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(0) (0) EMail a Friend Ron Santo Deserves Hall Induction Published by Steve Caimano on October 7, 2008 06:31 am under Hall of Fame, Cubs Ron Santo???s name once again appears on the Veteran???s Committee ballot this year, and he???s probably not going to be elected to the Hall of Fame. The fact is that the odds are nobody will be elected because no player has been elected by the Veteran???s Committee since the most recent rule changes were enacted in 2001. If he doesn???t get in then somebody???s going to have to explain to me what a player has to do to get elected to the Hall, because by any objective measure Ron Santo belongs. It???s impossible to arrive at a definition of a Hall of Fame player that everyone would agree with, so let???s approach this by using three common questions used to assess a player???s candidacy. 1. Is Ron Santo better than some of the third basemen already in the Hall of Fame? First, it???s important to note that the test is NOT ???Is he better than the worst third baseman in the Hall???? Setting the bar at the lowest common denominator simply isn???t enough to justify selection; you have to be able to show that the player under consideration is better than more than one player already in the Hall. Fortunately, this isn???t too hard to do with Ron Santo. You???ll get no argument from me that he???s as great as Schmidt, Mathews, Baker, Brett, Boggs or Ripken, but those men are the best to ever play the position, not the minimum entry standards. I WILL argue that Santo is clearly better than Frisch and Traynor, Lindstrom and Sewell, Jackson and Kell. I will even argue that he???s better than Brooks Robinson. Not by a lot, but he???s better. Robinson was the better fielder, but Santo was a very good fielder in his own right and won five Gold Gloves. Beyond that Santo was clearly the better hitter. Don???t believe me? Brooks Robinson???s best offensive year was his 1964 MVP season. He hit .317/.368/.521 with 28 HR and 118 RBI (145 OPS+). Ron Santo had THREE seasons better than that: 1965: .285/.378/.510, 33HR, 101RBI (146 OPS+) 1966: .312/.412/.538, 30HR, 94RBI (161 OPS+) 1967: .300/.395/.512, 31HR, 98RBI (153 OPS+) Robinson???s legacy was cemented by a series of spectacular fielding plays in the World Series so his greatness is burned in the minds of baseball writers and fans. Santo never got to play on the game???s biggest stage, but that doesn???t mean he wasn???t a better player???it means his teams were never good enough to provide him the opportunity. 2. Was Ron Santo the best, or among the best, third basemen of his era? Yes. Santo???s best years were 1963-1968 and during that time he was either the best third baseman in the game, if you buy the argument that he was better than Robinson, or second best if you don???t. From 1964-1967 only Dick Allen was a better offensive third baseman (as measured by VORP), but Santo was clearly superior in the field. If we use Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP), which includes offensive and defensive contributions, Santo was worth about 52 wins over these four years and Allen was worth 43 wins. Of course, after these four years Allen???s behavior overwhelmed his performance on the field and his career went into decline. Tony Perez is a close second to Santo in WARP in 1968 and then surpasses him thereafter. Brooks Robinson? From 1963-1968 he was 49 wins above replacement. Santo was 72 wins above. For the six years from 1963-1968 Ron Santo was the best third baseman in the majors. For two or his remaining four years he was in the top five. 3. Was Ron Santo the best, or among the best, players of his era? Well he was certainly never considered the best player in the game, but he was definitely among the best. Let???s use Bill James??? Win Shares as our measuring stick. Win Shares takes a player???s offensive and defensive contributions and assigns them a value in wins. Here is the list of position players who earned more Win Shares than Ron Santo from 1960-1969: Hank Aaron (340 Win Shares) Willie Mays (337) Frank Robinson (307) Roberto Clemente (260) That???s it, that???s the list. Ron Santo was fifth with 247 Win Shares in the sixties. So by this method at least, Ron Santo wasn???t quite good enough to be considered better than three of the greatest players to ever play the game and another guy who might have been if his career hadn???t been cut tragically short. The point is that Aaron and Mays and Frank Robinson don???t define the minimum standard to get in the Hall. They???re far, far above it. Ron Santo wasn???t as good as them, but then again there have only been a handful of players who were. Ron Santo was better than all the other position players in the game for the decade of the sixties. So there you have it. Ron Santo was a better player than half the third basemen already in the Hall of Fame. He was the best third baseman of his era, and he was one of the five best position players. He got very close to the Hall two years ago. He missed enshrinement by five votes out of a total population of 84 voters. Obviously nothing about Santo???s career has changed in the last 24 months, and the voters will include roughly the same Hall of Fame players who have seen fit to enshrine exactly zero players since 2001, so I don???t have high hopes that he???ll finally get in. That would be unfortunate because he was a Hall of Fame player.