Baseball's worst Hall of Famer

Tex can get in line behind me when he buys a ticket at Cooperstown.

While I agree that there's plenty of dead weight in Cooperstown (Kelly being a fine example), what is the point of comparing a 1920's first baseman with a modern-day first baseman? Pointless.... absolutely pointless.

It is worth noting that Kelly was on six pennant winning teams.... two of which went on to win the Series. I'm not saying that a team accomplishment warrants an individual honor like HOF induction, but he certainly wouldn't be the first, and probably won't be the last, to get into Cooperstown that way.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 09:06 AM ET  01.03 by jgb

This is why stats shouldn't be the only thing.Tex is solid, numbers wise......but he is no HOF level player

He would need a real big finish in the last 4 years of his Yankee contract to even be considered. I don't see that happening, he's in a decline.

This is a joke right? Two wrongs don't make a right.... You can add Phil Rizzuto to the complete HOF joke list....

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 09:17 AM ET  01.03 by Sports Know it all

This is a joke right? Two wrongs don't make a right.... You can add Phil Rizzuto to the complete HOF joke list....

Bill Mazeroski

QUOTE(#5):

Originally posted 09:17 AM ET  01.03 by jnorman41

He would need a real big finish in the last 4 years of his Yankee contract to even be considered. I don't see that happening, he's in a decline.

Agreed. His performance has fallen off way too much to be considered.

Simply: Mark Teixeira is a far superior player to what Kelly was. And Kelly is in the Hall of Fame. Think Teixeira is headed that way?



No.

I think we need to get Gil Hodges in before we put Tex in. Class guy but not a HOFer.

QUOTE(#9):

Originally posted 09:26 AM ET  01.03 by Otis B. Driftwood

Simply: Mark Teixeira is a far superior player to what Kelly was. And Kelly is in the Hall of Fame. Think Teixeira is headed that way? No.

Correct!

So I posted the Gil Hodges comment and decided to go and look at his numbers. Not real impressive however only 1 player had more RBI's and HR's during the time he played.... Duke Snider a HOFer so how is it he is not a HOFer and George Kelly is? I would say if Hodges gets in someday so will Dale Murphy because again he played second fiddle to another HOFer Mike Schmidt!

There is a veterans committee only as long as there is a year they do not put someone in the HOF. Sooo, they will always find somebody, anybody to stay in business.

Eliminate the veterans committee . Time is up.

QUOTE(#13):

Originally posted 09:39 AM ET  01.03 by BigRed5

So I posted the Gil Hodges comment and decided to go and look at his numbers. Not real impressive however only 1 player had more RBI's and HR's during the time he played.... Duke Snider a HOFer so how is it he is not a HOFer and George Kelly is? I would say if Hodges gets in someday so will Dale Murphy because again he played second fiddle to another HOFer Mike Schmidt!

Hodges was a very good ball player but I think he falls short of the HoF. Keep in mind Snider was a spectacular fielder and base runner as well. Let's face it, there are guys in the HoF that don't belong. But dragging their numbers out to justify putting a marginal guy in it's the way to go.

QUOTE(#15):

Originally posted 09:47 AM ET  01.03 by The Moose

Hodges was a very good ball player but I think he falls short of the HoF. Keep in mind Snider was a spectacular fielder and base runner as well. Let's face it, there are guys in the HoF that don't belong. But dragging their numbers out to justify putting a marginal guy in it's the way to go.

Ooops! ... ISN'T the way to go. Man did I botch that.



I blame the hooves.

If we assume that Tex plays at his averages for his career (not his best nor his worse years but the averages) for another five years (total of 15 yrs) then he will compare with the following players Mantle (18 yrs), Mathews (17 yrs), Reggie (21 yrs) and McCovey (21 yrs) all of whom are in the Hall. Therefore, assuming he keeps at his average levels for another five years he will most closely have numbers that are comparable to the Mick and Eddie Mathews. (Note: I am not going to list all the comparisons here but anyone can easily go to www.baseball-reference.com to do your own comparisons.)
Assuming that you agree that these are players who belong in the Hall then a decent argument could be made for Texeira to eventually, and legitimatley, be included in the Hall.
The other side of the discussion is that maybe some of these players have numbers (Mantle and Mathews) that belong in the Hall of the Very Good and not necesarily in the Hall of Fame.

What I will do is list Tex' numbers according to the assumption of my previous statement and at the end of 15 years he would potentially have assumed numbers of Runs: 1407, Hits: 2307, doubles: 532, HRs: 507 and RBI: 1651 with a .279 BA; a .527 SlgA and a .896 OPS.