Lou Whitaker is above average compared to all Hall of Fame second baseman and not only has he not been elected, he was a one-and-done with the BBWAA and was literally left off the ballot when they could have given him a second chance.Beyond WAR, Whitaker played for 19 seasons, winning the Rookie of the Year award, making five All-Star teams, winning three Gold Gloves and winning the Silver Slugger award four times. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith.Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis.
DETROIT -- Lou Whitaker was barely on the Hall of Fame ballot long enough to enjoy a healthy debate when Baseball Writers' Association of America writers considered him in 2001. Many thanks to him. My God, man, he’s overqualified. Makes no sense that Alomar (67 WAR) is a 2nd ballot HOFer while Lou (75 WAR) got dumped. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Correct. Batting, Running, and Fielding Runs Above Replacement; Year Team PA Bat Runs Bsr GIDP ROE TZ ifDP OFarm Catch Pos Adj Rep RAR WAR; 1977: DET: 36-1: 0: 0: 0-2-1: 0: 0: 0: 1-3-0.3 It’s time for Lou Whitaker to be in the Hall of Fame.I think the Modern Baseball Era Committee will make it right on Sunday.The third and final game Thursday of Oakland’s series at Seattle has been postponed to allow for additional testing and contact tracing after a member of the Athletics’ organization tested positive for the coronavirus.The first two games in the series scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday had previously been put off.Major League Baseball said the games will be made up with a doubleheader in Seattle on Sept. 14 and another in Oakland on Sept. 26.MLB said it will continue to provide updates as necessary. to do something fancy as opposed to making it look effortless. Although there are no objections to the two who did garner enough votes — Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller — there was a great deal of confusion on why Whitaker was so significantly snubbed. And they dang well should get that third player in Lou Whitaker.Whitaker, infamously, received only 2.9 percent of the vote when he first appeared on the ballot in 2001, knocking him off that ballot for good after just one year. Whitaker was the AL Player of the Month and Player of the Week only once each, both in June 1983. Louis Rodman Whitaker Jr. (born May 12, 1957), nicknamed "Sweet Lou", is an American professional baseball second baseman who played for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1977 to 1995. Whitaker had a career WAR of 75.1, which is seventh all time for second basemen. It’s time to fix that. It can happen, though, as Whitaker’s contemporary, the Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, can attest. The 1981 Dodgers seem to be permanently out of luck, but those Bless You Boys Tigers have a chance to gain three in the space of two years. Lou Whitaker With 75.1, Whitaker is the WAR leader among position players who’ve never be suspected of steroid use and aren’t in the Hall. He should’ve been elected years and years ago.Before we get to the actual argument, such as it is, against his induction, let’s look at why Lou Whitaker was so During Whitaker’s career the things he did best — get on base, hit for good power for his position, and play outstanding defense — were not judged in the same way as they are now and, frankly, were judged pretty poorly.All of which is to say: a second baseman with pop, patience or outstanding but unsexy defensive ability was almost guaranteed to be discounted by the biases of the era, and Whitaker’s game hit all three of those things harder than just about anyone else. ... > Lou Whitaker Statistics and History. For instance, Dave Parker, who had a fine career but was never the caliber of player that Sweet Lou was, had more votes (7). Making this discovery just before the game, he had to make do with replica merchandise available for purchase at the park.
Trammell was elected in 2017 and inducted in 2018. He was destined to be an invisible man when he hit the ballot before people’s minds started to expand about such things.Oh, and it didn’t help that there were six future Hall of Famers on the 2001 ballot off of which Whitaker fell: Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett were elected that year and Gary Carter, Jim Rice, Bruce Sutter, Rich Gossage, Jack Morris and Bert Blyleven would make it in subsequently. He should be in - but not before former Players' Association director Marvin Miller.Dan Szymborski, renown numbers-cruncher and creator of ZiPS, also felt similarly and pointed out that Whitaker received the same number of votes as Steve Garvey — another player who had a fine career, but not at the level of of Sweet Lou. The six men in front of him — Rogers Hornsby, Eddie Collins, Napoleon Lajoie, Joe Morgan, Rod Carew, and Charlie Gehringer — are all Hall of Famers. Many behind him, including Ryne Sandberg, Roberto Almoar, Craig Biggio, Nellie Fox, Joe Gordon, and Bobby Doerr are Hall of Famers. Chase Utley retired with an OPS+ of 117, for example. But Sandberg had four seasons above 7.0 WAR, while Whitaker had none. A history of the Sports Reference Sponsorship System. — Jay Markle (@jaymarkle_byb) November 18, 2019 It’s time to make baseball history right again. Now, what about Whitaker? It can hurt to be one of many Men on a very deep and very balanced playoff team like Whitaker was in 1984 and 1987.If your Hall of Fame standard is “I only want the best of the best — the guys who we can call immortals — in the Hall of Fame,” then sure, Lou Whitaker is probably not your man. There were others who fanned those fires with poorly-constructed arguments against Whitaker’s induction.So Lou Whitaker has been denied the Hall of Fame.
Lou Whitaker: Whitaker drew only 2.9 percent support in 2001, his only year on the ballot. Matt Whitaker says in-person intel briefings should stop until Congress agrees to stop leaking misinformation powered by For video troubleshooting and help click here . Whitaker was extremely consistent, he had 11 seasons with a WAR of at least 4.0, while Sandberg had only seven.