The Los Angeles Dodgers are World Series Champions in 2020. This weird, shortened season is now over. That means it’s time for me to pick five new Heroes of Baseball.
As I’ve done every year for many years now, I pored over the stats and selected five new players to join the Heroes of Baseball. My main criteria are All-Star Game appearances and Wins Above Replacement relative to peers. There was no All-Star Game this year, so I had a lot of fun choosing my own All Stars (maybe the topic of a future post).
A player that I select to be a Hero of Baseball is an active player who is about halfway into an official MLB Hall of Fame career. These are players who are on the path to Cooperstown, but they won’t make it unless they keep playing at a high level for a few more years. Why do it this way? It’s so I can predict future Hall of Famers before they actually retire (and thus hopefully acquire their cards and memorabilia before prices go through the roof).
After their performances in the 2020 season, here are five players on the path to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (it’s very likely that two or three of them will join the Hall of Fame after they retire).
Manny Machado
Kyle Hendricks
Jacob deGrom
Yu Darvish
George Springer
