Why do so many people think Scott Rolen should be in the Hall of Fame? He was a very good major league player. Excellent at times. But HOF?
Career slash line: .281/.364/.490/.855, 122 ops+
Big category totals:
- 316 hr
- 1,287 rbi
- 1,211 runs
Never led the league in any major (or minor, for that matter) category. Played 17 seasons and was an all-star in 7 of them. Never on an MVP and was only top 5 in MVP voting once in his career. Was top 25 in MVP voting just 4 times. Accumulated 70.1 bWAR, which is solid. Baseball-reference HOF ink:
- Gray Ink (batting): 27 (avg HOFer 144)
- HOF monitor: 99 (avg HOFer 100)
- HOF standards: 40 (avg HOFer 50)
List of most similar batters is a list of good players, not great players. Guys like Paul O'Neill, Ellis Burks, Shawn Green, Bobby Bonilla, etc.
The biggest plus is his bWAR. 70.1 career WAR, and the average HOF 3b has 68.4 career WAR. He had a really nice long career. Was good with the bat and with the glove. But wasn't GREAT. He had one elite season (2004). A bunch of really good seasons. I mean, don't get me wrong - you could do a LOT worse than Scott Rolen at third. He was terrific. But I just don't really see the argument that he's a HOF player. I think he's in the Hall of Very Good, and that's it.
I think being one of the top-10 all-time players at his position makes him a HoFer - and like RHF said above, 3b is criminally underrepresented as it is.
Semi-related side note - I took a look at JAWS rankings by position on BREF to see what the highest-ranking eligible, non-steroid omission is at each position:
1B - Todd Helton, 15th (54.2 JAWS, 61.3 WAR, 33.3 WAA)
2B - Bobby Grich - 8th (58.7 JAWS, 71 WAR, 43.5 WAA)
SS - Bill Dahlen - 11th (57.7 JAWS, 75.2 WAR, 39.2 WAA)
3B - Scott Rolen - 10th (56.9 JAWS, 70.1 WAR, 44 WAA)
C - Thurman Munson - 12th (41.5 JAWS, 46.1 WAR, 25.5 WAA)
RF - Dwight Evans - 15th (52.2 JAWS, 67.1 WAR, 33 WAA)
CF - Kenny Lofton - 10th (55.9 JAWS, 68.4 WAR, 38.4 WAA)
LF - Sherry Magee - 14th (49 JAWS, 59.4 WAR, 31.4 WAA)
SP - Jim McCormick - 16th (72.5 JAWS, 76.2 WAR, 42.8 WAA)
Relief pitching is a mess; after Eck, Mo, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Gossage, you've got:
5th - Bobby Shantz (29.8 JAWS, 34.7 WAR, 18.7 WAA)
6th - Tom Gordon (29.1 JAWS, 35 WAR, 13.6 WAA)
7th - Firpo Marberry (28.6 JAWS, 30.4WAR, 9.6 WAA)
8th - John Hiller (28.4 JAWS, 30.5 WAR, 13.7 WAA)
9th - Greg Swindell (28 JAWS, 30.5 WAR, 11.5 WAA)
10th - Ellis Kinder (26.7 JAWS, 28.9 WAR,13.9 WAA)