Posted by dahsdebater on 1/17/2017 2:16:00 PM (view original):
Beltre is absolutely a HOF 3Bman at this point. He could suffer a career-ending injury before the season starts and he'd go in, and deservedly so. But that doesn't mean Rolen shouldn't. His best 10 years were from 1997-2006 and he was easily the best 3B in baseball during that time. A-Rod switched to 3B toward the end of that period, and Beltre happened to be better than Rolen in Rolen's best season, but nobody was close to Rolen's level for more than a year or 2 of that decade.
Tec, your standards are obviously way out of touch with reality. There are over 21 players per position in the HOF at this point. You can't have that many guys who were "one of the best ever." What you call 'common sense' is really 'I'm too lazy to actually compare this guy to the historical standard at his position.' You and Mike can spend all the time you like in Fantasyland where only 40 or 50 guys make the HOF, but in the real world it just makes you sound ignorant when you offhandedly dismiss guys like Rolen or Beltre or Raines and can't even begin to formulate an intelligent argument in favor of your position.
I challenge you to come up with a list of 12 3B in the history of baseball who were better than Rolen.
This is a retarded argument. The smartest kid on the short bus doesn't get into Yale because he was a the smartest kid on the short bus.
FWIW, I can easily dismiss Rolen and Raines because they aren't HOFers. Raines hasn't gotten better. I'm not sure why his support has grown because, in truth, that makes no sense. People haven't had full ballots and he was the 11th man. They just haven't felt he was worthy before. Rolen never gets in regardless of how many 3B are in. See: smartest kid/short bus/Yale story.
I've changed my mind on Beltre. He's probably full of PED but he's carried himself well over the last few years.