Posted by doubletruck on 2/5/2011 10:01:00 PM (view original):
I would recast the question: If not Santo, why Blyleven; if Santo, why not Boyer? When it comes to marginal Hall of Famers, the arguments are endless, but in the end you're either in or you're out. Were Rabbit Maranville or Enos Slaughter better than any of those three? Life and baseball aren't fair...
Santo and Boyer, especially the former, in all likelyhood eventually get in. But as for
if Santo, why not Boyer? I'd say because Santo was the better player (and I'll write that as a Cardinal fan.) Maranville is in because he played a ton of games at shortstop and he was considered an outstanding defender for 23 seasons. Even if he played today with relatively modern statistical statistical analysis, he'd at least be a borderline HoF candidate similar to the upcoming case for Omar Visquel.