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FuzzyRussianHat · 02-04-2025, 05:15 AM

Major League Baseball boasted a strong three-player Hall of Fame class for 2025 with RF Ezekiel Thomas as the clear headliner with a near unanimous 99.3%. The other two made it with solid debuts as LF Ustad Shaikh received 83.9% and SP Easton MacGregor earned 77.9%. The top returner was catcher Sebastian Van Velzen at 59.1%, missing the 66% requirement in his penultimate try.

Five other returners were above 50%, but short of the 66% mark. 2B Adrian Vega had 58.1% in his fifth ballot. SP Victor Burke grabbed 56.0% on his seventh try. 3B Jeanpaul Vick’s sixth go landed 54.4%. CL Sebastian Gomez received 54.0% on his second ballot and CL Jeremy Dau nabbed 50.0% even for his fourth go.

Catcher Brayan Varela fell off the ballot after ten failed tries, getting as close as 58.1% in 2019 and ending with 40.3%. Varela was hurt by the usual anti-catcher bias, but he didn’t have the big awards to make up for the lower counting stats of the position. He had three Silver Sluggers, 18 seasons, 2356 hits, 1096 runs, 447 doubles, 243 home runs, 1119 RBI, 678 walks, .293/.348/.448 slash, 117 wRC+, and 69.5 WAR. Varela ranks 14^th in WAR among catchers and didn’t draw tons of publicity playing for mostly wear teams in the small Salt Lake City market.

SP Ken Whelan also made it ten ballots, ending at only 5.0% after peaking at 30.2% in 2018. He was purely a longevity guy who never had any awards, but he played 16 years with six teams. Whelan had a 248-208 record, 3.73 ERA, 4100.1 innings, 3249 strikeouts, 1132 walks, 100 ERA+, and 43.8 WAR. Definitely a Hall of Pretty Good type

RF Emmanuel Kao was also notable, falling below 5% on his eighth try at the MLB Hall of Fame. He had three tries on the West African Baseball ballot at 58.6%, 62.9%, and 59.1%, but was oddly disqualified from future WAB ballots. Kao won three MVPs in his six year WAB run, then had one MVP in MLB with New York. He had a combined 2593 hits, 1456 runs, 470 doubles, 703 home runs, 1693 RBI, .283/.346/.575 slash, 166 wRC+, and 91.3 WAR.

The combined ballot would be pretty surefire in one league, but his most dominant years came in WAB. In MLB, Kao had 1597 hits, 886 runs, 232 doubles, 453 home runs, 1034 RBI, a .271/.330/.545 slash, 163 wRC+, and 52.6 WAR. He was extremely popular, but not quite tenured enough in MLB to make it.

LF Leegan Shea was also worth a mention, who dropped after only six ballots. He won 1998 Rookie of the Year with a 53 homer, 8.9 WAR performance, then won MVP in 1999 with San Francisco with 56 homers. Injuries greatly limited him after that, finishing with 1787 hits, 1068 runs, 258 doubles, 449 home runs, 1115 RBI, .283/.342/.565 slash, 148 wRC+, and 60.2 WAR. It was one of the best starts to an MLB career, but Shea couldn’t sustain it.

Ezekiel “Dutch” Thomas – Right Field – Montreal Maples – 99.3% First Ballot

Ezekiel Thomas was a 6’1’’, 200 pound left-handed right fielder from New York City. Nicknamed “Dutch,” Thomas was an incredible contact hitter with strong reliable power, especially against right-handed pitching. At his peak, some scouts called his contact ability a scale-breaking 11/10. He was excellent at avoiding strikeouts and solid at drawing walks.

Thomas’s 162 game average got you 42 home runs and 27 doubles, consistently putting him among the top sluggers in MLB. He absolutely mauled righties with an incredible 1.036 OPS and 218 wRC+ for his career. Thomas was still plenty good versus lefties with a .803 OPS and 144 wRC+. He was a very smart baserunner, but his usefulness was limited by poor speed.

His biggest flaw was defense as Thomas was truly abysmal with his glove. He played right field primarily, although he did start at first base in his final three seasons. Thomas also sporadically played left field and was hot garbage at any spot. He would’ve been ideal as a designated hitter, but he spent his whole career in the DH-less National Association. You would tolerate terrible defense when you got one of the most efficient bats of all-time.

