Although we are still months from the official Hall of Fame vote, it is never too early to take a look at the upcoming ballot, and with a less than stellar first year class headlined by Fred McGriff, Edgar Martinez, Barry Larkin, and Roberto Alomar, this may be the year for holdovers such as Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven to be enshrined.
However, I feel that Alomar may have a legitimate chance at first ballot enshrinement. Let's take a look at the statistics.
There are currently 17 players in the Hall of Fame that played primarily second base during their careers. Alomar's career numbers, as well as where he ranks among those 17 guys, are as follows.
Batting Average: .300 (ninth)
On Base Percentage: .371 (ninth)
Slugging Percentage: .443 (eighth)
Hits: 2,724 (seventh)
Home Runs: 210 (fifth)
RBI: 1134 (eighth)
Runs: 1508 (third)
Stolen Bases: 474 (fourth)
Offensively speaking, it seems as though Alomar falls in behind Rogers Hornsby, Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie, Charlie Gehringer, Joe Morgan, Rod Carew, and Ryne Sandberg and just ahead of Bobby Doerr, Frankie Frisch, and Tony Lazzeri.
On the other side of the ball, although Alomar does not compare to Bill Mazeroski who is considered by most to be the best defensive second basement of all-time, he was among the best of his era.
Seeing as Gold Gloves can and often are a result of a player's overall game and not just their defense, it is hard to use them as a gauge of a player's defensive skill. However, it is also hard to argue with the fact that Alomar has ten of them, most all-time by a second basemen.
Alomar is also the leader in All-Star appearances among second basemen with 12, just ahead of Sandberg and Morgan who each made ten trips to the mid-summer classic. This only furthers the argument that Alomar was one of the best of his era, an important factor among many voters.
Perhaps the best argument, however, for Alomar deserving first ballot status comes by comparing him to Morgan and Carew, both of whom made it on their first ballot and who are more his contemporaries. Below are their statistical comparisons with the leader in bold.
Morgan: .271/.392/.427, 268 HR , 1133 RBI, 2517 H, 1650 R , 689 SB
Carew: .328 /.393 /.429, 92 HR, 1015 RBI, 3053 H , 1424 R, 353 SB
Alomar: .300/.371/.443 , 210 HR, 1134 RBI , 2724 H, 1508 R, 474 SB
Looking at that comparison, Morgan was the better power hitter, Carew the better contact hitter, and Alomar the most complete player of the three. Factor in Alomar's defense and he is right on par, if not above those two.
So there it is, a simple proposal for Roberto Alomar's legitimacy as a first ballot Hall of Famer. Perhaps the voters will choose to remember the spitting incident and black ball him, but from a purely baseball stand point, he is a first ballot Hall of Famer in my opinion. What do you think?
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