WIN SHARES and the HALL OF FAME

I n 2002, Bill James published his book called WIN SHARESin which he introduced a new system that was the product of more than twenty-five years of research.And it is this system that I am convinced is far better than any other that has been developedfor comparing players.The method is so revolutionary that I believe that it is fair to say that FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, we are able to validly look at and compare 20 ^th century players (including hitting and fielding and pitching) no matter when they played or who they played for. The key to the value of Win Shares is that it tells us how valuable a player was to his team each season.And, of course, a player’s value to his team is what the game is all about.

But if we want to use Win Shares in order to compare players’ careers, then it is necessary to devise a way to do it other than to simply look at the total number of Win Shares accumulated.That is why I have developed the NEWS Hall of Fame Gauge – based on Win Shares.Consider the following example.

Arky Vaughan and Brooks Robinson

Arky Vaughan and Brooks Robinson were both outstanding infielders who are in the Hall of Fame. Vaughan is considered by many as one of the top three shortstops of the 20 ^th century.And Robinson is generally regarded as the best fielding third baseman of all time.The numbers that they accumulated during their careers illustrate rather well what the NEWS Gauge is designed to demonstrate. Both of these players accumulated 356 win sharesduring their careers.But that does not mean that their careers were similar in any way. Vaughan played for fourteen seasons and Robinson for twenty-three.Arky’s core value (CV) was 308 meaning that he averaged almost 31 win shares for his ten best seasons – a truly great performance.Brooks’ CV was 247 indicating that he averaged almost 25 win shares for his ten best – a very good career but not nearly as good as Vaughan.Arky’s NEWS score of 320 places him among the top 35 position players of the 20 ^th century.Brooks’ score of 274 is respectable (and places him among the top 100 position players of the century) but it cannot compare to Vaughan ’s 320.

For more information, check out the material in BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famerson this site.