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The POP™ AWARD is given annually for outstanding total offensive performance. It is an award for all players who, while having enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, reach the peak of offensive production for a season by qualifying in all three of these categories:

The combination of the baseball player who can hit for average, get on base, and hit for power is the Premier Offensive Player or POP. And it is the POP™ AWARD winners who seem to consistently make it into Baseball's Hall of Fame. Bill James wrote of signature significance; that brief period of performance that is so incredibly good that only a player of rare skills could achieve it. The POP™ AWARD winners have demonstrated the signature significance of a Hall of Famer. Those players found that with their first POP season, they were on :

Nearly 70% of the 131 position players in the Hall of Fame are POP™ AWARD winners.

Since 1876, the past 128 seasons, there have been only 278 players who have achieved POP numbers in at least one season. These players have combined for a total of 674 POP seasons. Of these 278 players 187 have sufficient seasons and years since retirement to be eligible for election to the Hall of Fame. An amazing 90 of them have made it to the Hall. The following chart illustrates how the POP™ AWARD is the first signpost for an offensive player on the road to Cooperstown, New York.

	POP PLAYERS	POP SEASONS
Total	278	674
Eligible for Hall of Fame	187	478
POP Players in Hall of Fame	90	343
Percentage of Hall of Fame Eligible	48%	72%

An astounding 48% of all POP AWARD ® Players eligible for the Hall of Fame are enshrined in Cooperstown. Once a player has two or more seasons the percentage jumps to 71%. As the chart below shows all players who have ever done it 6 times or more are in the Hall of Fame.

What makes these players the Premier Offensive Players? They have the ability to do what is necessary in every conceivable situation. They can get on base, move the runners around who are ahead of them and hit for power. Rolled into one they represent the earliest indication of a hitter's ability to achieve election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.