Congratulations to Scott Rolen
craig44
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Newest member of MLB HOF
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
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Well deserved; one of the top ten third baseman - all time. Could hit and could pick it.
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I know I am Jim Rice's biggest advocate, so I tend to shy away from criticizing HOF inclusions. But I can't resist...I am surprised Rolen made it. Is it the gold gloves? Is the hall feeling the need to include more guys without the blemish of steroid speculation? I just went over his numbers. Then I did some googling, and read opinions on m=both side of this argument.
Two guys have 8 Gold Gloves at 3B and 300 homers. Mike Schmidt........ and Scott Rolen.
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I guess that's it. I was just going through his numbers again, and reading some more arguments for and against. It seems his offensive production along with the great 3b play is the key.
Borderline HOFer. I'm not sure I would've voted for him. Never really came close to winning an MVP. Finished top 10 only once.
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
Ignore list -Basebal21
I think Rolen deserves it. he was a very very good player. worlds better than Baines and Morris
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I'd like to see a Hall of Fame for which Rolen would be borderline. Have to throw out 70-100 current members (going back at least until 946).
That's more or less how I see it. The big strike against him, in my view, is that Rolen's "peak" is barely distinguishable from his career averages. It has been noted that he never led the league in anything, but what is more striking is that he never really came close to leading the league in anything. If Rolen was ever "great" it was in 2004, and even then, it's an "if". But, he was truly an amazing third baseman, and that's a big plus. In the end, in a HOF that doesn't include Harold Baines et. al., Rolen would be right on the border. In the actual HOF, Rolen simply had to get in, and by time I die he might be in the top half of it.
No Schmidt fan here but damn you really had to lower the bar to insert Rolen into the same sentence as Schmidt.
Mike had 10 gold gloves and over 500 homers plus 3 mvp awards.
Rolen would be closer comparison wise to Brooks Robinson than Schmidt.
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I agree that the "only players with this and this and this" can be misleading. Truthfully, I was a bit misled by it earlier in the thread if I'm really thinking about it. It does sound good when you sum it up like that, but the reality is that Schmidt had nearly twice the career of Rolen (I'm not being exact).
I just checked those Brooks Robinson numbers for comparison. 268 dingers and SIXTEEN gold gloves.
Bill James calls it "He's in the group." If you do it right it's not misleading, but you can use that sort of thing to convince people sitting around the table with you that Tommy McCarthy or High Pockets Kelly deserves to be in the HoF. Note, both far, far lesser players than Rolen (or Jim Rice or Harold Baines for that matter) and both enshrined fifty years ago.