[VanillaGorilla]

Ron Cey becomes the 13th player to enter as a third baseman. What is going on??

Cey was selected by the Cardinals with the 6th pick of the 2026 draft.

In 2027 he batted .293 with 38 HR and 101 RBI to win the Rookie of the Year.

5 times Cey hit 40 or more HR in a season. The first time was in 2029 when he hit 40 while driving in 89. Seems like a low RBI total, but in 2029 he also walked 75 times, which was the most in a season for him. Obviously he had established a rep as being the guy on the Cardinals not to pitch to. Yet, he slashed 289/388/602 for the year. His npa OPS+ was a career high 172. His slg% was also a career high for sesons with qualifying PAs.

3 times Cey hit over .300, and 7 times he was named an All Star.

When re retired following the 2046 season, Cey had bashed 525 HR (18th, one slot behind Tony Perez) on 2180 hits (53rd, one slot behind Dave Kingman). He had 1475 RBI (24th) to his credit and had scored 1291 runs (37th, one more than Tim Wallach and Ed Konechty). He had 394 career doubles (89th) and slashed 279/364/536 for a npa OPS+ of 142. ey enters the HOF 98th on the career slg% list, one spot behind Vic Saier.

Cey appeared in 9 post seasons, but never played in a Fall Classic. He was hit by 115 pitches in his career. Fortunately, none of those were from Goose Gossage.

Ron Cey enters the HOF one week before his 47th birthday.

Black Ink: 4 (0)
Gray Ink: 97 (80)
HOFm: 114.5 (36)
HOFs: 54 (29)

Gorilla Composite: 2.7 (1.4)

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Early Wynn has selected with the 9th over pick by the White Sox in the 2018 draft. The White Sox would be horrible. In 8 seasons with them, the South Siders never won 80 games. They lost 90 or more 6 times.

Wynn signed a 1 year deal with the Angels in 2028. They lost 90 games.

He then signed a 1 year deal with the Diamondbacks in 2029. There, in his 10th big league season, he won 10 games (for the first time) and was an inning eater for the eventual World Championship D-Backs squad. He is the first player from that team to enter the HOF.

In his Swan Song season of 2044, he again tasted championship glory. This time as a Marlin. He joined vet HOFers Bobby Bonilla and Jim Gentile on that title squad (there will be more).

Wynn finished his career with 193 wins, 28th all time.

Wynn is also the career leader in losses with 225.

Though Wynn's place as the career loss leader does not equate to Cy Young's place ther, IRL, it is true that you have to be a good pitcher to rack up that many losses.

Wynn ranks 3rd on the career CG list with 85. The only HOFer with more is Toad Ramsey. He ranks 11th with 527 career starts, and is tied with Sandy Koufax and Willie McGill for 26th place on the career shut out list with 12.

Wynn struck out 3395 men (20th) in 3736 IP (11th).

Wynn's career OOTP ERA is 4.38 which gives him a career npa ERA+ of 103 (RL ERA+ 107).

The voters looked deeper than the raw numbers in evaluating Wynn and found a guy who pitched his guts out on teams that didn't support him for the vast majority of his career. A guy that pitched for teams with sub par bull pens who would eat innings in an effort to help his team the best he could. When given the opportunity to win, he did just that.

A three time All Star, Wynn enters the HOF at the age of 50.

Al Oliver enters the HOF as a CFer.

Black Ink: 5 (37)
Gray Ink: 108 (264)
HOFm: 44.8 (141)
HOFs: 26 (44)

Gorilla Composite: 1.4 (3.9)

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In his last year before coming under Veterans Committee consideration, the writers decided it was a good idea to get around to honoring Al Oliver before the Vet Committee made them look foolish, again.

Al Oliver was selected with the 8th overall pick in the 2012 draft by the Colorado Rockies.

He played in the Mile High City for 7 tears, the returned for his final season in 2030.

In his career Oliver slashed 325/373/540 (17th, between Dan Brouthers and Pete Rose/*/88th) for a npa OPS+ of 143. He collected 2473 hits (31st, 1 spot ahead of Rose) which included 507 doubles (33rd), 58 triples (t-54th, Rose), and 339 home runs. In 2017 he batted .349 to win the NL batting title. His only one.

That this turned out to be his only batting title was a bit of a shock to the baseball world. Consider the fact that he won the Rookie of the Year Award in 2013 by batting .418. He finished second to George Sisler in the batting race, that year. He also hit 38 HR, 131 RBI, 124 runs, and 50 doubles, on 234 hits, all career bests. His OBP of .466 and SLG of .725 gave him a npa OPS+ of 212.

Oliver set the bar high for himself that first year. He never recaptured that mega-superstar stroke, but he is a player who's entry into the converted tractor shed is long overdue. Oliver enters the HOF at age 59, as a 4 time All Star.

Back Ink: 6 (16)
Gray Ink: 79 (127)
HOFm: 113.5 (146)
HOFs: 59 (40)

Gorilla Composite: 2.7 (3.2)

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Cey and Oliver enter their second OOTP HOF. Early Wynn enters his first.

21 of the 55 entrants here are in the RL HOF.