Thomas wasn’t a trouble maker in the clubhouse, but he was considered a bit of a selfish loner. He cared most about his personal results and paycheck more so than the team. But his outstanding bat made him one of the era’s more popular stars. Thomas’s missed some notable time in three of his 16 seasons, but he otherwise had decent enough durability.

He attended the University of Missouri with excellent numbers, despite missing a good chunk of his sophomore season to injury. Thomas started 114 games with 138 hits, 88 runs, 25 doubles, 46 home runs, 93 RBI, 64 walks, .324/.422/.707 slash, 232 wRC+, and 10.1 WAR. In the 2003 MLB Draft, Thomas was picked fourth overall by Virginia Beach. He was a starter immediately for the Vikings and took second in Rookie of the Year voting for 2004.

Thomas had 6+ WAR each of the next four seasons for Virginia Beach, winning a Silver Slugger in 2006 and earning a third place in 2005’s MVP voting. He would miss a chunk of 2009 between a fractured foot and fractured hand, then lost six weeks in 2010 to biceps tendinitis. Thomas was full strength in 2011 to win his first MVP and second Slugger.

In 2011, Thomas posted only the sixth-ever Triple Crown hitting season in MLB history. It hadn’t been done in MLB since Sebastian Lunde in 1946. Thomas had 51 homers and 143 RBI with a .355 average, along with NA-bests in slugging (.659), OPS (1.072), wRC+ (222), and 9.7 WAR. The season would mark his career highs in RBI and hits (211). Virginia Beach had their best season in more than a decade at 91-71, but missed the wild card by one game.

The Vikings had been largely mediocre in Thomas’s tenure with losing seasons from 2004-09. They had finally started to turn things around, but a Triple Crown in a contract year made Thomas’s stock rise dramatically. He knew he could get a historic payday and the smaller market Virginia Beach was going to have a tough time affording such a deal. To the chagrin of Vikings fans, Thomas left for free agency at age 28.

With Virginia Beach, Thomas had 1390 hits, 673 runs, 200 doubles, 289 home runs, 802 RBI, 357 walks, .328/.385/.587 slash, 196 wRC+, and 49.6 WAR. He had also become very popular nationwide with some dominant runs for the United States in the World Baseball Championship. Thomas won world titles for the Americans in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2017.

Thomas’s 2008 run was legendary, winning WBC MVP with 39 hits, 31 runs, 18 homers, 46 RBI, 39 hits, 1.453 OPS, 313 wRC+, and 3.49 WAR over 23 starts. He set new WBC records for WAR by a position player and RBI. The RBI mark is still the WBC record as of 2037 and the WAR ranks 2^nd. Thomas‘s homers ranked as the 5^th-best WBC, the hits rank 12^th, and runs rank 8^th.

In 2009, Thomas was second in MVP voting with 42 hits, 25 runs, 10 homers, 36 RBI, 1.214 OPS, and 2.7 WAR. The 42 hits are tied for the 4^th-best in WBC history. Thomas won his second WBC MVP in 2011 and is one of nine players in event history to win MVP twice. That run had 36 hits, 26 runs, 10 doubles, 14 homers, 32 RBI, 1.565 OPS, 317 wRC+, and 3.05 WAR. Thomas’s 2011 WAR is the 5^th-best by a position player. As of 2037, the only players in WBC history to record 3+ WAR twice are Thomas, OF Connor Neumeyer, and SP Bo Jackson.

That dominance certainly raised Thomas’s stock and popularity even more. Despite being one of the more notable American WBC players, the most famous years of his pro career came in Quebec. After the 2011 season, Thomas signed an eight-year, $177,600,000 deal with Montreal. The Maples had just ended an 11-year playoff drought the prior year. They fell back below .500 in 2012, but did earn three straight playoff berths from 2013-15. Montreal lost in the second round of 2013 and had first round exits in 2014 and 2015.

Thomas’s bat couldn’t bring them to the promised land, but her certainly held up his end with five straight seasons with 6.5+ WAR. He won batting titles in 2013 and 2014, leading in hits and total bases both years. Thomas’s 2014 was stellar with career and association bests in runs (129), homers (53), triple slash (.384/.456/.733), OPS (1.189), wRC+ (271), and WAR (11.3). His OPS was the second-best single season to that point and still ranks fifth as of 2037. Thomas also led in OPS, slugging, and wRC+ in 2015.

