Alan Trammell was quite a ballplayer. Like his double play mate, Lou Whitaker, though, for whatever reason, the baseball writer voters never gave Trammell the Hall-of-Fame treatment he deserves. But, in 2018, the Veterans Committee finally voted Alan Trammell into the Hall of Fame. It's a nice consolation prize, as their vote means just as much when it comes to being enshrined.

Trammell deserves to be in the Hall. He compiled 70.4 Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in his 20 year career. As late as 1993, he was worth 4.2 WAR in only 112 games. He was worth more than 6 WAR six times, with his best ever season coming in 1987, when he finished with 8.2 WAR and second in MVP voting. He lost to George Bell, who only had 5 WAR.

Trammell won 5 Gold Gloves in his career at shortstop. He was worth almost 2 WAR in many seasons for his defense alone. But, his bread and butter was above average offense from the shortstop position.  He only hit more than 20 homers twice in a season, but often posted solid on-base percentages and a career OPS of .767, good for a OPS+ of 110.

His counting numbers may not have been enough for traditional Hall-of-Fame voters. But, his contributions to his team relative to his position versus the rest of the league at the time gave him a case with the baseball veteran voters. FanGraphs only has him at 63.7 career WAR, but that’s still more than enough to be considered and more than many other Hall-of-Famers. Trammell was one of the better players in his day and definitely deserves the recognition.

What's An Alan Trammell Baseball Card Worth?

Like most baseball players, Alan Trammell's rookie cards are his baseball cards with the most valuable. In fact, Alan Trammell has two baseball cards with a lot of value. His most expensive rookie card is the 1980 Topps Rookie Stars #707 that he shares with fellow Hall-of-Famer Paul Molitor!

Trammell and Molitor share the Rookie Stars card with U.L. Washington of the Royals and Mickey Klutts of the Yankees. U.L. Washington had a couple of good years with the Kansas City Royals and had an above average glove. Mickey Klutts didn't do much in the majors. But, because Trammell shares his rookie card with Molitor, this card has sold for $700 to $800 when graded a PSA 9! Fortunately, if that's a bit out of your budget, there are SGC 8.5 and PSA 8 copies available for under $200 as of February 2019.

Alan Trammell's other rookie card was the 1978 Burger King release. It was sort of an oddball issue with a strange checklist and often plagued by centering issues. But if you find a well-centered version graded a PSA 9, you'll expect to pay over $250! You can find excellent condition raw copies for $20 to $30, however, and sometimes even lower. Both Alan Trammell rookie cards have plenty of value and are worth adding to any baseball card collection.

Tigers great Alan Trammell was a great shortstop. Yet, the Tigers great was still in the conversation for the Hall-of-Fame until 2018 when he was finally inducted by the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee.  Meanwhile, his double-play partner, second baseman Lou Whitaker, likewise was no longer eligible to be voted in traditionally due to a lack of support from the Baseball Writers Association voters.

Not only is this sad for Tigers fans, but he is more than deserving of being in the Hall-of-Fame than most of his second base peers, including 2011 inductee Roberto Alomar. While he could still enter the Hall through a Veterans Committee decision, it's clear that he's been snubbed for too long.

Was Lou Whitaker Unfairly Snubbed in the Hall of Fame Voting?

A sponsor of Lou Whitaker’s Baseball-Reference page brings up an excellent point. Alomar had an adjusted OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 116 over his career with 7 teams. Whitaker also had an adjusted OPS of 116 over his career with only one team. They both played about 2300 games and Whitaker amassed 69.7 WAR compared to Alomar’s 63.5 WAR in 12 fewer games. Like Alomar, Whitaker was a Gold Glove-caliber defender and won three Gold Glove Awards. Alomar won 10 Gold Gloves, but compiled only 2.4 defensive WAR. Whitaker had 15.4 defensive WAR.

Of course, both second basemen spent much of their careers alongside plus defensive shortstops. Alomar had Cal Ripken in Baltimore and Omar Vizquel during his Cleveland years. Whitaker had Trammell alongside for virtually his entire career. It’s likely that Vizquel actually made Alomar look even better than he was. But it’s a pretty clear consensus that Alomar was a great glove man. Still,  according to the statistics, Whitaker was even more valuable on the defensive side of the ball.

The main reason that Whitaker isn’t in the Hall of Fame is that, to put it simply, he’s a quiet, humble, low-key guy. He never seemed incredibly concerned about being in the Hall, actually saying that if he didn’t make it the first time to not bring his name up again. Obviously, writers remembered this and most left him off of their ballots. Of course, this was just Whitaker’s humility. But his play should’ve been enough to earn him a place, right?

Alomar and Whitaker By the Numbers

With statistics like WAR (wins above replacement) only now becoming mainstream, baseball card statistics (Average, HR, and RBI) have long been the deciding factors in who is chosen for the Hall of Fame and who’s not. But Whitaker’s and Alomar’s “counting numbers” are relatively the same – 244 HR, 1084 RBI and 2369 hits for Whitaker and 210 HR, 1134 RBI, and 2724 hits for Alomar. None of those are the “shoo-in” numbers, as no major milestones like 300 HR or 3000 hits were reached by either of them. The extra 300 hits do help Alomar’s case, but not incredibly so.

