WAR, there's got to be a better way... And indeed there is, at least when it comes to guestimating the chances of active players entering the Hall Of Fame. Or at least trying to get them into some sort of historical perspective. Historical WAR gives us tools to do that.

My method to arrive at the table below is fairly simple:

1. Sort all the players by year (combining stints for players who were traded), then by WAR in descending order.
2. Determine in a most Excel-ent fashion who were the top 5% in WAR for each given season.
3. Count the number of times each player's performance placed him in the top 5%.

Then I just present the data to you for your consideration and wait for your accolades and underpants.

As always with WAR the dataset is limited to 1955 and later seasons. Some players obviously got jobbed by this. I have not refined it by restricting the dataset to only players debuting in 1955 or later. It's a first draft...

Also please keep in mind that when seeking a cutoff point for the elite 5%, it is invariably just a matter of .1 WAR that includes or excludes a player from elite status. Some players may have numerous seasons where they were in or out by the skin of their teeth. I'm thinkin' on other ways to do that.

The cutoff of 5% is arbitrary. For recent seasons it typically yields a list of 35-40 players per season. Likewise the decision to cut off the report at 7 appearances in the top 5% is arbitrary. But that yields approximately 1.5 (or slightly higher with the pre-1955 debut players removed) players for consideration in each season in the dataset; being a "kinda small Hall" proponent I'm happy with that when it comes to evaluating non-pitchers.

Enjoy, and I look forward to your comments and suggestions on the methodology and the results.

Aaron, Hank          18
Bonds, Barry         18
Mays, Willie         16
Robinson, Frank      15
Henderson, Rickey    14
Schmidt, Mike        14
Rodriguez, Alex      12
Brett, George        11
Kaline, Al           11
Mathews, Eddie       11
Rose, Pete           11
Bagwell, Jeff        10
Boggs, Wade          10
Clemente, Roberto    10
Griffey, Ken (Jr.)   10
Martinez, Edgar      10
Molitor, Paul        10
Morgan, Joe          10
Ripken, Cal          10
Smith, Reggie        10
Yastrzemski, Carl    10
Carter, Gary          9
Grich, Bobby          9
Jackson, Reggie       9
Jones, Chipper        9
Larkin, Barry         9
Mantle, Mickey        9
Murray, Eddie         9
Robinson, Brooks      9
Thomas, Frank         9
Whitaker, Lou         9
Abreu, Bobby          8
Bando, Sal            8
Bench, Johnny         8
Bonds, Bobby          8
Boyer, Ken            8
Carew, Rod            8
Edmonds, Jim          8
Guerrero, Vladimir    8
Hernandez, Keith      8
Jones, Andruw         8
Lofton, Kenny         8
McGwire, Mark         8
Pujols, Albert        8
Raines, Tim           8
Santo, Ron            8
Thome, Jim            8
Trammell, Alan        8
Wynn, Jimmy           8
Allen, Dick           7
Banks, Ernie          7
Cey, Ron              7
Gwynn, Tony           7
Helton, Todd          7
Jeter, Derek          7
Killebrew, Harmon     7
McCovey, Willie       7
Nettles, Graig        7
Palmeiro, Rafael      7
Phillips, Tony        7
Piazza, Mike          7
Randolph, Willie      7
Rolen, Scott          7
Sandberg, Ryne        7
Sheffield, Gary       7
Smith, Ozzie          7
Sosa, Sammy           7
Suzuki, Ichiro        7
Tenace, Gene          7
Ventura, Robin        7
Walker, Larry         7
Williams, Bernie      7
Williams, Billy       7
Yount, Robin          7