Rob Neyer's Measuring Minnie Minoso's Hall Of Fame Case got me thinking about this. He might have enough peak value using WAR. His career WAR is not bad at 52.8, which is 152nd among position players (from Baseball Reference).
Here is the top 10 in WAR in the AL over the years of 1951-59:
Mickey Mantle 72.1
Minnie Minoso 49.5
Yogi Berra 43.3
Ted Williams 42.7
Nellie Fox 38.3
Gil McDougald 37.3
Larry Doby 34.2
Al Kaline 32
Al Rosen 27.8
Jackie Jensen 26.7
Second place to only Mickey Mantle is pretty good. He was still 6th if we look at both leagues;
Mickey Mantle 72.1
Willie Mays 57.2
Eddie Mathews 54.8
Stan Musial 53.1
Duke Snider 50.2
Minnie Minoso 49.5
Richie Ashburn 43.5
Yogi Berra 43.3
Ernie Banks 43.2
Ted Williams 42.7
Minoso had 7 top 5 finishes in the AL including 1st place in 1954 and 1959.
He was also 10th in OPS+ for players with 3000+ PAs in both leagues.
Ted Williams 186
Mickey Mantle 172
Stan Musial 159
Willie Mays 158
Eddie Mathews 152
Hank Aaron 151
Duke Snider 149
Ralph Kiner 141
Ernie Banks 139
Minnie Minoso 137
Here are his ranks in Win Shares in the AL from 1951-1960:
1951: 6
1952:
1953: 7
1954: 5
1955:
1956: 3
1957: 7
1958: 7
1959: 4
1960: 5
For the whole decade of the 1950s, Minoso was 3rd in Win Shares in the AL:
Mantle 317
Berra 276
Minoso 234
That means Minoso averaged 26 Win Shares per season. I don't know if any of this is enough to get him in, but his case is better than I thought.
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3 comments:
I followed Minoso's career from 1953 (when I was 9 years old) on. I think he should make the HOF. He was one of the top 5 players in the AL during the 50s, along with Mantle, Williams, Berra, and Kaline. He was a slashing line drive power who hit for hihg average, medium range power, drove in a lot of runs and stole a lot of bases. He lost some years because of the color line. He is certainly as good, if not better, than many of the players from the 20s and 30s who made the HOF because of their teammates or inflated batting averages. Your numbers are better than I thought and help build his case.
Thanks again for reading and commenting. Baseball Reference says he was born in 1925, so if that is correct, he probably did not miss much time due to the color barrier
I always thought Minoso was born in 1922. McMillan's Baseball Encyclopedia (1978 edition) says Nov. 29, 1922. But BaseballReference.com and Wikipedia both have Nov. 29, 1925. I remember as a young fan in the late 50s thinking how good Minoso was given his age being in the late 30s. But the other refernces are more recent, so I assume 1925 is correct.
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