Is Craig Biggio HOF material

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Posted By: davidcycleback

First, Soriano sucks as an infielder fielder and you need a good fielder at 2nd base and SS. Roberto Alomar was a superior 2nd baseman, as he was an excellent fielder. If a player is moved from a position because he can't field the position, as with Soriano, it's dubious to transpose his hitting numbers to that position.

I am only offering my opinion on Biggio, and I don't have a HOF vote so don't worry. Notice that I was diplomatic enough to never post that I would vote for Biggio. Rather I said I wouldn't object to him being in the HOF.

One of my personal rules for a Hall of Fame is you must be able to field a great baseball team from its memebers. Just as a football team needs more than quarterbacks and running backs, a baseball team needs more than Babe Ruths. You need good fielding 2nd basemen and catchers to have a great team. If a top current pro team would beat the Hall of Fame team, because the football Hall doesn't have enough offensive lineman or the baseball HOF doesn't have anyone who can field 2nd base and short shop, it says you have a crappy Hall of Fame.

A common NFL fan question is "Should a place kicker be elected to the Hall of Fame?" My answer is the Hall has to have a place kicker, because you can't field a winning football team without one.

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From my fielding-a-team perspective, I would argue that Ozzie Smith was the superior short stop over Alex Rodriguez or Ernie Banks. My reasoning being that if a Joe Torre, Tony Larussa, Walt Alston or other great manager had all three players on his team, he'd always put Ozzie at shorstop. Alex and Ernie could play play third or outfielder or whatever, but there would be no question in the manager's mind Ozzie would play short.