We have another entry in this fledgling series of columns, as DraftKings posted a laughable list of the MLB players most wrongly snubbed by Cooperstown—and it’s full of side-splitting names, really. Not a surprise since the list was generated by an AI bot (namely, ChatGPT, again). You can see the screen cap as our photo above for this column today, and while you’re free to draw your own conclusions, as always, we say this …

Just stop.

First, the chatbot suggests that outfielder Barry Bonds, starting pitcher Roger Clemens, and outfielder Manny Ramírez should be in the Hall of Fame. Well, all regular readers know how we feel about Bonds, and we’re not the only ones, clearly. The same goes for Clemens, who was one of our childhood heroes; like Bonds, he wasn’t satisfied being a mere star with a natural fade. He just had to let his ego tempt fate, poorly.

As for Manny, well, we all know that story. It probably started early for him, and it’s odd how Cooperstown looked the other way for his Fenway Frauds partner in crime. Either way, the namesake for The House That Steroids Built, the Rocket, and Manny won’t be making the Hall of Fame, like ever … unless AI and its inability to contextualize/rationalize facts takes over the voting. But what about the others on the list?

Analysis

Bobby Grich was a two-time AL MVP in our minds (1973, 1974), so there’s that. His 16.8 dWAR in 17 MLB seasons is impressive, and he even posted 1.8 dWAR in his final two seasons combined (1985-1986). His overall career 71.1 WAR ranks him as the eighth-best player at his position in MLB history. Grich was a six-time All Star, a 4-time Gold Glove winner (all valid), and a World Series champion once (in his rookie year).

As for Pete Rose, well … we know this is complicated for the all-time leaders in MLB hits. We honestly have little to say on this matter other than this: if Rose conclusively bet on his own team to lose, then he should never sniff Cooperstown. If he only bet on his own team to win, then we don’t see an issue with this—other than signaling to other bettors, and that’s not an MLB integrity issue as much as it is a betting issue overall.

Andruw Jones is an interesting case, as he hit over 430 home runs while winning 10 deserved Gold Gloves in center field. His lifetime WAR (62.7) only places him 11th on the all-time list for his position; is that good enough for the Hall of Fame? After 150 years or so of organized baseball, we think it does, in truth. He’s not a “sure-fire” Hall of Famer, but he was great enough to definitely get into Cooperstown, depending on math.

Meanwhile, Todd Helton is an iffy case for us; his bat was great (.316 BA, .953 OPS), but his glove was mediocre at best (minus-5.0 dWAR career). There is also the Colorado factor, as he played his entire 17-year career in Denver and its mile-high atmosphere. The 61.8 career WAR makes him a Top-15 player at first base, which could be enough to get him into the Hall, but we’re not completely sold on this one at all.

From 2004-2008, no pitcher was as dominant as Johan Santana, but overall, we’re not sure if he was good enough for long enough to make Cooperstown. He won only 139 games in his career, which is a pretty low number, all things comparable. His career WAR (61.7) only ranks 69th on the all-time list for starting pitchers, and while he shone very brightly for a bit, the fire burned out way too quickly for the Hall.

With just 46.5 WAR for his career, there is no way Dale Murphy belongs in Cooperstown. He was a negative defender in the outfield (minus-6.8 dWAR), not deserving any of his 5 Gold Gloves at all. Murphy won the NL MVP vote twice, but we think he only deserved the 1982 nod—not the 1983 trophy. His career WAR puts him 27th overall for CF guys, way behind Jones for comparison. He does not belong in the Hall … nope.

The only old-time player on this list, Bill Dahlen accrued 75.3 WAR in his career—which seems like a lot. That places him tenth all time for shortstops, but even in the Dead Ball era, his lifetime .740 OPS only equates to a 110 OPS+ mark. That’s not in the “great” category. His career glove was strong (28.5 dWAR), although that was more common in his era of play (1891-1911). He was a good player—never a great one.

Conclusion

We agree that Grich should be in the Hall; we think Rose is a moral case that we just don’t have a position on, still. Jones got close to 60 percent of the vote in his sixth year on the Cooperstown balloting, so he will get voted in before his 10 years are up, probably. As for Helton, he secured over 72 percent of the vote in his fifth year on the ballot, so he probably gets in on the next voting process (December 2023).

Santana just had bad luck; his arm gave out. He got only 2.4 percent of the vote his first year on the Hall ballot, so he fell off it right away. He was great—but fleeting. Murphy spent 15 years on the ballot and never earned more than 23.2 percent of the vote. We had a chance to talk about Dahlen recently, and well … yeah. We didn’t talk about him as a great of his era, so that is all we really need to reiterate here. Hard pass.

So, for the record, of the 10 guys on the ChatGPT list here of Cooperstown snubs, we think only 2.5 of them make sense to us. Grich and Jones and maybe Rose, depending. That gives AI just a .250 batting average on this one, and we know that number is not going to get anyone into any baseball Hall of Fame anywhere. We are proud to prove context and rationality here in this webspace that a chatbot can never provide (not yet?).

Case closed.