Question 1

Player Evaluation

Accepted Answer

Baseball-Reference:(https://www.baseball-reference.com/) the widely accepted standard for player, team, and league statistics. Has a subscription service for in-depth stats queries.
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Fangraphs:(https://www.fangraphs.com/) has most of the same stats as Baseball-Reference, plus a number of more advanced ones. Free in-depth stats queries and leaderboards.
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Player Win-Loss Records:(https://baseball.tomthress.com/) Tom Thress' (BBTF: Kiko Sakata) personal uber-stat to get historical player rankings. Here is his customizable worksheet.(https://baseball.tomthress.com/Leaders/HOMBallot.php?y=2021)
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Baseball Savant:(https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/) For current players, the advanced tools (using Hit FX and current player/ball tracking tech) are very cool and instructional.
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STATS:(http://hosted.stats.com/mlb/getleaders.asp?rank=315) MLB leaderboards for more common stats.

Question 2

Negro Leagues

Accepted Answer

The Hall of Miller and Eric:(https://homemlb.wordpress.com/the-negro-leagues/) Eric Chalek's (BBTF: Dr. Chaleeko) massive project to create Major League Equivalencies (MLEs) for Negro League players. Also has numerous articles about methodology, historical comparisons and background information. More broadly, the site also documents their attempts to create their own version of the HOF to compare to Cooperstown's.
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Seamheads:(https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php) One of the most thorough collections of NgL data that exists.
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The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum:(https://nlbm.com/) NgL HOF exhibits, articles, etc.

Question 3

Friends of the Site (or at least BBTF)

Accepted Answer

Tangotiger Blog:(http://www.tangotiger.com/index.php) One of the most intelligent practitioners of sabermetrics out there, Tom Tango's (BTF: tangotiger) genius is in his ability to understand the heart of the problems that perplex our understanding and approach and then explain them coherently yet creatively. His site has long been a hub for some of the most intelligent and in-depth sports analysis discussion that exists on the web. Tango also created the now-defunct hallofmerit.org for BBTF.
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The Hall of Stats:(http://www.hallofstats.com/) Yet another baseball diehard who wanted to build a better HOF based on stats. Adam Darowski invented (as best I can tell) the concept of weighted WAR for HOF discussion. I borrow from the concept heavily in my own player rankings.
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On Baseball and the Reds:(http://jinaz-reds.blogspot.com/) Justin's blog (mostly dormant now) was one of the initial inspirations for me getting into baseball analysis. Jinaz has also been highly approachable and friendly whenever I have interacted with him, which I've had the fortune to do regularly for at least a decade now.

Question 4

Sabermetrics

Accepted Answer

Beyond the Boxscore:(https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/) An SBN site dedicated to sabermetric articles.
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Bill James Online:(https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_log5_method_etc_etc_etc_/) Before he started talking much about politics, Bill James was revolutionary in baseball analysis. The linked article is a classic in showing how James' mind works to solve problems (and Tango also makes an appearance).
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Baseball Prospectus:(https://www.baseballprospectus.com/) A sabermetrically driven approach to analysis, but many articles are subscriber-only.
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There are many sites where sabermetric discussion is and has been flourishing. A number of them are listed above. Find writers whose work resonates with you and start conversations with them. Or find articles that answer questions that interest you: when does talent overcome chance?,(https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/10/17/6986409/true-talent-run-differential-best-record-random-chance-simulation) why are predictions narrower than real results?,(http://blog.philbirnbaum.com/2014/04/predictions-should-be-narrower-than.html) when is the sample size "big enough?",(https://library.fangraphs.com/principles/sample-size/) how important is velocity?,(https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/revisiting-mike-fasts-gain-a-tick-lose-a-tick-study/) haven't all these playoff myths been debunked?,(http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-playoff-myths-to-ignore/) do defensive metrics measure "what happened?" (http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/does_one_year_uzr_tell_us_exactly_what_happened/)(theory heavy). The rabbit hole can go very deep, or only as deep as you like.

Question 5

BBTF Links

Accepted Answer

Positional Discussions:(https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/hall_of_merit/discussion/links_to_positional_threads_from_last_year) unique threads for discussion of HOM cases through history position-by-position.
 
Negro League Discussions:(https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/hall_of_merit/discussion/the_negro_league_home_page) a consolidated location for links to discussion of NgL players.
 
HOM Eligibility by Year:(https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/hall_of_merit/discussion/new_eligibles_year_by_year/P900) who is eligible for the HOM by year?
 
Number of Electees by Year:(https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/hall_of_merit/discussion/number_of_electees_by_year) HOM elections have a set number of inductees by year.

Question 6

Acknowledgements

Accepted Answer

John Murphy was the curator of the Plaque Room at BBTF, and he and Ryan Wagman created the plaques through 2010. From 2011 to 2016 the creator of the plaques was Drew Barr. I have created plaques for players inducted since 2017, as well as several historical ones that were lost.
 
David Foss has been in charge of determining franchise caps.
 
Devin McCullen has been in charge of determining city and state standings.
 
yest, Rob Wood (especially), and I have done a great deal of work to revise the plaques for accuracy. I have also done edits to the plaques for typos and consistency.
 
DL from MN has been the moderator, ballot master, and organizer of HOM elections since 2013 (and MMP since 2011). Prior to this, Joe Dimino took primary responsibility for HOM elections.
 
This site was created and is maintained by Kris Gardner.

Further Information