Dewey, Raines, & The HOF Edition

In the spirit of our civic discourse and voting and such I thought I would devote some time to the Baseball HOF.  I've been a bit swept up in the wave of local and semi national support for Dwight 'Dewey' Evans to be elected to the HOF by the veterans committee.  I don't know, seems like simpler times when as a lad I could scream 'DEWEY DEWEY DEWEY' from the right field grandstands when he made a typical wonderful play.  I wondered how he compared to Tim 'Rock' Raines, who is a current darling of the sabermetric crowd to be elected via regular vote.  I like the stat WAR, or wins over replacement, as it takes into account hitting, baserunning and defense, so I've included that in my analysis.  I will compare the average HOFer, Raines, and Dewey using stats I culled from baseball reference.  I'll also throw in some of the major awards or league leading stats that the two players accumulated over their careers.

                  Yrs  WAR    R    HR   RBI   BA   OBP  OPS
Avg HOF    18    65    1323  211  1213 .303 .376   .838

Raines       23    66.2  1571 170   980  .294  .385  .810
Career highlights: 7 time All Star, Top 5 in MVP voting 1, League Leader R 2, 2B 2, SB 4, BA 1, OBP 1

Dewey       20     62.8  1470 385  1384  .272 .370  .840
Career highlights: 3 time All Star, Top 5 in MVP voting 2, League Leader R 1, HR 1, OBP 1, OPS 2, 8 time Gold Glove winner.

Raine's .385 career OBP is what those who advocate for him today feel he has been under appreciated for.   Some say he could be considered the second best leadoff man of all time behind Rickey Henderson.  Dewey's bat has been under appreciated severely considering he stacks up quite well in R, HR, RBI, OBP and OPS.  At least Raines has gotten the respect of staying on the active ballot.  Dewey washed out on his third year eligible in 1999 receiving only 3.6% of the vote.  Considering he is worthy of the average HOFer I'd say that's a travesty.  Raines is a slightly, very slightly, better candidate, but both certainly deserve election.  Lets get them there before too many steroid freaks start showing up on the ballot.

Until next time,

The SAHD