Part of my ongoing effort to catalog my Hall of Fame-related coverage at Baseball Prospectus for this site. A recent design change at BP may result in formatting issues. 

This was the first BBWAA ballot for which I defined the peak component of JAWS as a player’s seven best seasons at large rather than his five best consecutive seasons (with allowances for injuries or military service), though it still relied upon Baseball Prospectus’ Wins Above Replacement Player metric, which used a significantly lower replacement level than today’s WAR

Hitters 
Albert Belle, Will Clark, Dave Concepcion, Andre Dawson, Gary DiSarcina, Gary Gaetti, Steve Garvey, Ozzie Guillen, Gregg Jefferies, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Hal Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Alan Trammell, Walt Weiss

Starters
Bert Blyleven, Alex Fernandez, Dwight Gooden, Orel Hershiser, Tommy John, Jack Morris

Relievers
Rick Aguilera, Rich Gossage, Doug Jones, Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, John Wettteland

Part of my ongoing effort to catalog my Hall of Fame-related coverage at Baseball Prospectus for this site. A recent design change at BP may result in formatting issues. 

This was the first ballot for which the JAWS acronym was used — I introduced the new designation in a piece about Barry Bonds’ lack of Hall of Fame teammates in October 2004 — though it still relied upon Baseball Prospectus’ Wins Above Replacement Player metric, which used a significantly lower replacement level than today’s WAR, and a definition of peak based on a player’s best five-year run, with allowances made for injuries or military service. With so many candidates having such slim chances, I did not delve into every single case.

Hitters
Dick Allen, Bobby Bonds, Ken Boyer, Rocky Colavito, Curt Flood, Joe Gordon, Gil Hodges, Elston Howard, Marty Marion, Roger Maris, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson, Tony Oliva, Vada Pinson, Ron Santo, Joe Torre, Maury Wills

Pitchers (same article)
Wes Ferrell, Jim Kaat, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, Carl Mays, Don Newcombe, Luis Tiant, Smokey Joe Wood

Part of my ongoing effort to catalog my Hall of Fame-related coverage at Baseball Prospectus for this site. A recent design change at BP may result in formatting issues. 

This was the first BBWAA ballot for which the JAWS acronym was used — I introduced the new designation in a piece about Barry Bonds’ lack of Hall of Fame teammates in October 2004 — though it still relied upon Baseball Prospectus’ Wins Above Replacement Player metric, which used a significantly lower replacement level than today’s WAR, and a definition of peak based on a player’s best five-year run, with allowances made for injuries or military service.

Hitters 
Wade Boggs, Dave Concepcion, Chili Davis, Andre Dawson, Steve Garvey, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Dale Murphy, Otis Nixon, Dave Parker, Tony Phillips, Jim Rice, Ryne Sandberg, Terry Steinbach, Darryl Strawberry, Alan Trammell

Pitchers
Jim Abbott, Bert Blyleven, Tom Candiotti, Rich Gossage, Tommy John, Mark Langston, Jack McDowell, Jeff Montgomery, Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter

Part of my ongoing effort to catalog my Hall of Fame-related coverage at Baseball Prospectus for this site. A recent design change at BP may result in formatting issues. 

In November or December 2004, Baseball Prospectus invited me to contribute an article or articles analyzing the BBWAA ballot, drawing upon the work I had done at FutilityInfielder.com during the previous two winters. The result, which was not yet called JAWS, used Baseball Prospectus’ still-new Wins Above Replacement Player metric (created by Clay Davenport), which used a significantly lower replacement level than today’s WAR, and a definition of peak based on a player’s best five-year run, with allowances made for injuries or military service.

Hitters
Joe Carter, Dave Concepcion, Andre Dawson, Jim Eisenreich, Cecil Fielder, Steve Garvey, Keith Hernandez, Don Mattingly, Kevin Mitchell, Paul Molitor, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Terry Pendleton, Jim Rice,  Juan Samuel, Ryne Sandberg, Alan Trammell

Pitchers
Bert Blyleven, Doug Drabek, Dennis Eckersley, Rich Gossage, Tommy John, Jimmy Key, Dennis Martinez, Jack Morris, Randy Myers, Lee Smith, Dave Stieb, Bruce Sutter, Bob Tewksbury, Fernando Valenzuela