Tim Raines -- Hall of Famer

Last year: received 37.5% of the vote

Since his first year of eligibility, Tim "Rock" Raines has been the one of the players the saber-crowd has been promoting for Hall of Fame enshrinement.  With Blyleven now in, the focus can now narrow on Raines finding his way to Cooperstown.  It seems that with every passing year advanced stats are making their way further into the consciousness of mainstream baseball.  Sure, there are still Murray Chasses and Mitch Williamses (and seemingly every writer from Boston) out there railing against reason and progressive thought, yet slowly but surely it is beginning to take hold.  There has already been a great deal of virtual ink spilled on the subject of Raines' Hall of Fame case (Tom Tango and Jonah Keri have an entire website devoted to the subject), so I'll try and keep this brief.

Raines was an absolutely dominant player during his peak, and just because that peak was only five years long, doesn't make it any less impressive.  From 1983 to 1987 Raines accumulated 33.5 WAR, averaged .318/.406/.467 with an OPS+ of 142, stole 355 bases at an 88.3% success rate, was 1st in the NL in Avg. and OBP in 1986, was an All-Star all five years, and finished no lower than 12th in MVP voting each year.  Raines had another great year in 1992 (6.1 WAR), and remained a useful player into his mid-30's.  In fact, his only negative WAR year was his final year, as a 39 year old playing for the Mariners.  His career 70.9 WAR total bests Hall of Fame outfielders Tony Gwynn, Lou Brock, Dave Winfield and Andre Dawson.  However, Raines continues to be an afterthought for Hall of Fame voters.

I suspect we will see a significant increase in votes for Raines this year, but I doubt he will make the nearly 40% jump needed to get his plaque.  This is even more unfortunate when you consider the glut of talent that will become eligible in the next three years.  Raines was an unequivocally great player, one of the best leadoff hitters and base-stealers the game has ever seen.  He just so happened to come up at the same time as the guy who is considered to be the very best leadoff hitter and base-stealer of all time.  Hopefully some day he will get his due.