A Brief Examination of Hall of Famer's in the World Series

Hall of Fame players interests me, as does World Series wins. I took a look at World Series winners since 1989 and made a spreadsheet of all the Hall of Famers on their teams Not sure what this means, if anything, but the spreadsheet can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hjDgVUVY1u7_X54qX1NoNixfJPOz2RUkX10U8WCOmPY/edit?usp=sharing

The spreadsheet has two groups: the top one is the World Series winner, and the second line is the loser. There are also four color highlights: white is in the Hall of Fame, yellow are people who I am almost 100% sure will make the Hall of Fame, Red is players who would be in the Hall of Fame if they did not take (or are suspected of taking) performance enhancing drugs, and orange are young players I strongly suspect will have Hall of Fame careers.

Here are the teams (including pennant winners) who did not have a single player in the Hall of Fame, extremely likely of going to the Hall of Fame, or had a player not in the Hall of Fame due to PEDs:

1989 San Francisco Giants (Lost)

At this point, I think, it's quite safe to say this team will lack a Hall of Fame player. Frankly, I really can't make an argument for any of the players on the roster either. Maybe Will Clark, but that's it. They weren't a flukey team either, they matched their Pythagorean Record.

2002 Los Angeles Angels

The 2002 Angels were a really good team. They lacked a Hall of Famer, but Tim Salmon is one of the best Angels to ever play. Kevin Appier was an underrated pitcher. Aaron Sele, amusingly, got one Hall of Fame vote his lone year on the ballot. Perhaps the best World Series winning team to lack a Hall of Famer.

2005 White Sox

I still hate the White Sox for winning the whole thing in 2005. I do not, personally, think the White Sox are a particularly well run organization. Everything went right for them in 2005 (despite their infuriating manager Ozzie Guillen). Paul Konerko broke out in 2005, and their pitching held together all year including a great performance by Mark Buerhle (who's underrated). Overall, the team was good but everything fell apart for Chicago after 2005. None of their position players, besides Konerko, really stuck around and their pitching fell apart outside of Buerhle.

2008 Tampa Bay Rays

I could make a decent argument for Evan Longoria but the Rays have proven since 2008 that they can still build good teams out of duck tape and bubblegum.

2014 & 2015 Kansas City Royals

It remains infuriating that the two worst ran franchises in the AL Central are the only two in my lifetime with a World Series ring. Everything went right for Kansas City these two seasons. Perhaps Lorenzo Cain can keep going; at 34 he's hanging on in Milwaukee. Otherwise the Royals achieved their two only winning seasons in decades, and won two pennants and a ring. It is, perhaps, among the most astonishing and mind boggling happenstances in recent MLB history.

2016 Chicago Cubs

This one surprised me, largely because I expected Kris Bryant to be an obvious choice, but I haven't followed him too closely since Game 7. Bryant, despite his excellent 2016 has not come close. I could make an argument (not a good one) for Jon Lester; Kyle Hendricks could keep pitching forever which would give him the career statistics perhaps.

On Orange Players

I listed the following younger players as highly likely to make the Hall of Fame:

Francisco Lindor
Jose Ramirez
Jacob deGromm
Mookie Betts
Kris Bryant
Jose Altuve

Of the above I am highly confident in Lindor, Betts and Altuve. Fairly confident in Jose, and mildly confident in deGromm (his age being the bing if in this equation). The only other player I considered adding is Jon Lester. I personally have low confidence in it; his advanced statistics do not justify it. However, Lester has a high win total and his career ERA+ of 119 is in the realm of Hall of Fame worthy.

Conclusion?

None. Recent World Series will be tough to judge, inevitably, because most of the players on the rosters have not filled out their careers yet. Just an interesting gander through Baseball Reference's World Series pages.