Here is the "Craig Biggio is a hall of famer" post.
I've said this for a long time in arguing why someone should be a hall of famer. A given player has to be the best (or one of the best) of his position for a number of years. In being the best, that implies that a player would have had to put a number of "seasons of excellence." In essence I'm going to compare Biggio's best seasons with that of his peers best seasons of other hall of fame worthy second basemen--Roberto Alomar and Jeff Kent.
These are the averages of Biggio's best six seasons
[why six...mainly because it is clear that Biggio has had six excellent seasons as his career has followed a strict bell-curve type path, which is typical of most players (and a lot of hall of famers).]
Runs: 129
HR: 19
RBI: 79
SB: 33
BA: .301
OBP: .395
SLG: .472
Here are Alomar's best six seasons.
Runs: 118
HR: 18
RBI: 95
SB: 38
BA: .322
OBP: .407
SLG: .499
And Jeff Kent's...
Runs: 98
HR: 30
RBI: 113
SB: 8
BA: .303
OBP: .374
SLG: .544
In order of OPS it would be Kent (.918), Alomar (.906), and Biggio (.867).
This shows that Biggio is well within the ballpark of his contemporaries who are also likely hall of famers.
Has Biggio been one of the best at this positions for a number of years...the answer is a resounding yes.
PS. . . it is also worth noting that in 137 plate appearances against Greg Maddux Biggio has a .299 bating average. That in itself is hall of fame worthy.
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2 comments:
Ok, I've put off replying to this for a couple days now because, after actually doing some research, I can't decide myself how I feel about Biggio. Which, I think, means I don't think he should be in the HOF... I mean, to me, if a player is HOF worthy, there just shouldn't be this kind of debate about it--I want players in the Hall who were no-doubters, who made obvious, tangible contributions to their team and the game of baseball. And honestly, with Biggio, I'm just sort of indifferent (which I guess is better than being opposed to, which I was as recently as 2 days ago).
Maddux, your argument for Biggio, comparing him to Alomar and Kent was not persuasive to me at all. In fact, after reading that I was even more opposed to him getting in. One, I'm not sure Kent's a lock, but he is considered (I think) the greatest power hitting 2B of all time, so that's why he would deserve to get in, if he does (the power numbers); and Biggio doesn't come close there (even taking Biggio's best 6 years like you did, his OPS of .867 vs. Kent's .918, and SLG% of .472 vs. .544, come on, those don't really compare THAT favorably). And then Alomar (who I agree is a no-doubter) gets in almost as much for his outstanding defense (again, this was sort of at the edge of my MLB consciousness, but that's my impression) as his offense, and his offensive numbers are still significantly more impressive than Biggio's over that best 6 year stretch (and, if it needs to be said, as solid as I think Biggio is in the field, I don't have the impression that he was as brilliant defensively as Alomar--if that impression is wrong, please tell me).
So, why am I torn? Mostly because of this blog entry--http://onemoredyingquail.blogspot.com/2007/06/craig-biggio-hall-of-famer.html--which was pretty supportive, and which prompted me to go play around with Biggio's bio at www.baseball-reference.com (http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/biggicr01.shtml). Listen to this list of the 8 batters most similar to Biggio, in order: Robin Yount, Alomar, Joe Morgan, Paul Molitor, Lou Whitaker, Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson. Wow. All but Alomar and Whitaker are in the HOF, and Alomar will most likely be there in a couple years.
Also impressive to me is the fact that he won 4 Gold Gloves and 5 Silver Sluggers. But that sort of makes me wonder why he was never a viable MVP candidate (not that you have to have won MVPs to be HOF-worthy, but I'd at least like to see a couple top 2 or 3 finishes or consistly in the top 4 or 5 for maybe an 8-10 year stretch)--he finished 4th in the '97 NL vote, and 5th in '98, his only other top 20 finishes were 10, 12, and 16 and came in '95, '99, and '94 respectively. And his teams were not successful in the postseason--the Astros made the playoffs in '97, '98, '99, and 2001, a pretty impressive run, but they lost each of those years in the opening round (granted, mostly to dominant Braves teams). When they did finally make the World Series in 2005 the team was carried by Carlos Beltran, a half-season hired gun, if I remember correctly, who quickly bailed and turned that postseason into about $120 mil from the Mets.
But, then there's this (at least according to a comment to the blog post I linked above): "...Biggio is the all-time leader in the National League in lead-off home runs, trailing only Rickey Henderson for the Major League mark. In his prime, he was the best lead-off hitter since Henderson." That's good. And finally, here's the most persuasive argument for him, in my eyes at least: Bill James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James) (and yes, I'm linking to wikipedia, all you intellectual snobs, I didn't know who Bill James was and I think this does a nice job of pointing out that he's sort of an authority on the game) figured that from 1989 to 2001 Biggio had the second highest win share total in all of baseball (behind only Barry Bonds), meaning, whether he won MVPs or not, he was pretty valuable...
So, like I said, I'm sort of torn. I'm not going to be upset if he does get in (I think he will), but I'm not entirely convinced he belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Dirty, a couple of things.
1. Bill James could be considered the guru of the modern day stats movement. Baseball geeks love the guy...cranky old sportswriters not so much.
2. Those Braves teams wish they were that dominant.
3. I read that other blog entry...good stuff...I buy a lot of what that guy is saying.
4. Jeff Kent is in...saying he's the best power hitting second baseman of all time is enough to get him in. Plus he does have an MVP award.
5. A few years ago...I laughed at the notion of Biggio being a hall of famer. He really isn't a big name and it's hard to get exictied for him. But year after year he was putting up solid numbers. And when you look at his entire career, I believe that there is no doubt that he is a hall of famer.
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