From these efforts, Thomas won MVPs in 2013, 2014, and 2015; while taking second in 2012. Thomas became the sixth player in National Association history with four or more MVP wins. He won Silver Sluggers from 2011-15 and hit for the cycle in 2012. In the 2018 season, Thomas had a fractured rib and torn thumb ligament keep him out nearly half of the season. His pace was still excellent that year, bouncing back after a slight dip in 2017.

Thomas had a shocking decline in 2019 with a 1.5 WAR, .748 OPS season. His strikeout rate soared to 20.8% with 114 Ks after having generally kept the rate below 10% for his career. That was the final year of his Montreal deal with the Maples having fallen back into mediocrity by 2016. For Montreal, Thomas had 1343 hits, 772 runs, 181 doubles, 298 home runs, 771 RBI, a .325/.394/.592 slash, 204 wRC+, and 53.6 WAR.

He hoped to fix his batting issues and play again somewhere in 2020. Between the price tag, declining bat, and atrocious defense, no MLB teams were interested in Thomas. After sitting out all of 2020, he retired that winter at age 37. Soon after, Montreal announced that they would retire his #45 uniform.

Thomas finished with 2287 games, 2733 hits, 1445 runs, 381 doubles, 587 home runs, 1573 RBI, 758 walks, 889 strikeouts, .327/.390/.589 slash, .979 OPS, 200 wRC+, and 103.2 WAR. Thomas didn’t have the longevity to soar up the counting stat leaderboards. As of 2037, he ranks 61^st in home runs and 45^th in WAR among position players, but doesn’t crack the top 100 in the other counting stats.

His efficiency stats though are quite impressive. Among MLB batters with 3000+ plate appearances, Thomas’s OPS still ranks 20^th. His batting average is 45^th, OBP is 43^rd, and slugging is 28^th. Among all of the world’s Hall of Famers as of 2037, Thomas is one of only ten with a career wRC+ of 200 or better. Few batters ever have been more consistently effective than Thomas in baseball history.

Because of the lower tallies and no playoff success, Thomas’s name doesn’t come up in the inner circle conversations as often as his rate stats might suggest they should. The abysmal defense also didn’t help his cause, but most agree that there have been few pure hitters in MLB history better. Thomas was a no-doubt Hall of Famer either way at 99.3% to headline a strong three-player class in 2025.

