Quick comment before I do my deep dive to see how things look: the eye test says I’m on board with all comments here.

to stick’s point about eligibility, would you all prefer that I focus my deep dive on first timers so we have that data next season or should I look at guys who have been around for a few seasons to make sure nobody falls through the cracks?

Based on the calculations that I've done in previous seasons, Vic Almadova is the only new(ish) name I want to bring up....I know the knock on him before is that he played the "wrong" positions for us to focus on, but on the balance of his on-field accomplishments he deserves to be in the HOF in my opinion.

This is a quick look at the names that have come up and the ones that I typically prioritize (see the Discord channel for how I arrived at those priorities):

• Calderone* - 2.4 Importance Score
• Banks - 5.9 Importance Score
• Ashby - 6.6 Importance Score
• Camacho - 5.2 Importance Score
• Oroposa - 10.5 Importance Score
• Fernandez - 8.6 Importance Score
• Ryan - 5.9 Importance Score
• Lowe -3.0 Importance Score
• Almadova - 12.4 Importance Score
• Adams - 4.6 Importance Score
• Standridge - 7.4 Importance Score
• Schaffer - 3.1 Importance Score

This is an odd year! We have some very interesting candidates but to me, they’re all on one side of the ball.

Love Charles Banks. .893 OPS, 100+ plays in centerfield, spent his entire major league career with Houston, almost 600 HR, 300 SB, that’s a lock if I’ve ever seen one.

Beyond him, in my eyes the most intriguing are the pair of defensive/speed/power third basemen, Fernandez and Oropesa. I want to say off the bat that I am SUPER-biased for Fernandez, he is one of my favorite guys I’ve had, an almost-never-see-it one club player in both majors and minors, a Vegas Galaxy legend who led us to three World Series titles and was the foundation of teams that went to 7 WS. I split him between 3B/2B most seasons because of platoon partner matchups which hurt things like AS berths or gold gloves but he was absolutely elite at both positions (over 100 combined plus plays .980 fielding %), had 7 seasons with a 900+ OPS, came within sniffing distance of the 500 HR/500 SB club, finished with an .866 OPS, got 2200 hits, 1500 runs, a true do-it-all-well candidate.

His great rival was Oropesa, ALSO a stud 2B/3B for the Seattle teams of the early 50s. Not as high a peak – only two seasons over .900 OPS, and a .798 career mark – but greater longevity and an extremely consistent star who was even better than Fernandez on defense. I genuinely love both those guys and think they’re EXACTLY the kind of players who should make a well-curated HOF.

Then we get to the mashers. To me, this year, that’s Lowe/Standridge/Almadova, and honestly, I don’t know why Lowe would be an attractive candidate over, say, Standridge or Almadova. They all had the exact same rate stats (.913 vs .917 vs. .922 OPS) and Standridge did it without the Colorado bump, while Almadova did it with the Seattle penalty. Basically all the same guy. Honestly I’d probably put Lowe 3^rd among those guys – Almadova and Lowe were both bad 1B’s (and lowe half his career at DH), but at least Almadova raked in a tough park for almost his whole career, and Standridge put up the same numbers as the other two but was a perfectly decent catcher. I understand that Lowe has the edge in counting stats, but they’re all over the usual thresholds we use. To me it’s Almadova/Standridge, THEN Lowe. But I’m willing to horse-trade that for strong opinions about the Fernandez/Oropesa duo, especially if there are backers for Almadova, who really did have an impressive peak.

Then, though, are the pitchers. I have a hard time getting excited about Camacho or Ashby. Camacho’s 3.87 would be the highest ERA in our HOF and I don’t see him as having the compiler stats to outweigh that. Most guys with his strikeout/win/inning totals had ERA’s in the low 3’s if they made it. He had ONE season with an ERA under 3.00, and nearly as many seasons over 4 as under. He would be a significant outlier, and not in a good way. I see Ashby as honestly slightly more interesting, but neither one really interests me as HOF’ers, and certainly not as locks.

To me, the best pitching candidate is actually Brett Frye, but I also understand that those middle-relief dominator types are hard to get behind. I just don’t think there are any hall-worthy pitchers this year. I'd rather we spend our time on the hitters, where there really are some great candidates.

Agree with that take. The pitchers are good, not great. The hitters have very easy arguments to be in now.

OK so I agree with a lot of what pimp said....combine that with the deep dive that I've done here are my current thoughts:

• Banks is a lock for all the reasons stated by pimp above
• Fernandez and Oropesa: I think both should go in eventually, but I'd put Oropesa above Fernandez based on Importance Score (the difference between the two is an extra ring for Oropesa.)
• Lowe/Standridge/Almadova: Importance Score puts Almadova first, Standridge second and Lowe third. Out of the three, Almadova is the only who scores in the double digits (the marker of a slam dunk HOF'er.) For now, I'm only throwing my weight behind Almadova.
• Camacho/Ashby: They score 5.2 and 6.6 on the Importance Score scale, so lesser candidates have made it but I'm not chomping at the bit to elect either one.
• Brett Frye: I haven't looked into him yet, but now I'm intrigued.

So, long story short: If we are looking for three locks this season I'd say Banks/Fernandez/Almadova would be my nominations for those spots and then I'd also give Oropesa a vote and I'm still deciding what should happen with my fifth vote.

Works for me.

I am fine with writing up Banks, Fernandez and Almadova, with a very strong rec for Oropesa, as above. Commish?