Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Gary Sheffield

2021 Hall of Fame Ballot Series: Gary Sheffield

Five facts about Gary Sheffield: The first two tables below present Gary Sheffield's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games pWins pLosses pWORL pWOPA
1988MIL19
24
2.73.00.1-0.2
1989MIL20
95
10.812.6-0.1-1.2
1990MIL21
125
16.214.53.21.8
1991MIL22
50
4.56.4-1.3-1.9
1992SDN23
146
25.618.09.37.2
24
139
16.416.90.7-1.0
1994FLO25
87
12.611.12.00.8
1995FLO26
63
8.88.60.6-0.3
1996FLO27
161
24.719.75.73.5
1997FLO28
135
18.815.53.82.1
29
130
16.214.91.60.1
1999LAN30
152
18.716.52.81.1
2000LAN31
141
21.515.96.34.5
2001LAN32
143
23.018.55.43.3
2002ATL33
135
20.714.47.05.3
2003ATL34
155
24.216.68.36.3
2004NYA35
154
23.016.67.75.7
2005NYA36
154
20.415.26.34.5
2006NYA37
39
4.04.7-0.5-0.9
2007DET38
133
13.810.34.42.8
2008DET39
114
8.19.6-0.9-2.0
2009NYN40
100
8.58.70.2-0.6
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
2,575
343.2288.072.741.0
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
44
5.55.50.3-0.3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
2,619
348.7293.573.040.7


Expected Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games eWins eLosses eWORL eWOPA
1988MIL19
24
2.73.00.1-0.2
1989MIL20
95
11.112.30.5-0.6
1990MIL21
125
16.114.63.01.5
1991MIL22
50
4.76.1-0.9-1.5
1992SDN23
146
24.319.36.54.4
24
139
16.916.41.70.0
1994FLO25
87
13.010.72.81.7
1995FLO26
63
10.07.32.92.0
1996FLO27
161
25.518.87.85.6
1997FLO28
135
18.915.43.92.2
29
130
16.914.13.21.7
1999LAN30
152
19.315.84.12.4
2000LAN31
141
21.316.15.84.0
2001LAN32
143
22.818.65.13.0
2002ATL33
135
18.816.23.21.4
2003ATL34
155
24.016.87.75.7
2004NYA35
154
21.418.24.72.6
2005NYA36
154
19.715.94.83.0
2006NYA37
39
4.64.20.60.2
2007DET38
133
13.410.73.62.1
2008DET39
114
8.69.10.3-0.9
2009NYN40
100
8.88.50.8-0.0
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
2,575
342.8288.472.240.5
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
44
5.65.40.5-0.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
2,619
348.5293.772.740.4


This is Gary Sheffield's seventh year on the Hall-of-Fame ballot. I have written articles about the Hall-of-Fame candidates every year in which Gary Sheffield has been on the BBWAA ballot. Here is what I wrote about him last year.

Vote Prediction
Sheffield's vote totals in his first five years on the Hall-of-Fame ballot ranged from 11.1% to 13.6%. Last year, however, in his sixth season on the ballot, Sheffield's vote total shot up to 30.5%. His total votes more than doubled - from 58 to 121 - while the number of voters actually declined by 28. Three more spurts like that and Sheffield could actually get elected.

Sheffield's gains last year surprised me. He has a weak connection to PEDs (he worked out briefly with Barry Bonds) and had some other character issues that were obviously factoring into voters' evaluation of Sheffield, whose 9 All-Star games, 509 home runs, and career .292/.393/.514 batting line would seem Hall-worthy.

I doubt that Sheffield can replicate last year's gains even one more time, much less three more times. But last year's performance seems to separate him from the "character clause" candidates who have seemed largely stuck. If so, perhaps Sheffield could make a bit of a run toward election. I don't really have a good feel for how likely that is, so I'll go with something of a middle-of-the-road prediction: more gain than, say, Barry Bonds, but less gain than, say, Scott Rolen. I'll guess Sheffield gets 38.0% of the vote this year.

Player Won-Lost Records and Gary Sheffield
One player from the not-so-distant past who strikes me as broadly similar to Sheffield is Dick Allen, who made seven All-Star teams, won Rookie-of-the-Year and MVP awards, and had a career batting line of .292/.378/.534, extremely similar to Sheffield (although slightly more valuable as Allen played in a lower run-scoring environment). Allen's career was somewhat shorter than Sheffield's. This probably played some role in Allen's Hall-of-Fame vote record: he maxed out at 18.9% in his 14th season on the ballot. But Allen almost certainly also lost some votes due to character issues (whether perceived or actual).

The next table, then, compares the career records of Gary Sheffield and Dick Allen, as measured by Player won-lost records.

Gary Sheffield Dick Allen
Age Games Wins Losses WOPA WORL Games Wins Losses WOPA WORL
19
242.73.0-0.2
0.1
20
9510.812.6-1.2
-0.1
21
12516.214.51.8
3.2
100.80.40.40.4
22
504.56.4-1.9
-1.3
16225.217.76.89.0
23
14625.618.07.2
9.3
16121.618.62.34.3
24
13916.416.9-1.0
0.7
14123.116.06.38.2
25
8712.611.10.8
2.0
12219.314.54.36.0
26
638.88.6-0.3
0.6
15225.417.86.38.5
27
16124.719.73.5
5.7
11814.211.90.82.1
28
13518.815.52.1
3.8
12215.012.21.73.1
29
13016.214.90.1
1.6
15521.317.72.54.4
30
15218.716.51.1
2.8
14823.312.19.711.5
31
14121.515.94.5
6.3
727.86.31.11.8
32
14323.018.53.3
5.4
12814.611.52.23.4
33
13520.714.45.3
7.0
11912.111.7-1.00.2
34
15524.216.66.3
8.3
858.78.0-0.20.6
35
15423.016.65.7
7.7
535.35.1-0.10.4
36
15420.415.24.5
6.3
37
394.04.7-0.9
-0.5
38
13313.810.32.8
4.4
39
1148.19.6-2.0
-0.9
40
1008.58.7-0.6
0.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER RECORDS2,575343.2288.041.0
72.7
1,748237.7181.443.163.8
CAREER RECORDS
(common rows)
1,916274.9223.838.6
63.1
1,748237.7181.443.163.8


Personally, I think that both of them had a Hall-of-Fame worthy career, at least based purely on their statistical records.

Article last updated: December 4, 2020

2021 Hall of Fame Ballot Series




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