Abreu, Pierre named to Rotisserie Hall of Fame

While the the baseball universe waits impatiently for Wednesday’s always-controversial Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame announcement, the fantasy industry has named its 2016 picks for the Rotisserie Hall of Fame: Bobby Abreu and Juan Pierre.

Eligibility for the Roto Hall is based on lifetime and peak Rotisserie dollar earnings, and number of times ranked within the top 15 batters or pitchers during the player’s career.

Unlike the BBWAA, there is no waiting period for Roto Hall induction. If a player meets all the other criteria, he can be inducted as soon as he officially retires. As such, 16 of the 32 players on the current BBWAA ballot are already Roto Hall members.

Complete details about the eligibility criteria appear here.

Here are descriptions of the Roto Hall’s two new members:

Bobby Abreu
Inducted with: Philadelphia Phillies (5th inductee with this team)
No. years in Majors: 17
Career 5×5 earnings: $410
Average annual earnings, career: $24
Average annual earnings, peak: $32
No. years in top 15: 4

Bobby Abreu was a consistent and dominant 5-category player for 13 consecutive seasons, posting double-digit HRs and SBs from 1998 through 2010. He had nine seasons of at least 20-20, one 30-30 season and one 30-40 season.

He batted over .300 six times, posted 100 RBIs eight times (including seven in a row from 2003-2009), and earned at least $30 seven times.

His $410 lifetime earnings ranks him #31 all time.

Juan Pierre
Inducted with: Florida Marlins (2nd inductee with this team)
No. years in Majors: 14
Career 5×5 earnings: $317
Average annual earnings, career: $23
Average annual earnings, peak: $27
No. years in top 15: 3

Juan Pierre was a speed machine, amassing 614 stolen bases over his 14-year career, and batting over .300 six times. Still, he was mostly under-appreciated on the real baseball field and never hung on for more than three seasons with any one MLB team.

His three years with the Marlins represented his peak, as he batted over .300 during that tenure, with 167 bags, $95 in roto earnings and two of his three Top-15 finishes. He return to south Florida to close out his career for one last season.

As a Rotisserie player, he posted four $30-plus seasons and seven of at least $28, including five in a row (2003-2007).

The remaining 10 candidates this year all fell short of the Roto Hall benchmarks, some more than others.

Player            Career   Peak   T15
-------------     ------   ----   ---
Furcal,Rafael      $17      $20    0
Giambi,Jason       $15      $24    2
Hunter,Torii       $20      $24    0
Ibanez,Raul        $13      $21    0
Ramirez,Aramis     $17      $24    1
Tejada,Miguel      $18      $26    2
Wells,Vernon       $16      $22    1

Buerhle,Mark       $11      $16    2
Haren,Dan          $14      $22    4
Hudson,Tim         $13      $19    3

This was a class of solid contenders. Those who fell short only did so by the smallest of margins. Torii Hunter never exhibited a strong enough peak period to average $25 or qualify for Top 15 status. Miguel Tejada hung on so long that his latter poor seasons ($5 total earnings over his final three years) brought down his career levels too low to qualify. And Dan Haren had a Hall-of-Fame caliber 5-year stretch (2007-2011) but it was not enough to offset five down seasons at either end of his career.