One of the discussion points during the championship game of the World Baseball Classic was whether Jim Leyland‘s Hall of Fame case should be boosted by winning the event.

Now, it will be interesting to see in the future whether the World Baseball Classic will have any impact on anyone’s Hall of Fame case.  It is doubtful as you are putting weight on a 8 – 10 game sample size.  It’s also doubtful because in reality the real prize in baseball is the World Series.  With that said, maybe it’ll have some impact with managers as USA keeps selecting retired managers to man their squad.  The selection of these managers brings them back to the limelight, and the attention usually serves as an opportunity to wax poetic about a person’s career.

With that caveat, it is possible Leyland may prove to be a test case for the WBC’s impact on bolstering a person’s Hall of Fame candidacy.  Then again, it seems strange that’s the case when Leyland is about the only person with any knowledge of baseball that thinks Eric Hosmer is a better player than Paul Goldschmidt.  For that matter, Leyland also thinks Hosmer is a better hitter than Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, Jonathan Lucroy, Buster Posey, and Daniel Murphy.

Still, this does seem an opportune time to discuss Leyland’s Hall of Fame case.  In a 22 year Hall of Fame career, Leyland amassed a 1,769 – 1,728 record (.506 winning percentage).  He won the World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997, and he won American League Pennants with the Detroit Tigers in 2006 and 2012.  He won six division titles (Pirates 1990 – 1992; Tigers 2011 – 2013), and his teams captured two Wild Cards (1997 & 2006).  Leyland is one of 17 managers all-time to bring two different teams to the World Series.

Leyland has also won three Manager of the Year Awards.  The first two were with the 1990 and 1992 Pirates, and the last one came in 2006 with the Tigers.  With the award starting in 1983, he is one of seven managers to win in both leagues.  He is one of seven managers to win at least three Manager of the Year Awards with Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa having the most awards with four.

Looking at the above information, it is fair to say he was a respected and well decorated manager during his career.  The question is whether he has done enough to merit Hall of Fame induction.  He hasn’t.

According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, there have been 23 managers inducted into the Hall of Fame.  With Rube Foster being inducted as a Negro League manager, there have been 22 Major League managers inducted in the Hall of Fame.  Considering the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, suited up to play 148 years ago, the bar has been set extraordinarily high to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager.

The average Major League Hall of Fame Manager has 1,916 wins with a .540 winning percentage.  Again, on average, these managers have won five pennants and two World Series titles.  Now, Frank Selee and Ned Hanlon managed a majority of their careeers prior to the inception of the World Series possibly making their stats too remote in time to judge the average Hall of Famer.  It should be noted, that their having won no World Series titles are incorporated in the average World Series titles won so that number is inaccurate as well.

Taking Selee and Hanlon out of the equation, the average Hall of Famer has won 1,978 games with a .539 winning percentage.  Additionally, these managers have won six pennants and three World Series titles.

Now, if you want to consider Connie Mack an outlier as well because he was an owner who was never going to be fired, the numbers change again.  Without Selee, Hanlon, or Mack, the average Hall of Famer won 1,886 games with a .545 winning percentage.  These managers have won five pennants and two World Series titles.

Looking at that, Leyland falls well short of the averages again no matter how much you try to manipulate it lower the standards to make him appear to be a Hall of Famer.

Now, it is true that there are managers in the Hall of Fame already who fall short of each of these averages.  Still, Leyland would fall short of each of these “lesser” managers as well.

Let’s start with the managers, like Leyland, who have only won one World Series title.  There have been four such managers in the proverbial World Series era.  They are Bobby Cox, Leo Durocher, Whitey Herzog, and Earl Weaver.  Each one of these managers have a winning percentage of .532 and higher.  This group has averaged 1,818 wins.  Moreover, this group has averaged a .552 winning percentage.  Looking at it from that perspective, Leyland falls short.

Now, with 1,769 wins, Leyland does have more wins than 10Hall of Fame managers, eight if you once again eliminate Selee and Hanlon.  Eliminating Selee and Hanlon, these managers have an average winning percentage of .546 and, on average, have won four pennants and one World Series.  That puts Leyland well short in terms of winning percentage and just short in terms of pennants.

In reality, the only thing you can look at to justify Leyland’s Hall of Fame case is the induction of Wilbert Robinson.  Robinson was 1,399 – 1,398 with no pennants or World Series titles.  It should be noted Robinson was also a catcher who won three straight titles with the Baltimore Orioles in the dead ball era, and he was the catcher recognized as revolutionizing the position by being the first to play directly behind the batter for an entire at-bat.  When he retired from managing, he had the third most wins all-time, and in his day, he was widely respected as manager and pitching coach who could get the most out of his pitching staffs.

Overall, Leyland doesn’t have the numbers for the Hall of Fame.  And that is before you consider Leyland quit on his team on three different occasions.  

He quit on the Pirates after they lost Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla so he could take the Marlins job and get a chance to win the World Series.  After he got his World Series and the subsequent Marlins firesale, Leyland quit on them to join the Rockies.  When the Rockies weren’t as good as he expected they would be, he quit on them.  

It’s one thing to make a case for a manager who doesn’t have the numbers, it’s a whole other thing to support the candidacy of a manager who quit on three different teams.

Certainly, when you have a managers with a low winning percentage that quits on his teams, it begs the question why anyone would think he was Hall of Fame worthy?