Chase Utley: HOF?

He's not getting into the Hall of Fame (neither are Rollins or Hamels), but equally as interesting to me as Rollins would be Ryan Howard. They both had flashes or brilliance, were definitely in the conversation of "best players in the game" for a period of time during their careers. But for me, neither of them kept at a level close to elite consistently for a long enough period of time to get over that hump. But I'd go Howard as the closest (putting aside the steroid rumors, because there wasn't enough to put the taint of "got ya" on him). Early in his career, he had a 4 or 5 year period that was pretty damned good.

 

I never thought of Cole Hamels as an elite pitcher. I'd hazard that most people outside of Philly (and maybe Texas later) would have rolled off at least 5 to 10 starters at any given time that they would have taken over Cole Hamels -- at the time (relative to other starters / his peers).

Ryan Howard was in that kind of conversation (elite, best player, etc.) early in his career. Didn't keep it up long enough to be in a serious Hall of Fame conversation, but he reached a level as a player for a brief period that Cole Hamels never did.