Mid, then HOF?

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Which players were mediocre in college, then HOF in MLB?
 
Prolly nobody. Mediocre college players don’t get drafted.

Jim Thome went undrafted out of HS. Then played basketball and baseball at the JuCo level for a year before going in the 13th round.

No idea what Mike Piazza’s college stats were, but he went in the 62 round after JuCo and the U. So he’s prolly your answer. Only reason he was drafted is cuz he was Tommy Lasorda’s godson. Lowest drafted guy to ever make the hall.
 
Trevor Hoffman is all that comes to mind at first thought but I'll dig around in my brain a bit.

I'm going to guess that this is a relatively short list just because it is much harder to make the Hall of Fame if you play college ball and start your pro career "late" in the first place (and if you don't perform well in college on top of that the team that drafts you also might be more inclined to move you slowly through the minors). I thought of Hoffman specifically because I thought that relief pitcher might be the "easiest" path to do this.
 
Trevor Hoffman is all that comes to mind at first thought but I'll dig around in my brain a bit.

I'm going to guess that this is a relatively short list just because it is much harder to make the Hall of Fame if you play college ball and start your pro career "late" in the first place (and if you don't perform well in college on top of that the team that drafts you also might be more inclined to move you slowly through the minors). I thought of Hoffman specifically because I thought that relief pitcher might be the "easiest" path to do this.
Hoffman never pitched in college. He was a shortstop. And was AllPac10.
 
Prolly nobody. Mediocre college players don’t get drafted.

Jim Thome went undrafted out of HS. Then played basketball and baseball at the JuCo level for a year before going in the 13th round.

No idea what Mike Piazza’s college stats were, but he went in the 62 round after JuCo and the U. So he’s prolly your answer. Only reason he was drafted is cuz he was Tommy Lasorda’s godson. Lowest drafted guy to ever make the hall.


I knew that Piazza had been drafted super late as a favour but I had completely forgotten that he put in some JuCo time, I was thinking that he was a high school draftee (the Blue Jays used to do this all the time with local high school seniors who were friends of the organization, they'd draft them in the throwaway rounds presumably so that they could all go down and tell their new NCAA teammates that they'd been drafted). But yeah, Piazza is definitely a decent guess for this (although I bet his JuCo numbers were still pretty good!).
 
Hoffman never pitched in college. He was a shortstop. And was AllPac10.

I knew he was not a pitcher but I was unaware that he was that accomplished as a SS.

I think I was thinking that "no stats" is even less of a track record than "mediocre stats" (although you are right, it's not the same thing).
 
I knew that Piazza had been drafted super late as a favour but I had completely forgotten that he put in some JuCo time, I was thinking that he was a high school draftee (the Blue Jays used to do this all the time with local high school seniors who were friends of the organization, they'd draft them in the throwaway rounds presumably so that they could all go down and tell their new NCAA teammates that they'd been drafted). But yeah, Piazza is definitely a decent guess for this (although I bet his JuCo numbers were still pretty good!).
He couldn’t have been great after transferring to Miami, or wouldn’t have fell 1300 spots in the draft.
 
I knew he was not a pitcher but I was unaware that he was that accomplished as a SS.

I think I was thinking that "no stats" is even less of a track record than "mediocre stats" (although you are right, it's not the same thing).
I didn’t know he was that good off the top of my head. I looked it up.

He led the wildcats in BA his sophomore and junior years. JT Snow was a teammate.
 
He couldn’t have been great after transferring to Miami, or wouldn’t have fell 1300 spots in the draft.

I mean I know that Miami-Dade is a top program for the level but it's JuCo ball, aren't there guys with "good" stats who never even get drafted?
 
How about MID then hall of really good?
 
I mean I know that Miami-Dade is a top program for the level but it's JuCo ball, aren't there guys with "good" stats who never even get drafted?
My buddy was like a .350 hitting center fielder in D1 and didn’t get drafted.

Have to be dozens of guys like that every year.
 
How about MID then hall of really good?
Ron LaFlor comes to mind.

He dropped out of HS without ever having played organized baseball.

Went to prison over college and stole 455 bases and made an AS team. Tigers scouted him at Jackson Prison. lol

Dizzy Dean didn’t even make it to Junior High
 
This is a higher number than I thought, I would have guessed under 50. It's difficult to build a Hall of Fame case unless you start early.
I could be wrong. Idk.

No college has put more than three guys into the Hall of Fame
 
I could be wrong. Idk.

No college has put more than three guys into the Hall of Fame

I mean, I trust your actual counting way more than my "15% seems about right?" guess :laugh:

I do know that bbref will seemingly list any college that the player went to no matter what age he was when he attended and even if he never played ball there but I doubt that makes any difference here, I don't know of any Hall of Famers offhand who pursued degrees during the offseason and/or after their careers had ended (and I doubt there are many, if any).
 
I mean, I trust your actual counting way more than my "15% seems about right?" guess :laugh:

I do know that bbref will seemingly list any college that the player went to no matter what age he was when he attended and even if he never played ball there but I doubt that makes any difference here, I don't know of any Hall of Famers offhand who pursued degrees during the offseason and/or after their careers had ended (and I doubt there are many, if any).
Not sure if Jeter ever graduated, but he went to UofM. Did not play.

After looking: still don’t know if he graduated. Getting an honorary law degree soon though. And giving the commencement address.

Michigan is one of the schools with 3 HoFers. Not counting Jeets.
 
Ron LaFlor comes to mind.

He dropped out of HS without ever having played organized baseball.

Went to prison over college and stole 455 bases and made an AS team. Tigers scouted him at Jackson Prison. lol

Dizzy Dean didn’t even make it to Junior High
Ron LaFlore only play 9 seasons in MLB and had an 18.1 WAR.

Kirk Gibson was mediocre in the minors, much better in the MLB. Had HOF Moments, but a 38.4 WAR is too low.
 
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