Jimmy Rollins: HOF?

All of this boils down to Small Hall/Big Hill thinking. If you think only the top five guys at each position should be in, then you will never be swayed on guys like Grich or Whitaker or Trammell or whoever. The question is where do you draw that line. Some people stop at Mays, Cobb, Speaker, DiMaggio, Mantle and Griffey in center and want nothing to do with anyone else, be it Duke Snider or Kenny Lofton. Others are willing to say, this game's been played for 150 years with over 10,000 players and counting. Even if you went to the top 500, there's no cheapening the honor. The belief that the Hall could easily accept Grich and Whitaker and Trammell and Dick Allen and Minnie Minoso and Ted Simmons and Edgard Martinez and Bill Dahlen plus who knows else and not be diminished is just as worthy a sentiment

 

A few of those guys can watch the ceremony from the big hill. Some, like Edgar, can get in because he was the best hitter in the game for a few seasons and had a very good career.

 

And I think this is where the "subjectivity" people like to hang their hat on comes in. Subjectivity does play into the process. It's almost unavoidable when you are trying to set the base line for what/who a Hall of Famer is. But people take it way too far when they decide that's a blank check to just decide willy-nilly who is a Hall of Famer and who is not based on their feelings.

Rollins was interesting to me because I wonder if there was a time when his counting stats would have merited him more consideration. He's going to finish around 2,500-2,600 hits, with around 250 home runs and around 500 stolen bases. I imagine the old-timers would balk at his .265 batting average, but I think he would have garnered more serious consideration 15 or 20 years ago, when benchmarks were more important.

 

Plus, you know, he leads the AL in runs scored.

 

If Phil Rizzuto can get in, anyone can.

 

Sadly, there are worse players in than The Scooter.

 

Game-winning HR in the ninth inning.

You can't measure clutch ...

 

I sort of agree with this, except I think the main factor making it tough for Rollins now is that he played/plays in an era where other shortstops have created different offensive expectations for the position. He didn't hit for average like Jeter or for power like A-Rod and Nomar in their primes, and stolen bases are (incorrectly in my opinion) a somewhat devalued currency. It's unfair to compare Rollins to those guys, but that's an inescapable part of the Hall process. How does a player stack up against his peers at the position? I admire Rollins a great deal, but he was never as good as Garciaparra before the injuries started, and Nomar will never get a sniff of the Hall because his prime was so short.

 

If only Nomar had hung around for 16 more years as a middling player and padded out his career stats, he could have been the SABR pet to replace Tim Raines.

 

My wife actually used leeches once in treating a patient in ICU. Seriously.

 

You really should stop commenting on baseball if these are your beliefs.

Your idea of a middling player is quite funny. Your memory is quite faulty, good thing there is actual documented stats of the middling player.