Posted by examinerebb on 1/16/2015 6:40:00 PM (view original):
Here is the downfall of these stats, especially when it comes to the Hall of Fame. You can use them to approximate comparative effectiveness across eras, but you can't use them to judge impact on the game. I'm sure by these metrics that Tom Glavine was a superior pitcher to Nolan Ryan. I've told my kids stories about watching Nolan pitch. Seeing batters wandering up to the plate from the on-deck circle, defeated before they'd seen a pitch. Hearing him grunt with every pitch and hearing his fastball sizzle like bacon from behind the plate in a near-empty Kingdome. What story do I tell my kids about Tom Glavine? "One time, he threw a fastball eight inches outside and the umpire called it a strike." Nolan Ryan, in my mind, is a vastly superior Hall of Famer. The same can said for Biggio. Are you going to regale your kids with tales of Biggio being hit by a pitch? Was there ever a point where you watched Biggio and thought "I'm watching a Hall of Famer?" I'm not sure Biggio was ever the best 2B in baseball, maybe not even the best player on his team at any point. Yet he is a rubber-stamped Hall of Famer. I played baseball for 20 years. I've been a fan for far longer than that. You'd be hard-pressed to argue that I need to deepen my understanding of the game. But I simply can't understand this necessity to break a player's career down to digits and have that tell his story.
I've found that there are plenty of people who played baseball - including guys with long Major League careers - who are very poor at evaluating players, by watching them or through statistical analysis. So saying you played baseball isn't going to prove anything. Especially if you are going to sit there and say you don't think Biggio was ever the best 2B in the majors. Who, exactly, would you take over him through the mid-'90s? Knoblauch? Even Alomar, who was at least near his prime, was clearly a step behind Biggio from my perspective. I was pretty young at the time, but I was also an Orioles fan.
Just because Nolan Ryan threw hard doesn't make him a great pitcher. He walked SOOOO many guys. I would think that would have been infuriating to fans of his various teams. It makes him fun to watch. But it doesn't make him better or more "impactful."