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G. Keenan wrote:

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:

thrill wrote:

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:Ozzie and Omar are staggeringly similar players.

Dude.

Backflip.

It's no Barehand, Omar has flair during play yo.

Did Ozzie not do that when he was a Padre and rocking the fro?

Sorry, by Barehand I mean "catching the ball in his teeth". He made it look so easy that people just started calling it a Barehand because of it's frequency.

Ozzie reached zen levels of concentration that allowed him to manipulate the path of grounders and liners into his glove using his mind.

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:

G. Keenan wrote:

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:

thrill wrote:

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:Ozzie and Omar are staggeringly similar players.

Dude.

Backflip.

It's no Barehand, Omar has flair during play yo.

Did Ozzie not do that when he was a Padre and rocking the fro?

Sorry, by Barehand I mean "catching the ball in his teeth". He made it look so easy that people just started calling it a Barehand because of it's frequency.

Now you're just being absurd.

The Third Man wrote:Ozzie reached zen levels of concentration that allowed him to manipulate the path of grounders and liners into his glove using his mind.

You sure it wasn't Yoda's training?

My thoughts.

* I personally think Chipper Jones will be a shoo-in, and he should be. Considering the relative lack of 3B's in the hall, he's been an elite offensive performer on a team that won 12 division championships (so far) with him being a major contributor. For 7 straight years, he was in the top 11 for MVP voting, winning once. As much as Glavine-Maddux-Smoltz, he was the face of the Braves during their run.

* Odd no mention of Lance Berkman at all. He's 31 this year, and has placed in the top 7 of MVP voting 5 times already. He'll likely end his career with over 500 HR as a switch-hitter. He currently ranks 13th all-time in OPS (40th in OPS+, ahead of A-Rod, Delgado, Griffey, etc.).

* Ozzie and Omar are similar, but while Omar has nearly as many Gold Gloves, he wasn't Ozzie. Ozzie was nearly super-human with the glove for over 10 years. He simply made insane defensive plays, and his range was ridiculous. You can say what you want about his offense, but the real reason why he is in the Hall of Fame is that he was clearly *the* best defender ever at his position, which is the most important defensive position on the field. Until there is somebody who comes along and blows Ozzie away with the glove, they probably don't deserve enshrinement for defense only.

--P--

Popeye_Card wrote:* Odd no mention of Lance Berkman at all. He's 31 this year, and has placed in the top 7 of MVP voting 5 times already.

He was actually the first guy I looked up numbers for but when I saw that he only had 1137 hits so far in his career I didn't bother to mention him. Obviously if he keeps hitting for a number of years he'll get in but, as you point out, he's already 31. He might need 8 to 10 good years to get the numbers he needs. He'll need to keep up his current pace of hitting for ten years to approach 3000 hits and 500 HRs. Not sure he can average 187 hits a year until he's 41. And he'll need to hit almost 30 HRs a year. All quite possible but it's still too early to tell.

Ozzie is very much the exception rather than the rule to defensive standouts getting placed in the HOF. We can all agree that Keith Hernandez was second to nobody playing first base, but when you're second to nobody playing shortstop, the toughest position to defend on the diamond, you've earned a spot.

It's been written that Bill Mazeroski was the first player to get into the HOF solely for his defense (although I would argue that Rabbit Maranville might also deserve such distinction). If true, though, then Ozzie was the second.

Omar Vizquel, good as he is, isn't going to be the third. And as I said, I was particularly put out a couple of years ago when he started campaigning for the HOF.