My favorite source now for player’s career value is Sean Smith’s WAR at baseballprojection.com. It account for total value including defense so I consider it better than Runs Created. Here is the comparison of Reggie Smith vs. Jim Rice:

Reggie Smith – http://www.baseballprojection.com/war/s/smitr101.htm
63.1 career wins above replacement (89th overall)

Top 5 seasons (28.2):
1977 – 6.3
1970 – 6.0
1974 – 5.6
1971 – 5.5
1978 – 4.8

Jim Rice – http://www.baseballprojection.com/war/r/ricej001.htm
41.5 career wins above replacement (258th overall)

Top 5 seasons (28.0):
1978 – 7.0
1986 – 5.9
1979 – 5.7
1983 – 5.1
1977 – 4.3

Here are the other players’ WAR
Dwight Evans – 61.7 (96th overall)
Albert Belle – 37.1 (318th overall)
Andre Dawson – 56.8 (130th overall)

Of the five, Belle’s is the biggest surprise and is driven mainly by his short career and bad fielding (his top 5 peak was 29.6).

So while my initial analysis has its flaws, I think the points I was trying to make re: Jim Rice and Reggie Smith still hold true. It also looks like Rice’s MVP votes were probably misplace some of those years (even his fantastic 1978 season when he won the MVP, Guidry has a sizable advantage in WAR – 8.5 to 7.0)

You also don’t adjust seasonal averages or counting numbers for era. I consider that a MUCH bigger factor than park factor. Hitters adjusted their style to the ball park in which they played half of their games. Park factor is not insignificant, pretty much everyone hit better in fenway, but adjustment for era is how determine how a player stacked up against his peers. It’s pretty easy to do, and when pretty much no one is putting up gaudy number in Allen or Rice’s time, but everyone is during Belle and McGwire’s time, it’s easy to see the significance.

I make park adjustments, but I cut them in half. I also make era adjustments. It sounds like you’d like to annoint Reggie Smith but if you look at amount of “peak” seasons, the average proximity to the yearly Runs Created leader (a lower number is better) and OPS adjusted for era, here’s how they’d shake out:

Peaks:
Rice (7)
Evans (7)
Belle (6)
Dawson (2)
Smith (2)

RC Leader Proximity:
Rice (38)
Belle (40)
Smith (52)
Evans (53)
Dawson (54)

Normlized OPS:
Belle (905)
Smith (899)
Rice (892)
Evans (869)
Dawson (833)

You’re entitled to vieweing things as you see fit. But be aware that other smart fans, who might prioritize in a different way, would shine a totally different light on things.

Jim Rice getting elected isn’t the end of the world, but it’s pretty silly.

Come check out my own interpretation:
http://sportingschmooze.blogspot.com/2009/01/joe-rogan-elected-to-mlb-hall-of-fame.html

–5 time Gold Glove winner
–9x All-Star
–Named by Bill James as one of the 100 best players of all time
–2,254 hits, 342hr, .826 career OPS, 774 XBH… all in a pitcher’s era and playing mostly in the hitter unfriendly NL East.

Sure he had Ernie Banks and Billy Williams hitting behind him, but if it hadn’t been for the diabetes that sidelined him for about 10% of his career, he probably would have gotten those 2500 hits and 400hr and he’d already be in the HOF.

@Jimmy ray: I’m considering two more of these articles – one covering middle infielders and one covering pitchers. I try to attack these open-minded – I certainly didn’t go into this one thinking that Dick Allen and Reggie Smith were going to pop to the top. So I don’t have a strong opinion yet on Trammell/Whitaker except that I don’t see how both shouldn’t be on the ballot. As for Morris, I’ll give it some thought but I don’t see it. The one stat that is glaringly mediocre is his ERA/WHIP numbers. 4.08/1.296 is really not impressive. His ERA+ (adjusted against the league) was 105. The stats for seem to say he was a good to very good pitcher who pitched on some very good teams (remember, that Toronto and Minnesota cores one championships w/o him).