Robinson Cano: HOF?

How many second baseman do? It's the numbers at the position he plays that will get him in.

 

Second basemen with 3,000 hits:

Craig Biggio (3,060)
Rod Carew (3,053)
Eddie Collins (3,315)
Nap Lajoie (3,242)

Most home runs appears to be Rogers Hornsby, with 301. Didn't get to 3,000 hits.

Cano isn't automatic just yet, but among current guys with 10-plus years in, I'd rate the chances of eventual enshrinement like this:

Locks if they retired today
1. Pujols
2. Cabrera
3. Ichiro

The rest
4. Cano
5. Felix
6. Beltre
7. Mauer
8. Sabathia
9. Tulowitzki
10. Ortiz
11. Beltran
12. Greinke
13. Buehrle
14. Utley
15. Verlander

 

Felix would easily be voted in above Cano.

 

Felix isn't much of a winner.

 

You always bring this up, but there are plenty of Hall of Famers who never won an MVP. For example:

• Ozzie Smith.
• Carlton Fisk.
• Tony Perez.
• Gary Carter.
• Roberto Alomar.
• Kirby Puckett.
• Ron Santo.
• Lou Brock.
• Luke Appling.
• Billy Williams.
• Wade Boggs.
• Paul Molitor.
• Al Kaline.
• Duke Snider.
• Craig Biggio.
• Dave Winfield.
• Tony Gwynn.
• Eddie Murray.
• Derek Jeter.
• Eddie Matthews.
• Mel Ott.

Cano is great. But as we age, we are less easily impressed.

If you were 11 years old, you would laugh that this is even a question.

 

C'mon, Dick, you're not really saying the standard is based on an 11-year-old's opinion, are you?

 

No. The opposite, really.

I'm saying that's why you can't use the, "Feels like a Hall of Famer" standard. Because what "feels like" a Hall of Famer is quite different when you are a wide-eyed, bicycle-riding kid compared to a grizzled suburban dad.

If my dad were still around, he'd scoff at the idea that Robinson Cano is better than Ryne Sandberg. And then he'd scoff at the idea that Ryne Sandberg was better than Nellie Fox.

 

Gotcha.

 

We need the Buffalo News to vote-shame us.

 

To the 15 with Hall of Fame hopes still alive, here are some currently qualified players who are almost certainly relegated to the Hall of Very Good:

Hudson
Hunter
Kinsler
Teixeira
Colon
Holliday
Crawford
Wainwright
Martinez
Rollins
Granderson
Peavy
Reyes
Zimmerman
Martinez
Zito
Ramirez
Phillips
Pierzynski
Markakis


Guys who still have a chance to get in some day, but don't break that top 15 above:
Adrian Gonzalez
David Wright
David Pedroia
Cole Hamels
Yadier Molina
James Shields
Adam Jones
Brian McCann
Prince Fielder
Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod)
Jonathan Papelbon

 

Winning an MVP is an impossible standard. I think in the 80-year history of the award, both leagues, there have been somewhere between 100 and 120 of them. Probably 20 percent are no-chancer HOFers (Jeff Burroughs, Terry Pendleton, etc.). Cy Youngs even fewer, because they tend to get more multiple winners and even more flukey seasons from no-chance HOFers (hello, Lincecum!).

So it would be pretty darn difficult on an annual basis to put together an HOF class consisting only of players who have been MVPs and Cy Young winners.