Now Dunston... that guy belongs in the hall.

Now Dunston... that guy belongs in the hall.

Cubbie HOF absolutely!

Right next to Neifi Perez.

The line of thinking that says there is no one else you would put in over a player is really strange.

As if that makes it ok to take a someone not really worthy of the HOF.

I don't really have anyone that I would put in over Rolen off the top of my head. But that does not make him HOF material. And neither is Grace. I am in no way saying Grace needs to be in the HOF.

It is just like Buerhle. Really good pitcher. I would love to have him going to the mound for my team. But he is not a HOFer.

Love you Sandy!

Fangraphs has a good analysis of him.

Rolen can't get in on just his hitting. He has to get in on his hitting and exceptional defense. He played in the NL Central for about a decade. All of you Cubs people were in a unique position to assess his defense. Did you think you were watching an exceptional defensive player?

Really good, but not exceptional IMO.

Why didn't Konerko get in? Ended the longest World Series drought in MLB history for a city.

He's not a Hall of Famer but he'd certainly have to go in before Mark Grace.

You're starting to sound like an idiot here. I think the only stat that Konerko really beats Grace in is HRs. Is HR the only thing you think a hallnof fame career should be judged upon? Or is this another of your ridiculous "eye test" baseball things?

250 home runs and 300 RBI. Completely insignificant!

That's like saying the only thing you're better at in HVAC than me is fixing heaters.

The Cubby Chubby for Mark Grace is ABSURD. He wasn't as good as Wally Joyner.

Power is pretty important for a first baseman. Certainly a lot more important than defense.

Your position isn't much different than saying, "The only thing Tom Brady does better than Justin Fields is pass the football."

It's actually quite significantly different.

There have to be some exceptional third basemen, don't there? If he's not exceptional, who is? He's probably the second best guy defensively over there. Certainly the second best who could hit enough to keep the job everyday. I mean there are guys like Aurelio Rodriguez and Clete Boyer, but teams were always trying to replace them with someone who could hit and hit for power.

So you think Rolen is the 2nd best defensive 3rd baseman of all time?

I just can't go there.

But if he really is the 2nd best defensive guy ever then yes he deserves the HOF.

In my lifetime outside of Schmidt, I cant remember a 3rd baseman who was lauded as much for his defense as Rolen was.

The only positions where defensive prowess should be a major factor in HoF voting are catcher, SS, and CF. .

Really good, but not exceptional IMO.

I'm not sure I agree that defense isn't important for a 1st baseman. You won't see it in the stat sheet but the number of errors he saved the great HOFer Dunston is incredible. He was consistently on base. He saved tons of runs. His WAR is significantly higher than Konerkos. The only knock on the guy is that he didn't hit for power. He was ++ in all other categories.

Who was a better defender at 3B? Brooks Robinson and then.....its probably Rolen. Or you're using Google/Baseball Reference to go way back.

Michael Jack Schmidt played a marvelous 3rd base and hit 500 home runs.

My top 2 are Robinson and Schmidt. After that I dont really know. I would say at best Rolen is 3. But I just never watched him and thought all time best at the position. I dont really think he was that much better of a defender than Robin Ventura.

dWAR says Rolen was slightly better.

Even if you say Rolen is 3...or 5, or 8, with his offensive numbers compared to other 3rd baseman and being a top 5-10 defender, does that not warrant his induction into the HOF?

Carlton Fisk had a .269 career avg, a sub 800 OPS, and 376 home runs. Those alone aren't HOF numbers, but did anybody argue that he wasn't a HOF player?