Rob Neyer can suck my TWTW

If there are no player strikes, and Baines ends up with 3000 hits instead of just over 2850, are we having this conversation? Because 3000 hits is still considered automatic.

To me, Baines' closest comp is Rusty Staub, without the flair. Staub ended up closer to 2700 hits because he chose to finish his career with the Mets and therefore didn't get DH appearances twice a week.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

yes. 3,000 hit threshold is an idiotic measuring stick. a lot of old and stupid needs to die off already

That's a pretty good comp. I think Staub is the only guy to have 500 hits with four different teams.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

Definitely. Because there are so many shitty guys who have 3000 hits.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

Absolutely. Just call it the Hall of The Very Good and be done with t.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Maybe if Baines had the highest exit velocity of the 1980s people would change their tune.

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If you're going to credit Baines for Comiskey, you have to debit Walker for Coors.

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Hal has a Hall of Fame personality, and that’s good enough for an extra 20 WAR. That gets him up to the 60 WAR threshold, which is borderline Hall of Fame level (Andre Dawson, Robin Ventura, etc).

That’s right, I said Robin Ventura. His career defensive ratings are obscene, and he had nearly 300 HR.

It’s gonna happen.

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I think that's fair, but Walker's numbers far outstrip any of those other guys and he played in Montreal and St. Louis too.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

It's stupid if it does. But the bar has already been set low with Santo. Who's next? Ray Durham?

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

There were two on the committee that probably helped Baines a lot: Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa, who managed Baines from 1980-1986 with the White Sox.

No way he was going to have a statue of a non-HOFer in front of his stadium.

If Baines was great instead of good then people would change their tune. A statue at a ballpark is perfect recognition of a good career. An election to the HoF is a farce

The advanced stats do say that Ventura is a fringe Hall of Famer, though. He was just that good defensively. I know it’s a tough sell based on his career statline.

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does it matter when no one is there to see the statue anyways?

To me or to Jerry?

Well, there's a lot of noise in defensive stats. But we can agree that Ventura was an elite defensive third baseman. I just don't think that defense can or should really get a guy in the Hall other than the greatest defensive middle infielders and possibly the very best centerfielders. And even then there has to be a little more there, like Mazeroski's homer that made Mantle cry.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

You don't have a leg to stand on using that argument.

They already have a statue of Konerko and he isn't going into the HOF.

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That was the name I threw out there before Santo was voted in. Every argument for Santo was "he dominated at his position for most of his career". Any time I replied with Robin Ventura doing the same I got.....gee....that's actually a pretty good point....Robin not really a hall of famer.

I loved Harold, but he's not a HoFer. I think higher of Mark Grace's career than most people do, but Harold was a better player than Grace.

this is all definitely strange.

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This adds a lot to your argument

We don't know that anymore. If Baines is worthy then might as well let anyone in who is a nice guy and above-average stats

Such a hard-line conservative.

If Lee Smith is in the Hall of Fame we might be able to get Bobby Jenks in too. You might be able to get Kerry Wood elected.

This is what happens when America isn't here to keep Kirkwood at bay.

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He will if Ozzie and Kenny Williams get on the committee.

By Harold Baines being in and not Rose and Bonds. Being elected to the baseball Hall of Fame has all the prestige of being Nominated to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame....none

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

JERRY????

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That was the tag-line for Santo's Restaurant.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I nominate this thread for the All-Time Worst Argument--Team Effort award.