The Race to 400 Begins

Posted on by Joe Posnanski

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So, here we go, we’re going to explain our Hall of Fame series, the Race to 400 (R2-400) … inspired by Tom Tango and The Good Place and a quirky coincidence that gave me the idea. We start by talking offense. Bill James and Tom Tango and others whom I...
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13 thoughts on “The Race to 400 Begins”

  1. Interesting system! I’ll be curious to hear how it all works out. I do wonder how your R2 400 score would work for a pitcher, so I’m requesting maybe do somebody that’s an overwhelming Hall of Famer like Randy Johnson or Greg Maddux or somebody like that?

  3. Joe, though I know the R2-400 is a new concept here, was this in some way how you arrived at and ordered your Baseball 100. You had mentioned there was a statistical element to it and then added in personal caveats that used judgment. Just curious if there was some overlap in the logic here?

  4. Times have changed. When you mentioned “The Good Place”, I didn’t know what you were talking about and thought it was some Netflix or HBO show I’d never seen. But lo and behold, it’s on NBC and has already had three seasons. I still watch cable TV, so how have I not heard of this show?
    Turns out I watch NBC about 0% of the time, thus I don’t see commercials for The Good Place. I’m not wondering what I spend my time watching, as I watch TV almost every night.

    1. Mark, don’t you listen to the PosCast? The Good Place’s showrunner is Michael Schur! I’m sure they’ve mentioned it a time or two. Anyway, you’re in for a treat, it’s a terrific show. (Or at least season 1 was — I confess I’m behind.)

  5. Ok, I’ll be the designated Jim Rice guy, because that’s just who I am. I tried to stick to Joe’s example scale as best I could:

    Offense: +343 (per Joe above)

    Defense: +20 (way better than his reputation, +24 fielding runs for his career. If Murph can get 25 points despite being at -33 fielding runs for his career, giving Rice 20 for being +24 seems more than fair.)

    Leading League: +70 (same scale as Joe, 5 points for each major category led, which is Hits once, triples once, HR’s 3 times, RBI twice, SLG twice, OPS once, total bases 4 times)

    Awards: +30 (If Murphy gets 50 points for being MVP twice, I think it’s very fair to give Rice 30 for being MVP once and being in the Top-5 in 5 others years)

    Media Nastiness: -50 (Your mileage may vary. I personally don’t blame the guy as much as some do, because the Boston media is pretty notorious. But a pretty heavy negative number still seems appropriate. More weight than his MVP, etc? Probably shouldn’t be, but I didn’t want to look too much like a homer)

    Autographs: +15 (Same as Joe with Murphy; Rice signed for me and was a delightful guy.)

    HOF Crap: +10 (Same as Joe with Baines; Rice had to put up with all of the “he isn’t worthy” crap before Baines did.)

    Boston Racism: +10 (Would love to add more here, but still trying to avoid being a homer. Still, we’re talking about the first black star to play his whole career for the last team to integrate. A team so institutionally racist that Howard Bryant wrote an entire book about it. Gotta give Rice something here, no?)

    Hero: +10 (No, not MY hero. I mean August 7, 1982, when a 7-year old had his skull fractured by a line drive at Fenway and Rice jumped into the stands, picked up the kid, and ran with him to the Red Sox clubhouse where team doctor Arthur Pappas could treat him. His quick thinking has been crediting with saving the kid’s life, and that’s gotta be worth something.)

    Double Plays: ZERO (That’s right, no debit at all. It is physically impossible for one player to make two outs in a single plate appearance. Hitting into a lot of double plays is generally a function of have lots and lots of teammates on base in front of you, and since we’ve been discounting RBI for years for the same reason, we should be be discounting GIDPs as well.)

    Total Score: 458

  6. Andruw Jones
    Ron Gant
    David Justice
    (see the trend?)

    I loved all of those guys growing up, and though I know Andruw’s the only one w/ a sniff at the real HOF, I’d love to see you score them.

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