The Best Players by WAR Not in the Baseball Hall of Fame
MLB’s greatest honor has eluded some potentially overdue and deserving candidates
Nearly 90 years after its inception, the National Baseball Hall of Fame inspires fierce annual debate about the worthiness (or unworthiness) up for election to their hallowed grounds. One aspect of the venerable museum is making sure that players from the past are properly honored. There are some people who believe that not all deserving players have received their rightful place in Cooperstown. Here are the five former players with the highest career WAR not in the Hall of Fame.
*For the purposes of this examination, current players; those under banishment/suspension (i.e. Pete Rose); and anyone that has had their candidacy derailed by PED scandal (i.e. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens) were not considered.
Curt Schilling, Pitcher- 79.5 WAR: The right-hander was a solid if unspectacular starter for the first decade of his career before harnessing a devastating split-fingered fastball that turned him into an ace. In 20 seasons spent with five teams, he was a combined 216–146 with a 3.46 ERA. Even more impressively was that his greatest years came at the height of the PED era, meaning he was often competing against a stacked field.
