40.1+ WAR: A Fun List

by Paul Semendinger

December 15, 2024

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The more I think about the Hall of Fame, the more I am for opening the doors to more players. This is the place where baseball players are most remembered and become timeless. There are a host of baseball legends who are not in the Hall of Fame. There used to be high standards that were, for the most part, followed. Then, time after time, players without the traditional counting stats or even the newer stats are getting into the Hall. This includes Harold Baines and Dave Parker. Once players who traditionally weren't Hall of Fame worthy get in, the argument to keep others out becomes significantly weaker.

I know the counter to this line of thinking, "Just because Player X got in, and was a mistake, that doesn't mean the Hall should make more mistakes going forward." I get it. I really do.

But there's another side to that, if Player Z was better than Player X, and Player X is in, it is unfair to Player Z that he also isn't in.

I was a huge Dave Parker fans as a kid. I've shared that fact numerous times. I'm glad, for him, that he's in the Hall of Fame, but, he accumulated only 40.1 WAR in his career. He's far below the typical Hall of Fame standard of 60.0 WAR. He's not even close. (For those who love counting stats and want to argue, "WAR isn't everything..." First, I agree, WAR isn't everything. Second, Parker didn't bat .300, didn't hit 350 homers, didn't have 1,500 runs batted in, and he also didn't have even 2,800 hits. He falls short again and again by every measure.)

Parker was, though, a significant player for a short period (similar to Don Mattingly in many respects, though Mattingly was never on a World Series winning team).

Here, for fun, (note the words "for fun") is a list of current and former Yankees (I think I got them all) whose career WAR was higher than Parker's and are not (yet) in the Hall of Fame. I'm not saying all these players belong in the Hall of Fame. I am saying, for their careers, they out-performed Parker by this one measure. It's an interesting list.

I'm happy to discuss these players, and all of that, but please, in the comments, let's not get into the PED debate here. That discussion will distract from the bigger point and monopolize the discussion. We've had that discussion a million times and I am sure a million more times in other articles. For here, let's just focus on this list:

• Andy Messersmith - 40.2

• Virgil Trucks - 40.4

• David Justice - 40.6

• Gil McDougald - 40.7

• Bob Friend - 40.8

• Sam McDowell - 41.8

• John Candelaria - 41.9

• Darryl Strawberry - 42.1

• Felipe Alou - 42.2

• Don Mattingly - 42.4

• Jose Canseco - 42.4

• Jorge Posada - 42.7

• Sad Sam Jones - 42.7

• Ben Chapman - 42.7

• Mel Stottlemyre - 43.1

• Gerrit Cole - 43.3

• Charlie Keller - 43.6

• Brett Gardner - 44.3

• Troy Tulowitzki - 44.5

• Matt Holliday - 44.5

• Chuck Knoblauch - 44.6

• Giancarlo Stanton - 44.7

• Dixie Walker - 44.9

• Rocky Colavito - 44.9

• Tony Fernandez - 45.3

• Roger Peckinpaugh - 45.5

• Javier Vasquez - 45.6

• Del Pratt - 45.6

• Thurman Munson - 46.1

• Roy White - 46.8

• Hippo Vaughn - 46.8

• Bob Shawkey - 47.1

• Curtis Granderson - 47.2

• Bobo Newsom - 47.8

• Ron Guidry - 47.8

• Wally Schang - 48.0

• Bobby Veach - 48.1

• Jimmy Key - 48.9

• Andrew McCutchen - 49.3

• Bernie Williams - 49.6

• Kenny Rogers - 50.5

• Jason Giambi - 50.5

• Mark Teixeira - 50.6

• Al Orth - 51.3

• Carl Mays - 51.3

• Toby Harrah - 51.5

• Lance Berkman - 51.9

• Aaron Judge - 52.2

• Dwight Gooden - 53.0

• Bert Campaneris - 53.0

• Jack Clark - 53.1

• David Wells - 53.5

• Jose Cruz - 54.4

• Jack Powell - 55.3

• Jim Wynn - 55.8

• Robin Ventura - 56.1

• Johnny Damon - 56.3

• Frank Tanana - 57.1

• Bobby Bonds - 57.8

• John Olerud - 58.2

• Jack Quinn - 58.7

• Urban Shocker - 59.0

• Andy Pettite - 60.2

• Bobby Abreu - 60.2

• Gary Sheffield - 60.5

• Tommy John - 61.6

• David Cone - 62.3

• Andruw Jones - 62.7

• Willie Randolph - 65.9

• Luis Tiant - 66.1

• Kevin Brown - 67.8

• Graig Nettles - 67.9

• Kenny Lofton - 68.4

• Rick Reuschel - 69.5

• Alex Rodriguez - 117.6

• Roger Clemens - 139.2