With the apparent official retirement of Jeff Bagwell on the way I decided to take a look at his stats and assess whether I personally believe he is deserving of the Hall of Fame.
Steroid Mess
It will be very interesting to see if Jeff Bagwell's name gets thrown under the bus in the land of suspicion. He has some of the symptoms: massive power years which transitioned into complete body failure during the time of testing. Prior to Ken Caminiti's passing he did come out and admit he used steroids and further hinted to the usage of Bagwell while they were teammates with the Astros. I think eventually the suspicion, which has zero proof attached will hurt Bagwell's chances, how significantly will be seen.
Postseason Hitting
For someone that was so great and so consistent every season, he was equally consistent in the opposite end of the spectrum in the postseason. In 9 career series he batted a career .226 and even though he was technically on the World Series roster in 05, in the only series he truly contributed the Astros compiled a 1-5 series record.
Overall Numbers
I think unfortunately, and too often, overall numbers are taken into account to heavily in the Hall of Fame debate. Jeff Bagwell narrowly missed both a career average of .300 and 500 home runs. Either of those stats would give him a much better chance of getting in. Rather his superb numbers lie at runs and rbis both over 1500, once again unfortunately those will be looked at much less importantly than the average or home run numbers would have been.
Best First Baseman in the National League in 90s
One of the key components in my thought process when justifying whether a player should enter the Hall of Fame is when he was in his prime was he the best player at his position. This has always been my argument against Rafael Palmeiro, sure he put up consistently good numbers but he was never significantly involved in the MVP discussion and he was never the best first baseman in baseball. Bagwell to me has this working in his favor. In the mid 90s he was the best first baseman in baseball. His numbers in the strike shortened 1994 season were immaculate. He ranked 2nd in NL in batting average and home runs and 1st in RBIs, Runs, and Slugging % and won the MVP award. Those are unreal numbers, he was the best player in all of baseball that season. Furthermore in the 90s and early 00s he was in the top 10 in the league every year in BBs, OPS, HRs, RBIs, Runs (Including 3 times leading the league), and MVP voting all but once. He even had very good stolen base numbers for a first baseman during the 90s putting up two 30 steal seasons. Jeff Bagwell was a great, great player.
Personal Opinion
I'm beginning to start feeling like Buster Olney, where I do not want to associate steroid guilt and that instead if they were the greatest players in their era they should be in the Hall of Fame. My personal opinion says that Jeff Bagwell was no worse than a top 5 hitter in the National League for the span of almost a full decade, and for that reason if I had a vote I would check him off first ballot. In the end I think he struggles to get in due to the negatives of not hitting the benchmark numbers, the postseason numbers and the steroid controversy.
Steroid Mess
It will be very interesting to see if Jeff Bagwell's name gets thrown under the bus in the land of suspicion. He has some of the symptoms: massive power years which transitioned into complete body failure during the time of testing. Prior to Ken Caminiti's passing he did come out and admit he used steroids and further hinted to the usage of Bagwell while they were teammates with the Astros. I think eventually the suspicion, which has zero proof attached will hurt Bagwell's chances, how significantly will be seen.Postseason Hitting
For someone that was so great and so consistent every season, he was equally consistent in the opposite end of the spectrum in the postseason. In 9 career series he batted a career .226 and even though he was technically on the World Series roster in 05, in the only series he truly contributed the Astros compiled a 1-5 series record.
Overall Numbers
I think unfortunately, and too often, overall numbers are taken into account to heavily in the Hall of Fame debate. Jeff Bagwell narrowly missed both a career average of .300 and 500 home runs. Either of those stats would give him a much better chance of getting in. Rather his superb numbers lie at runs and rbis both over 1500, once again unfortunately those will be looked at much less importantly than the average or home run numbers would have been.
Best First Baseman in the National League in 90s
One of the key components in my thought process when justifying whether a player should enter the Hall of Fame is when he was in his prime was he the best player at his position. This has always been my argument against Rafael Palmeiro, sure he put up consistently good numbers but he was never significantly involved in the MVP discussion and he was never the best first baseman in baseball. Bagwell to me has this working in his favor. In the mid 90s he was the best first baseman in baseball. His numbers in the strike shortened 1994 season were immaculate. He ranked 2nd in NL in batting average and home runs and 1st in RBIs, Runs, and Slugging % and won the MVP award. Those are unreal numbers, he was the best player in all of baseball that season. Furthermore in the 90s and early 00s he was in the top 10 in the league every year in BBs, OPS, HRs, RBIs, Runs (Including 3 times leading the league), and MVP voting all but once. He even had very good stolen base numbers for a first baseman during the 90s putting up two 30 steal seasons. Jeff Bagwell was a great, great player. Personal Opinion
I'm beginning to start feeling like Buster Olney, where I do not want to associate steroid guilt and that instead if they were the greatest players in their era they should be in the Hall of Fame. My personal opinion says that Jeff Bagwell was no worse than a top 5 hitter in the National League for the span of almost a full decade, and for that reason if I had a vote I would check him off first ballot. In the end I think he struggles to get in due to the negatives of not hitting the benchmark numbers, the postseason numbers and the steroid controversy.
Comments