The first star player has retired: Bolton
3B Noah Mathieson.
At time of retirement, here are Mathieson's positions for several career statistics:
AVG - 4th, .307
OBP - 16th, .367
SLG - 5th, .433
OPS - 6th, .800
Hits - 11th, 354
2B - 15th, 54
3B - 3rd, 46
SB - 6th, 177
He was featured in the Team of the Year for the 1888 and 1889 seasons.
Mathieson also participated in 3 editions of the British Home Championship (1888-90), here are his positions for career statistics:
AVG - 3rd, .371
OBP - 5th, .458
SLG - 3rd, .500
OPS - 3rd, .958
Hits - t-16th, 26
2B - t-10th, 5
3B - t-8th, 2
SB - t-13th, 2
WAR - 14th, 0.74
After a 5-season career, Matheson is eligible for Hall of Fame voting in 1894 due to reaching 5 service years. (I have set this limit as the guidelines presented below would mean a player needs to play the equivalent of 6.6 full seasons to be eligible and 5 is the closest to this).
This is a good point to talk about how I will be handling the Hall of Fame. As I'm running everything, I will be deciding which players make it or not into the Hall of Fame. Following the tendencies of both Premier League Hall of Fame and the World Football Hall of Fame in Pachuca for a large Hall of Fame, I will be inducting as many players as I see fit (IRL they induct 7-8 players a year, though the PL HoF has slowed down in recent years). Perhaps some of you baseball people who are used to a smaller Hall of Fame won't like this idea, but I'm following what's done in real life for football. I will be following some guidelines however, because they don't induct anyone and everyone but mostly recognized or popular players with the stats or awards to show for.
In general, I will be following the Premier League Hall of Fame guidelines but of course adjusted to baseball. In order to even be considered, players must have one of the following:
- 750 appearances in the league (250 starts for pitchers)
- or, 600 appearances for a single club (200 starts for pitchers)
- or, has been selected to at least 5 Teams of the Year
- or, won a batting title or ERA title
- or, has been selected Player/Pitcher of the Year at least once
- or, won 3 First Division titles
- or, has at least 300 career RBI or 150 career wins
- All players in the top 20 for WAR at time of retirement will also be considered
From that point on, players will be inducted as "usual" based on their regular stats, WAR and award wins. As an example, Noah Mathieson only played 313 games and is not automatically eligible for the Hall. He did win the 1888 batting title, so he becomes eligible thanks to that. Looking at his stats, he really only had one very good season in 1888 and one good season in 1889, declining after that and starting in less than 20% of games in 1892 before retiring. Because of these reasons, Mathieson will not be elected into the Hall of Fame. ... and so on for all players who retire. If any of you have any ideas, suggestions or general comments about how I'm handling this, feel free to leave a response to this thread. Thanks for reading!