Chase Utley: HOF?

He'll end up being a Vet Committee pick in like 2062, a la Bobby Grich here in a couple years will get in decades after he finished playing.

There is a slight chance the writers put him in his last year on the ballot. By then you will have an electorate that will be willing to look at him differently than the old school voters.

At the very worst, he's a top 15 second baseman all-time. He's probably top 10 for a lot of people.

 

The Grich thing is going to happen, right? Knowing what we know about baseball now, and how players contribute value, there is literally no reasonable argument against him.

 

We had a Rollins thread, by the way, but it looks like someone must have brought up Hillary Clinton at some point.

Jimmy Rollins: HOF?

 

It will, but it would help if they put him on a ballot first. His next three voting years are 2019, 2022 and 2024. It would have helped immensely if Simmons had gotten the one more vote to go in this time and open three slots on the ballot instead of two

 

Rollins was good, not as good as he thought but good.

Rollins' pursuit of DiMaggio ends at 38

 

Whitaker is going to get in before Grich, if nothing for the reason that Morris and Trammell just got in and that will ramp up his candidacy even more.

 

I think that a lot of the divide here is how much of a curve a second baseman's offensive production should be graded upon. If Grich, Whitaker, and Utley were right fielders or first basemen - or almost any position other than catcher or second base, really - no one is talking about either as a HOF candidate.

It would be interesting to take Ryan Howard's career offensive WAR and pretend he was a second baseman and see how it converts. And then do the same to Grich, Whitaker, and Utley, except make them first basemen or corner outfielders.

 

Now is Ryan Howard even close to that at his position? Asking for a moderator.

 

Bobby Grich’s scrappiness and Lou Whitaker’s aloof disregard for his natural talent are definitely reminders of a bygone era in sports mythology. I often think the same traits separated, just to pick two names totally at random, Steve Nash and Allen Iverson.

 

Whitaker, Simmons and Grich all belong in Cooperstown. How they all fell off the ballot so quickly just underscores how fallible the system for election is.

 

Jimmy Rollins 46.3 WAR, .743 ops, 95 ops+

Jay Bell 37.2 WAR, .759 ops, 101 ops+

Can we get a Jay Bell thread?