Wednesday, January 5, 2011

My 2011 Hall of Famers

I go with the less is more approach. If I had a ballot, I would vote Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for sure. I've looked at the numbers of the rest and I see a large collection of great players for a long time. I don't buy most of their cases though they had great careers.

Let's consider Tim Raines. Rickey Henderson really does overshadow Raines but it shouldn't diminish the grand numbers Rock put up (6 years of 70+ steals, >80% SB/SBA). His best season, 1981, wasn't a full one but he still managed to get 71 steals. He finished with a .294/.385/.425 slash line and 123 OPS+. What sets him apart from a lot of the other HOF candidates is putting him in doesn't mean that you have to put other players like Kenny Lofton and the like in. Still he doesn't have the WAR that the shortstops below do.

Barry Larkin is a struggle for me. I am saying no to Alan Trammell, though his case is compelling but Larkin had a lot going for him. He won an MVP in 1995, he had more walks than strikeouts, stole a base above an 80% clip and is most similar to Alan Trammell.

All in all, I am going to go with less is more. Blyleven and Alomar are the only ones I would vote in. If your list is long, be happy I don't have a vote. I like to keep the HOF special and I would be all for removing players from it rather than adding.

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