02-04-2025, 05:15 AM	#2037
FuzzyRussianHat Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 2,613	2025 MLB Hall of Fame (Part 1) Major League Baseball boasted a strong three-player Hall of Fame class for 2025 with RF Ezekiel Thomas as the clear headliner with a near unanimous 99.3%. The other two made it with solid debuts as LF Ustad Shaikh received 83.9% and SP Easton MacGregor earned 77.9%. The top returner was catcher Sebastian Van Velzen at 59.1%, missing the 66% requirement in his penultimate try. Five other returners were above 50%, but short of the 66% mark. 2B Adrian Vega had 58.1% in his fifth ballot. SP Victor Burke grabbed 56.0% on his seventh try. 3B Jeanpaul Vick’s sixth go landed 54.4%. CL Sebastian Gomez received 54.0% on his second ballot and CL Jeremy Dau nabbed 50.0% even for his fourth go. Catcher Brayan Varela fell off the ballot after ten failed tries, getting as close as 58.1% in 2019 and ending with 40.3%. Varela was hurt by the usual anti-catcher bias, but he didn’t have the big awards to make up for the lower counting stats of the position. He had three Silver Sluggers, 18 seasons, 2356 hits, 1096 runs, 447 doubles, 243 home runs, 1119 RBI, 678 walks, .293/.348/.448 slash, 117 wRC+, and 69.5 WAR. Varela ranks 14^th in WAR among catchers and didn’t draw tons of publicity playing for mostly wear teams in the small Salt Lake City market. SP Ken Whelan also made it ten ballots, ending at only 5.0% after peaking at 30.2% in 2018. He was purely a longevity guy who never had any awards, but he played 16 years with six teams. Whelan had a 248-208 record, 3.73 ERA, 4100.1 innings, 3249 strikeouts, 1132 walks, 100 ERA+, and 43.8 WAR. Definitely a Hall of Pretty Good type RF Emmanuel Kao was also notable, falling below 5% on his eighth try at the MLB Hall of Fame. He had three tries on the West African Baseball ballot at 58.6%, 62.9%, and 59.1%, but was oddly disqualified from future WAB ballots. Kao won three MVPs in his six year WAB run, then had one MVP in MLB with New York. He had a combined 2593 hits, 1456 runs, 470 doubles, 703 home runs, 1693 RBI, .283/.346/.575 slash, 166 wRC+, and 91.3 WAR. The combined ballot would be pretty surefire in one league, but his most dominant years came in WAB. In MLB, Kao had 1597 hits, 886 runs, 232 doubles, 453 home runs, 1034 RBI, a .271/.330/.545 slash, 163 wRC+, and 52.6 WAR. He was extremely popular, but not quite tenured enough in MLB to make it. LF Leegan Shea was also worth a mention, who dropped after only six ballots. He won 1998 Rookie of the Year with a 53 homer, 8.9 WAR performance, then won MVP in 1999 with San Francisco with 56 homers. Injuries greatly limited him after that, finishing with 1787 hits, 1068 runs, 258 doubles, 449 home runs, 1115 RBI, .283/.342/.565 slash, 148 wRC+, and 60.2 WAR. It was one of the best starts to an MLB career, but Shea couldn’t sustain it. Ezekiel “Dutch” Thomas – Right Field – Montreal Maples – 99.3% First Ballot Ezekiel Thomas was a 6’1’’, 200 pound left-handed right fielder from New York City. Nicknamed “Dutch,” Thomas was an incredible contact hitter with strong reliable power, especially against right-handed pitching. At his peak, some scouts called his contact ability a scale-breaking 11/10. He was excellent at avoiding strikeouts and solid at drawing walks. Thomas’s 162 game average got you 42 home runs and 27 doubles, consistently putting him among the top sluggers in MLB. He absolutely mauled righties with an incredible 1.036 OPS and 218 wRC+ for his career. Thomas was still plenty good versus lefties with a .803 OPS and 144 wRC+. He was a very smart baserunner, but his usefulness was limited by poor speed. His biggest flaw was defense as Thomas was truly abysmal with his glove. He played right field primarily, although he did start at first base in his final three seasons. Thomas also sporadically played left field and was hot garbage at any spot. He would’ve been ideal as a designated hitter, but he spent his whole career in the DH-less National Association. You would tolerate terrible defense when you got one of the most efficient bats of all-time. Thomas wasn’t a trouble maker in the clubhouse, but he was considered a bit of a selfish loner. He cared most about his personal results and paycheck more so than the team. But his outstanding bat made him one of the era’s more popular stars. Thomas’s missed some notable time in three of his 16 seasons, but he otherwise had decent enough durability. He attended the University of Missouri with excellent numbers, despite missing a good chunk of his sophomore season to injury. Thomas started 114 games with 138 hits, 88 runs, 25 doubles, 46 home runs, 93 RBI, 64 walks, .324/.422/.707 slash, 232 wRC+, and 10.1 WAR. In the 2003 MLB Draft, Thomas was picked fourth overall by Virginia Beach. He was a starter immediately for the Vikings and took second in Rookie of the Year voting for 2004. Thomas had 6+ WAR each of the next four seasons for Virginia Beach, winning a Silver Slugger in 2006 and earning a third place in 2005’s MVP voting. He would miss a chunk of 2009 between a fractured foot and fractured hand, then lost six weeks in 2010 to biceps tendinitis. Thomas was full strength in 2011 to win his first MVP and second Slugger. In 2011, Thomas posted only the sixth-ever Triple Crown hitting season in MLB history. It hadn’t been done in MLB since Sebastian Lunde in 1946. Thomas had 51 homers and 143 RBI with a .355 average, along with