Philadelphia Phillies: Cases and chances for Hall of Fame eligible stars
Former Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Scott Rolen is getting a lot of HOF attention this year
Scott Rolen is on his fourth year of eligibility and has picked up tremendous support, currently at 67.9 percent of the early votes.
He’ll need 76.1 percent to get in this year, which is unlikely, and he’s picked up 17 votes this year.
— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) December 31, 2020
There aren’t many third basemen in the Baseball Hall of Fame. There are only seven modern era third basemen who have been inducted by the baseball writers, which is about one third baseman every 12 years since they started voting in 1939.
When you look at career WAR, Rolen’s 70.1 is the 10th best in baseball history, behind nine Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre. You’re talking about Mike Schmidt, Chipper Jones, Eddie Matthews, George Brett.
If you’re looking at Rolen as simply a third baseman, his raw numbers aren’t directly comparable to those already in the Hall of Fame. In 17 seasons he had 2,077 hits, 517 doubles, 316 home runs, a .281 batting average, a .855 OPS, and a 122 OPS+.
He’s 23rd among third basemen in hits (behind 12 non HOFers), 15th in home runs (behind non 9 HOFers), and 14th in RBI (behind 6 non HOFers).
Aramis Ramirez actually has more home runs, RBI, and a better batting average than Rolen.
But Rolen has some unique cumulative numbers that make him unique. Rolen, Beltre, Brett, and Chipper Jones are the only third basemen (51% of games played at 3rd) with 300 home runs and 500 doubles.
Alex Rodriguez played only 48% of his career games at third base, while 51% was at shortstop.
Where Rolen also beats the likes of Ramirez and Darrell Evans is his defense. Rolen won eight Gold Gloves, tied with Nolan Arenado for the third most behind Brooks Robinson and Mike Schmidt.
His 21.2 dWAR is sixth in baseball history among third basemen, which is actually better than Schmidt’s.
Getting to the necessary 75 percent this year is highly unlikely for Rolen, but if he continues to gain his current rate of support he’ll be in the Hall of Fame. He’s gone from 11.9 to 18.8 to 39.8 percent of the voting, so the trend will have him there in only a couple of years.