of my favorite Hall of Fame candidates, essentially sacrificing his career to serve nearly four full seasons in World War II, seeing combat and suffering frostbite on his feet at the Battle of the Bulge. Cooperstown wouldn’t be any worse for his inclusion.

Anyhow, that’s all for now. Tune in tomorrow for the results of left field.

Just getting caught up? Check out results for pitchers, catchers, first basemen, second basemen, and third basemen. Stay tuned in the days to come for results of the other three positions.