One and done: Robin Ventura
He may have been the best third baseman in White Sox history, holding down the job from his debut late in 1989 through 1998. Ventura played 1,220 games at third on the South Side, then put in three more solid seasons with the Mets.
Over a 16-season career, he also played for the Yankees and Dodgers.
His lifetime .267 average sounds fairly ordinary for a power position, a fact that doubtless hurt Ventura with voters. But he did produce eight 20-home run seasons, and his career .806 OPS represents well.
His WAR numbers provide a graphic assessment of Ventura’s value. Four times surpassing 5.0 in a single season, they peaked at 6.7 in 1999 when Ventura played an important role in the Mets’ postseason drive.
Still, Ventura’s postseason record probably held him back with some voters. He appeared in five of them — 1993 with the White Sox, 1999 and 2000 with the Mets, 2002 with the Yankees, and 2004 with the Dodgers. The results: a disappointing .177 average.
In his only World Series appearance, with the 2000 Mets, Ventura batted .150 in 21 plate appearances.
James doesn’t like him, rating Ventura as only a 34 on his Monitor. He fares better with Jaffe, who compares his 56.1 career WAR with the 68.4 average of 15 Hall of Famers at the position.
His name came to the Hall of Fame ballot in 2010. It was not an especially strong class of candidates — Andre Dawson was the only electee — but even so voters managed to ignore Ventura.
He got seven votes, just 1.3 percent of the total number cast.