The Futility Infielder

Roberto Alomar, the gold standard of second basemen for the better part of his 17 years in the bigs, called it quits over the weekend. Like most fans, I'm amazed at how rapidly he declined from being one of the game's best players. His most valuable season according to Baseball Prospectus' Wins Above Replacement Player figures was 2001, but the wheels started falling off as soon as he was traded to the Mets that winter.

Even moreso than his precipitous decline, I'm amazed at how many fans and writers seem to think that this early end to his career will cost him a spot in the Hall of Fame. To counter that, I did a new piece for BP showing where he fits in using the JAWS (Jaffe WARP Score) system. As it is, Alomar's JAWS is higher than all but five of the 16 Hall of Fame second basemen:

                      WARP   PEAK   JAWS
1. Eddie Collins     174.0   57.2   115.6
2. Nap Lajoie        164.5   56.7   110.6
3. Joe Morgan        157.7   61.9   109.8
4. Rogers Hornsby    150.7   63.2   107.0
5. Charlie Gehringer 126.7   54.2    90.5
X. Roberto Alomar    126.8   47.3    87.1
6. Rod Carew         111.8   49.4    80.6
7. Frankie Frisch    113.4   40.9    77.2
8. Billy Herman       98.3   47.9    73.1
9. Bobby Doerr       100.8   44.3    72.6
10. Jackie Robinson   84.8   55.0    69.9
11. Bid McPhee        95.0   38.0    66.5
12. Bill Mazeroski    89.2   37.5    63.4
13. Nellie Fox        86.2   38.7    62.5
14. Red Schoendienst  85.8   38.9    62.4
15. Tony Lazzeri      77.8   37.8    57.8
16. Johnny Evers      65.7   31.8    48.8

That's a hell of a player. Only his decline and the memory of the infamous spitting incident -- which he did his best to turn into a positive by donating money to research the disease which took umpire John Hirschbeck's son -- threatens to delay his bronze plaque in Cooperstown.

Also in the piece, I took a look at what I call the List of the Damned, the small handful of players who aren't active, aren't on either the BBWAA or Veterans Commitee ballots (or awaiting the five years prior to the former), arent ineligible, and have a JAWS higher than the average Hall of Famer at their position. These are some of the most frequently asked about players when I do my JAWS pieces -- Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker, Ted Simmons, Dwight Evans, Darrell Evans -- and while length prevented me from saying everything I wanted to say about them, I did at least put all the numbers in one handy spot. If this newfangled Vet Committee ever gets its shit together -- you can stop laughing now -- these are some of the guys I'd like to see get a shot, particularly Grich.

It's a premium piece, so subscribe today if you haven't already.