The secondary MLB Hall of Fame

What if there was a secondary Hall of Fame for the best 274 players who are not in the HOF?

There’s plenty of players who are borderline Hall of Famers, but haven’t gotten into the Hall. Players like Lou Whitaker and Dale Murphy. What if there was a Secondary Hall of Fame for them? These players are really good, they should get some sort of recognition.

What would this Hall be called?

Silver Hall: This implies a ranking just below the top (often considered gold), acknowledging their excellence and contribution to the sport without equating them with those in the Hall of Fame.

Hall of Aim: Players who aimed for the Hall of Fame, but never quite got there. But they still aim to get into the real Hall.

Hall of Claim: This could celebrate players who made a significant “claim” to fame through memorable moments or unique contributions to the sport. Or maybe the claim could be their “claim” that they belong in the real Hall.

Hall of Excellence: This name suggests a high standard of achievement without implying the absolute pinnacle, making it suitable for players who were outstanding but didn’t quite make the Hall of Fame cut.

Junior Hall: Conveys the idea of a secondary tier of recognition. Might be a little too biting?

Number of players in the Secondary Hall of Fame

The Hall of Aim would match the same number of players in the Hall of Fame. Right now there are 274 players in the Hall of Fame. Thus, the Hall of Aim would also have 274 players. 190 hitters, 84 pitchers.

Every year when the Hall of Fame inducts players in, the Hall of Aim would induct the same number of players. This year, three players are being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Aim would induct three players.

Come to think of it… as the Hall of Fame inducts players, they would probably be taking players away from the Hall of Aim. So if the Hall of Fame takes three players from the Hall of Aim, then we would need to induct SIX more players. That’s kinda fun.

With all the choices of who gets into the Hall of Aim, we can give some of the guys who aren’t even close to the Hall some chance to be in a debate of greatness. Guys like Gary Gaetti, Lenny Dykstra, and Steve Finley.

Steroids or officially banned?

Do we include players who are known to use steroids? Or players who have been banned from the HOF? Yes. We do. This is the Hall of Aim. C’mon. Let’s put Pete Rose and Barry Bonds in some sort of Hall. That’s the point of this exercise—to give all the players who aren’t the HOF some attention.

Criteria for entry into Hall of Aim

1. If your number is retired, you are automatically in.
2. Ranking by career WAR.

Critera: Retired numbers, but not in HOF

If a player gets their number retired, then they are automatically included them into Hall of Aim.

The 57 players with a retired number, but not in the Hall of Fame:

Criteria: Career WAR

With 46 players listed, we now have 228 more to induct. Part of the fun of the real HOF is all the debates on who should be in. There is no one clear-cut way of determining who is in the Hall. Should the secondary hall also make it more esoteric?

I don’t want to make this brain surgery. We’ll rank the 274 best players by their career WAR and be done with it. (190 hitters and 84 pitchers)

190 hitters in the Hall of Aim

Bonds clearly rules the top. Pete Rose comes in 5th. Impressive that Lou Whitaker is 7th.

Interesting how lots of these guys are current players. I’m not sure if we should have them in the Hall of Aim. I kinda like the notion of inducting active players. I suppose that means some retired players who are on the borderline (like like Andy Van Slyke and Mark Belanger) might get cut off as more active players join the Aim list.

The bar to breaking into the Hall of Fame is a career WAR of 40.9. Aaron Judge and Marcus Semien passed that bar in 2023. Andy Van Slyke and Mark Belanger risk being dropped off from the secondary Hall, because this year, at least five active players will leap over them.

Players #178 to #190 are guys who got in due to their number being retired.

Funny to see guys like Steve Garvey and Paul Konerko couldn’t even get into a Second-Tier Hall on their stats.

20 retired batters who did not make the Hall of Aim

It’s amazing how many players can not get into a Second-Tier Hall of Fame. Incredible players like Albert Belle, Magglio Ordóñez, and Juan González.

20 current players who have a chance at making the Hall of Aim

Today’s players need to get past Hardy Richardson’s 40.9 WAR to get in. Five players stand a chance of doing this—Correa, Heyward, Yelich, Rizzo, and Bogaerts. If five players get in, that mean five players have to drop out. The five bottom players in the Hall of Aim have WAR ranging from 40.9 to 41.5. I’d say Correa, Heyward, Yelich, Rizzo, and Bogaerts will all accomplice that this year.

That leaves 34-year-old Starling Marte standing outside the door. He most likely will not enter, since he’s now going backwards instead of forwards with his -0.8 WAR last year.

The top 145 pitchers by career WAR (who are in the Hall of Aim)

20 retired pitchers who are not in the Hall of Aim

Jon Letter, Vida Blue, Carlos Zambrano, Josh Beckett do not make the Hall of Aim. Kinda puts it into perspective that’s Jon Lester is not even a tier-2 HOF.

20 active players with a chance of getting into the Hall of Aim

These players need to get past George Uhle’s career WAR of 45 to break in.