NA-bests in slugging (.659), OPS (1.072), wRC+ (222), and 9.7 WAR. The season would mark his career highs in RBI and hits (211). Virginia Beach had their best season in more than a decade at 91-71, but missed the wild card by one game. The Vikings had been largely mediocre in Thomas’s tenure with losing seasons from 2004-09. They had finally started to turn things around, but a Triple Crown in a contract year made Thomas’s stock rise dramatically. He knew he could get a historic payday and the smaller market Virginia Beach was going to have a tough time affording such a deal. To the chagrin of Vikings fans, Thomas left for free agency at age 28. With Virginia Beach, Thomas had 1390 hits, 673 runs, 200 doubles, 289 home runs, 802 RBI, 357 walks, .328/.385/.587 slash, 196 wRC+, and 49.6 WAR. He had also become very popular nationwide with some dominant runs for the United States in the World Baseball Championship. Thomas won world titles for the Americans in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2017. Thomas’s 2008 run was legendary, winning WBC MVP with 39 hits, 31 runs, 18 homers, 46 RBI, 39 hits, 1.453 OPS, 313 wRC+, and 3.49 WAR over 23 starts. He set new WBC records for WAR by a position player and RBI. The RBI mark is still the WBC record as of 2037 and the WAR ranks 2^nd. Thomas‘s homers ranked as the 5^th-best WBC, the hits rank 12^th, and runs rank 8^th. In 2009, Thomas was second in MVP voting with 42 hits, 25 runs, 10 homers, 36 RBI, 1.214 OPS, and 2.7 WAR. The 42 hits are tied for the 4^th-best in WBC history. Thomas won his second WBC MVP in 2011 and is one of nine players in event history to win MVP twice. That run had 36 hits, 26 runs, 10 doubles, 14 homers, 32 RBI, 1.565 OPS, 317 wRC+, and 3.05 WAR. Thomas’s 2011 WAR is the 5^th-best by a position player. As of 2037, the only players in WBC history to record 3+ WAR twice are Thomas, OF Connor Neumeyer, and SP Bo Jackson. That dominance certainly raised Thomas’s stock and popularity even more. Despite being one of the more notable American WBC players, the most famous years of his pro career came in Quebec. After the 2011 season, Thomas signed an eight-year, $177,600,000 deal with Montreal. The Maples had just ended an 11-year playoff drought the prior year. They fell back below .500 in 2012, but did earn three straight playoff berths from 2013-15. Montreal lost in the second round of 2013 and had first round exits in 2014 and 2015. Thomas’s bat couldn’t bring them to the promised land, but her certainly held up his end with five straight seasons with 6.5+ WAR. He won batting titles in 2013 and 2014, leading in hits and total bases both years. Thomas’s 2014 was stellar with career and association bests in runs (129), homers (53), triple slash (.384/.456/.733), OPS (1.189), wRC+ (271), and WAR (11.3). His OPS was the second-best single season to that point and still ranks fifth as of 2037. Thomas also led in OPS, slugging, and wRC+ in 2015. From these efforts, Thomas won MVPs in 2013, 2014, and 2015; while taking second in 2012. Thomas became the sixth player in National Association history with four or more MVP wins. He won Silver Sluggers from 2011-15 and hit for the cycle in 2012. In the 2018 season, Thomas had a fractured rib and torn thumb ligament keep him out nearly half of the season. His pace was still excellent that year, bouncing back after a slight dip in 2017. Thomas had a shocking decline in 2019 with a 1.5 WAR, .748 OPS season. His strikeout rate soared to 20.8% with 114 Ks after having generally kept the rate below 10% for his career. That was the final year of his Montreal deal with the Maples having fallen back into mediocrity by 2016. For Montreal, Thomas had 1343 hits, 772 runs, 181 doubles, 298 home runs, 771 RBI, a .325/.394/.592 slash, 204 wRC+, and 53.6 WAR. He hoped to fix his batting issues and play again somewhere in 2020. Between the price tag, declining bat, and atrocious defense, no MLB teams were interested in Thomas. After sitting out all of 2020, he retired that winter at age 37. Soon after, Montreal announced that they would retire his #45 uniform. Thomas finished with 2287 games, 2733 hits, 1445 runs, 381 doubles, 587 home runs, 1573 RBI, 758 walks, 889 strikeouts, .327/.390/.589 slash, .979 OPS, 200 wRC+, and 103.2 WAR. Thomas didn’t have the longevity to soar up the counting stat leaderboards. As of 2037, he ranks 61^st in home runs and 45^th in WAR among position players, but doesn’t crack the top 100 in the other counting stats. His efficiency stats though are quite impressive. Among MLB batters with 3000+ plate appearances, Thomas’s OPS still ranks 20^th. His batting average is 45^th, OBP is 43^rd, and slugging is 28^th. Among all of the world’s Hall of Famers as of 2037, Thomas is one of only ten with a career wRC+ of 200 or better. Few batters ever have been more consistently effective than Thomas in baseball history. Because of the lower tallies and no playoff success, Thomas’s name doesn’t come up in the inner circle conversations as often as his rate stats might suggest they should. The abysmal defense also didn’t help his cause, but most agree that there have been few pure hitters in MLB history better. Thomas was a no-doubt Hall of Famer either way at 99.3% to headline a strong three-player class in 2025. __________________ Baseball: The World's Game fictional world reports Continental Baseball Federation world reports (8-tier promotion/relegation sim and college feeder)