Alomar’s career OPS was higher than Whitaker’s, .814 to .789, but the only real baseball card stat where Alomar had the edge was in career batting average (.300 to .276). Their on-base percentages were very similar, Whitaker at .363 and Alomar at .371. Slugging wise, Alomar also had the edge, .443 to .426. So offensively, Alomar had an edge, but not outrageously so.

The Hall-of-Fame Worth of Gold Glove Awards

Really, the only advantage that Alomar had was his ten Gold Gloves. But after doing some research on Fangraphs.com, it appears that Alomar was not quite the glove man that people believed. For his career, his Total Zone rating was -3. That means Alomar's defense was worth a total of 3 runs below average over his career. By Total Zone, Whitaker was worth 77 runs above average. According to Total Zone, Alomar only had three truly very good seasons at second: 1998 with the Orioles and 1999 and 2000 for the Indians. Most of the time, Total Zone had him being worth negative runs in almost every other season that he played.

In any case, Alomar is definitely still worthy of being in the Hall of Fame. But if he is, then the runs that Whitaker saved on defense put him in the same exact category as Alomar, especially as both had career batting lines 16% above league-average. Alomar was always a higher-profile player on some extremely good teams, however, and so he was seen as a much better player by the writers.

It’s incredible to see just how much better Whitaker was on defense than Alomar, according to the numbers. But considering Alomar added more value on offense, they’re fairly equal. In any case, Lou Whitaker belongs in the Hall of Fame. Hopefully, the Veterans Committee fixes this mistake in the future.


How Much is a Lou Whitaker Baseball Card Worth?

While most of Lou Whitaker's baseball cards don't have the same value as his Hall-of-Fame double play partner Alan Trammell, he does have a very valuable rookie card. That is, if that card is flawless! The 1978 Topps Rookie Stars 2nd Baseman #704 rookie card features Lou Whitaker along with Garth Iorg, Dave Oliver,  and Sam Perlozzo.  In graded PSA 9 condition, this card was selling for as low as $40, although in late 2018 to early 2019, one PSA 9 copy sold for  $67 and another one for $92.

PSA 10 Gem Mint copies of the Lou Whitaker rookie card are rare (PSA only has  45 10's in their population report) and a flawless PSA 10 copy sold for a staggering $999 in January of 2019. Other PSA 10 copies have sold in the past for over $650. PSA 8 copies are much more affordable, though, often at a price point of $30 or less. There were near-mint lots of the card available on eBay for a similar price. The demand is definitely there for the Whitaker rookie card, even though he's not in the Hall of Fame.

Without a doubt, Whitaker being inducted into the Hall of Fame by one of the Era voting committees would do great things for his baseball card values. While his rookie card is the only valuable Lou Whitaker baseball card, the price on high-grade examples of his 1978 Rookie Stars card doesn't seem to be doing anything but growing!

by Richard Rowell, Sports Break

The Los Angeles Angels definitely didn't waste time in beginning their 2016-2017 offseason! They traded minor league pitcher Victor Alcantara to the Detroit Tigers for outfielder Cameron Maybin.

While Maybin had some injury issues in 2016, he actually put up some strong numbers in 94 games. He had a .315/.383/.418 batting line with 4 HR and 43 RBI. He also had 15 stolen bases. While he wasn't an asset defensively, he was still a very useful player.

Alcantara had a pedestrian season in Double-A, so on the surface this trade doesn't look very good for the Tigers. Apparently, their scouts believe in him and the Angels definitely could Maybin in left field. This isn't exactly selling high, though. It looks like the Angels made a really good deal here, although they will be paying him $9 million. The Tigers really were just looking to clear payroll here and get an arm with upside. If he provides the same kind of value in 2017, though, he'll be well worth that paycheck.

The Royals finished off the Angels at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. Angels starter C.J. Wilson simply didn't have it and was out of the game before even getting out of the first inning. The Royals clobbered a few more home runs against several Angels pitchers. Even when the Angels threatened to rally against starting pitcher James Shields, Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain made a couple of “Web Gem” defensive plays to bail out Shields. Finally "Big Game" James lived up to his name gutting his way through 6 innings. Kelvin Herrera came in throwing 99 to 101 mph for an easy seventh. Wade Davis struggled in the eighth. But he only gave up one run before settling in. In the ninth, it was 8 to 3 in favor of the Royals. Closer Greg Holland finished the three game sweep of the "best team in baseball" by striking out arguably the best player in the game, Mike Trout.

A lot of analysts were shocked by these sweeps. The Tigers and Orioles series was a good one, but the Orioles’ starting pitching was a bit better than the Tigers’. Also, an ineffective Justin Verlander did not help the Tigers’ less-than-stellar bullpen out. Bud Norris was masterful for the Orioles until a walk in the seventh brought manager Buck Showalter to the mound. He then brought in the lefty Andrew Miller who got 5 big outs, setting up the ninth for closer Zach Britton and his nerve wracking save.

This means that the team with the best record in the major leagues was just defeated by an upstart wild card team, and the powerhouse Tigers fell victim to the flaws that almost cost them the division this season. Meanwhile, an Angels offense that carried the team for quite a while fell victim to a better than advertised royals pitching staff.

Now we go to the American League Championship Series next week, starting at Eutaw Street and Camden Yards in Baltimore. The best of seven series hopefully will be a good one. I pick the Orioles in six games, but with the great baseball that the Royals have been playing, it could go either way.