What is the H Factor

HOW THE H - FACTOR WORKS

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY faces a conundrum. How do we determine a player's dominance? Is it how many playoffs or world series championships did this guy achieve? Is being a winner enough to put a guy in the Hall of Fame? Or can a player be great by putting up tremendous individual statistics, but never winning a championship? After all, doesn’t it take a complete team effort to win. Finally, do we put more weight on the player who wins than on the team that won?

The formula to rank all hitters came to me after many years of research and separating the wheat from the chaff. Further questions which plagued me were as follows: Is it a long career in which a person piles up many pretty good statistics just because he was healthy throughout his career? Is it leading the league in categories that show the respect for a player? What about the intangibles that a player gives to a baseball team that allows for a positive clubhouse environment or inspires his teammates to play better? Should he be awarded in his individual score, team points that show that he played for a winner? Finally, what about defensive statistics, should they count?

All the previous questions led me to create the H-Factor. This formula is meant to be complex enough that it would honor traditional baseball statistics, while making those icons show why they are icons through a formula that shows why one Hall of Fame player may be worth twice as much as some very good players. For example, the formula shows that Stan Musial at over 18000 (most reach the Hall of fame at 10,000 points in the H-Factor) is worth more than Ralph Kiner and Chick Hafey both Hall of Fame members at 7995 and 7918 respectively.

Without further ado, here is the formula for hitters:

Career Statistics

Category	H-Factor Points
Total Bases	1 per base
Stolen Bases	1 per base
Runs batted In	1 per RBI
Runs scored	1 per Run
Average	Average multipled by 5 (move the decimal 3 places)

League Leaders

Category	H-Factor points
Points In each category apply the following:
Home Runs Runs Batted In Average Stolen Bases	League leaders per season=100 points 2nd place =90 points 3rd place=80 points 4th place=70 points 5th place=60 points 6th place=50 points 7th place=40 points 8th place=30 points 9th place=20 points 10th place=10 points

Special Awards

Award	H-Factor points
Points In each category apply the following:
MVP	1st place =500 points 2nd place =90 points 3rd place=80 points 4th place=70 points 5th place=60 points 6th place=50 points 7th place=40 points 8th place=30 points 9th place=20 points 10th place=10 points
Triple Crown	1000 points
Defense
Gold Gloves	100 points for each season won

Team Distinctions

Playoffs	H-Factor points
World Series Win League Champions Playoffs only	=500 points =250 points =100 points

The rationale behind this formula is that it should equate players from whatever era that you play in. Whether it is the dead ball era in which the league leader in HR was 12 or during the era in which was marked with the heavy use of steroids and the league leader in HR was 73 it equates the two eras by giving them each only 100 points for leading the league that particular year. It also gives emphasis on the game as a team sport while holding the sanctity of the traditional numbers of career statistics. It was thought that if you are a 300 hitter multiplied by 5 it would equal 1500 points. If you were a quality player you would have 3500 total bases, Between runs scored, runs batted in, and stolen bases you should be somewhere around 3000 H-Factor points. This total would put you around 8000 total H-Factor points. If the magic number for possible induction centered around 10,000 then you should expect extra accolades such as leading a league a number of times showing your dominance in prominent hitting categories, defensive gems in gold gloves won or in being a team player by winning several championships then it should be enough “extra” points to get you to that 10,000 mark and thus worthy of the discussion of a member of the Hall of Fame. I also thought it may be fun to compare Hall of Fame players at each position and be able to have the discussion, who was better Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, or Honus Wagner? All playing for different era at the same position, but the H-Factor allows that discussion to logically take place. For the sake of not being too overwhelming to the viewer, I’ve only included players who accumulated 4000 at bats or more. The only exception to that are prominent players playing currently, that will barring injury no doubt meet the requirements and thus make it kind of fun to project where Chase Utley may finish at the end of his career, though he doesn’t quite have 4000 at bats.

Each era is broken down by the following criterion:

1876-1900 Era 1
1901-1919 Era 2
1920-1945 Era 3
1946-1960 Era 4
1961-1972 Era 5
1973-1990 Era 6
1991-2006 Era 7
Active Era 8

I’ve recently split up players between Eras 6-8, so there may be some kinks that still need to be worked out.

The color coded pages key is as follows:

Red= In the hall of fame and deserve to be there
Pink= In the hall of fame and don’t deserve to be there
Blue=Not in the hall of fame but should arrive, hopefully sooner rather than later
Purple=Not in the Hall of Fame, but not an embarrassing choice either way
Green=Not in the Hall of Fame, but don’t deserve to be either.

Some sheets are organized by position sorted by H-Factor only regardless of era. Other sheets are sorted by Position played (most games played at the position, minimum of 500 games for multiple positions), then sorted by Era, then by H-Factor allowing you to compare Hall of Famer Stan Musial within his era with Ted Williams or Minnie Minoso.

Also, anyone written in bold is in the Hall of Fame. Anyone written in italics should be considered by the Hall of Fame.

Please post questions on the contact page of this website in order for you to receive a response from me. I will monitor and get back with you.

Sincerely,
Ron Henrich