Cooperstown or Bust?
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by DNL
A made up player:
For the four years of his career, he rode the bench as a defensive replacement utility player. He amassed a decent group of stats -- he hit .315 over the span, with a total of 20 homers and 57 RBI. A few GMs thought he was the real deal, with his "four years" of stats being accumulated over what came out to be about one season of full-time play. And at age 26, he was given the chance to play full time. He didn't disappoint.
He racked up 250 homers over the couse of the next six years and knocked in over 750 runs. For those a bit slow with the calculator, that's a 42-homer, 125-RBI season -- on average. He won an MVP and was a five-time All-Star; ironically finishing second in MVP balloting the year he didn't make the Mid-Summer classic. In fact, he racked up a pretty incredible MVP voting record -- one win, three second places, a third, and a fourth. His other stats were good, too -- a career BA over .300; OBP over .380; SLG over .560. His .950++ OPS puts him just outside the top 20 all-time.
And then he hung them up, as off-season knee surgeries rendered him unable to compete. Many careers end at age 32; his was no diffferent.
Does he make the Hall of Fame?
I think so. It's close, but with a peak like that, who cares if his career was shortened? Consider this: His 3.96 MVP "shares" is 15th all time, and you have to go down to 28th (Dave Parker, 3.19) to find someone on the top MVP shares list who is eligible for the Hall but not in it. Sure, he has two contemporaries above him on the list, but he's also ahead of sure-bets like Ken Griffey Jr.. And while his 270 homers isn't a lot, it's more than Larry Doby, Hack Wilson, and Kirby Puckett, all players who had their respective careers shortened.
So, I leave it to you:
Cooperstown-worthy?
There are others in the Hall elected despite a short career, and even some who in fact died young. But there are others who fit the same criteria who have no shot.
So I say no. And the fact he wasn't good enough to play as a regular his first four years is a factor as well. Most HOFer's, if not all, were regular players from day one.