2016 Rotisserie Hall of Fame Candidates Announced

Every year, we continue to debate the merits and flaws of the BBWAA Hall of Fame voting process. So in 2013, I launched the first Rotisserie Baseball Hall of Fame.

For fantasy leaguers, it is all about the stats. We don’t care whether a player exhibited sportsmanship or integrity. We don’t care whether he refused to feed the media, kept a syringe in his locker or kicked small children. All that matters is that his statistical accomplishments helped us win our leagues. Rotisserie dollar values provide absolute, objective criteria.

The criteria:

All players must have a minimum of 10 seasons in the Majors and finish ranked among the annual top 15 of all batters or pitchers at least once. In addition,

BATTERS must meet at least two of these three criteria:
– Minimum of $20 average dollar value over the course of his career.
– Minimum of $25 average dollar value during his peak 10 years.
– Must have finished ranked among the annual top 15 of all batters at least 4 times

PITCHERS must meet at least two of these three criteria:
– Minimum of $15 average dollar value over the course of his career.
– Minimum of $20 average dollar value during his peak 7 years.
– Must have finished ranked among the annual top 15 of all pitchers at least 4 times.

Here are some further details.

Each year’s class of candidates starts with players who have officially announced their retirement over the previous calendar year. To this list, we add another group of players who never “officially” announced their retirement but have been out of baseball at least two years and show no sign of returning.

Finally, given the above criteria, only players who have accumulated a minimum level of Rotisserie value over their career can be considered legitimate candidates. For batters, that is career value of at least $200; for pitchers, $150. As such, recent retirees like Michael Cuddyer ($190) and Barry Zito ($112) will automatically fall short of any consideration for induction.

The following 11 players constitute the 2016 class of candidates for induction into the Rotisserie Baseball Hall of Fame (in alphabetical order).

Bobby Abreu ($410)

Rafael Furcal ($234)

Jason Giambi ($294)

Dan Haren ($178)

Tim Hudson ($229)

Torii Hunter ($360)

Raul Ibanez ($239)

Juan Pierre ($317)

Aramis Ramirez ($313)

Miguel Tejada ($300)

Vernon Wells ($227)

Some of these players seem like no-brainers, but don’t use their career earnings as the determining factor. The criteria above often trumps the raw dollars.

The 2016 Roto Hall inductees will be announced on January 5, one day before the BBWAA makes their announcement.