Baseball Hall Of Fame Elects Four

Baseball Hall Of Fame Elects Four

Randy Johnson led the pack with 97.3% of the votes.

Think about that. It probably means that 2.7% of the voters in baseball's hall of fame election don't know the very first thing about baseball.

Craig Biggio snuck in this year, in his third year of eligibility. He had a mediocre lifetime OPS+ of 112. In his last eight years in the majors, he batted .266, had an OPS+ of 95 and had lost his speed, meaning that he was a below-average offensive player. How many Hall of Famers were below-average offensive players for an 8-year period in their careers? Maybe Rabbit Maranville, but not many more. And Maranville was considered a defensive wizard, while Biggio's claim to defensive skill is that he showed up on time for the games and owned many different kinds of gloves, which was useful in case somebody else missed their ride.

Even in his first twelve years, although he was a good offensive player (OPS+ 124, batting average .292), Biggio was not great. In his best year, as measured by his place in the MVP balloting, he batted .309 with 22 dingers, 81 RBI and 47 steals. It's not easy to explain how he could be in and Tim Raines out. Biggio did have more hits, but Raines had a higher batting average, a higher on base percentage, a higher OPS+, and 800 steals - twice as many as Biggio. Raines also had a higher career WAR, despite 2000 fewer plate appearances.

Moreover, Biggio was probably not as good a ballplayer as Bobby Grich and Lou Whitaker, fellow second basemen who are NOT in the Hall. Both Grich and Whitaker were considered much better on defense, and both have higher career WAR totals in shorter careers. (Grich's total is especially impressive, since he had only 2/3 as many plate appearances as Biggio.)

Oh, well. No sense talking about it. He's in, and I've never seen them kick anyone out.