We at Sox and Dawgs decided to start taking a look at some current players to see if they could gain election to Hall of Fame. In this series, we’re going to look at players who are currently active who have reasonable consideration to be a Hall nominee. This isn’t a science and you may have others on your list that we left off. There are some fine young players who are just starting their careers who may have Hall potential but for arguments sake these are for guys who have been around a bit or those few outstanding younger players who just jump off the page at you.
In this series we’re going to look at the players by position as compared to Hall members of that position. The position is the primary position of the player through his career. If he played a significant amount of games in another position that will be listed next to his name. Some of the guys we will look at over time have endured position changes, but because the majority of their career was at one position over another we have chosen that as the position in which they are being considered.
The sixth category we will look at is third baseman.
The Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman we are going to use for comparison are:
Wade Boggs 18 years, 2439 G, 9180 AB, 1513 R, 3010 H, 578 2B, 61 3B, 118 HR, 1014 RBI, .328 BA, .415 OBP, .443 SLG, 12 All-star teams, 8 Silver Sluggers, 2 Gold Gloves, 5 Batting Titles, Hits leader 1x
George Brett 21 years, 2707 G, 10349 AB, 1583 R, 3154 H, 665 2B, 137 3B, 317 HR, 1595 RBI, .305 BA, .369 OBP, .487 SLG, 13 All-star teams, 1 MVP, 1 ALCS MVP, 1 Gold Gloves, 3 Silver Sluggers, 3 Batting Titles, Hits leader 3x
Brooks Robinson 23 years, 2896 G, 10654 AB, 1232 R, 2848 H, 482 2B, 68 3B, 268 HR, 1357 RBI, .267 BA, .322 OBP, .401 SLG, 18 All-star teams, 1 MVP, 1 All-Star game MVP, 1 World Series MVP, 16 Gold Gloves, RBI leader 1x
Mike Schmidt 18 years, 2404 G, 8352 AB, 1506 R, 2234 H, 408 2B, 59 3B, 548 HR, 1591 RBI, .267 BA, .380 OBP, .527 SLG, 12 All-star teams, 3 MVPs, 1 World Series MVP, 6 Silver Sluggers, 10 Gold Gloves, HR leader 8x, RBI leader 4x
We have two possible candidates for the Hall, with one having played significant games in other positions:
Their stats are current as of July 12, 2007.
Chipper Jones (LF) 14th year, 1835 G, 6668 AB, 1243 R, 2042 H, 403 2B, 32 3B, 373 HR, 1245 RBI, .306 BA, .403 OBP, .544 SLG, 5 All-star teams, 2 Silver Sluggers, 1 MVP,
Scott Rolen 12th year, 1472 G, 5381 AB, 936 R, 1526 H, 370 2B, 32 3B, 257 HR, 993 RBI, .284 BA, .373 OBP, .508 SLG, 5 All-star teams, ROY, 7 Gold Gloves, 1 Silver Slugger
The four Hall of Famers are some of the best players I have ever seen. Their numbers speak for themselves. Third base, the hot corner, is a position that has many different types of players over the years and those four Hall members probably represent those types of players.
Boggs was the hit machine, who improved defensively. Brett was the all out clutch guy who combined average and power. Robinson was the human vacuum cleaner, the gold standard for defensive corner infielders. And Schmidt had a mix of clutch, power, defense and leadership.
Before I get to Rolen and Jones I want to say that I did consider Alex Rodriguez in this spot. He has played third base for 4 seasons now in New York but personally I still think of him as a short stop and that’s the position where I will evaluate him.
The two contenders are guys who have had solid playing careers but I don’t think either guy will make it to 3,000 hits. Jones is nearly 1,000 shy and Rolen is just over half way there. Overall Chipper’s numbers are better offensively then Rolen’s and he’s only played two more seasons. Jones has 300 more runs scored, 500 more hits, 120 more HRs, 250 more RBI, his BA is 22 points higher and he has a better OBP and slugging percentage. Rolen though is much better defensively than Jones. Jones would be a better candidate and have numbers similar to Schmidt if he had the Gold Gloves.
These guys need to avoid major DL time in the next few years and rekindle their offensive numbers. They need to play several more seasons and get to 18-20 years played. Without that I just don’t see them making the Hall.
