I would rank Yount and Smith ahead of Larkin by a fair amount.
Yount reaching 3,000 hits and Ozzie Smith being regarded as the best defensive SS of all time, to me makes them hands down better. The other 4 players I could not speak of off hand, but I know all their batting averages were incredible.
I know Yount for some years was a "compiler", but 3,000 hits is still quite the accomplishment. The fact is that Larkin might have very well reached monumental plateaus, however he could never stay on the field long enough.
Barry Larkin only played more than 150 games in a season 3 times, and between 140-150 only 3 times which means for the rest of his career he never even reached 140 games. I believe part of being great is being healthy long enough to put up HOF numbers. Again I do not look at who is in and judge players who are not because we can do that all day with many borderline HOFers. At the end of the day Larkin doesn't have the numbers to be considered a Hall of Famer IMO.
|