Frank Thomas & Craig Biggio

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Frank Thomas became the 21st player in history to reach 500 home runs last night, while Craig Biggio joined the 3,000 hit club.

My question to you is.. are either of them hall of famers?

I think Thomas is a lock. He's been forgotten about over the last 5, 6 years maybe as a bigtime player but here's the skinny on him. Thomas, to go along with his 500 homers, has a career average over .300 and I believe a career OBP well over .400. He was also one of the more feared hitters in the game before the steroid era. Never meant much in the field, but I don't think that will affect him.

Biggio on the other hand is more of a compiler. I respect him love for the game and his hard nosed style. He's definitely a really good player, but "good" is not enough for me to induct someone alongside the legends of the game. Biggio was never someone I was truly afraid to see come to the plate.

Slimdust

Both are Lock hall of famers.

Biggio for sure will be in the hall of fame. Give me al ist of 2nd basemen who you would put a head of biggio?

PS3 Online Name: xJimmyx23

www.haulingkings.com

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

I don't like to compare players based on the position they play. If they're a fantastic fielder, good for them. Some positions are more important then others course.. but I'm only basing my analysis of Biggio based on how good I think he was, not compared to the other 2nd basemen. So if all 2nd basemen sucked, why should I give him a ton of credit just for being the only one worth a damn? This is the hall of fame we're talking about..

Slimdust

alright, well answer ,e this one. honestly.

If 15 years ago, you are starting a team, and you have the chance to either pick biggio or frank who would you pick? and you would know what there final stats would be at the end of there career. I think most people woudl pick biggio.

Biggio is a great player, but for whatever reason, he just is not one of those players you think about as the best player in baseball.

He is sort of like Tim Duncan, not a lot of highlights, and not the player everyone will think abotu being the best, but a solid all around player who does his job right, and really really good.

no matter how you look at it, i think at the end of the day both of them will be hall of famers anyways.

PS3 Online Name: xJimmyx23

www.haulingkings.com

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Before even opening the thread, my guess was that it owuld be aHOF question, and my initial feeling, without thunking aobut it in depth was Thomas yes, Biggio no.

Early in his career, Frank Thomas oneof the best, and one of the most feared hitters in the game. I just went and looked up and his stats, and I dosovered that he was having one of the best years anybody's ever had in 1994 (the strike year). He was batting .353/.487/.752, OPS of 1.216, 38 home runs and 101 RBIs in 113 games. Wow.

He's a 5-time all-star, two-time MVP, 1997 batting champ, led the league in OBP 4 times, his OPS is 11th highest of all time (5th among active players), plus he's got the 500 homeruns. Thomas is a lock.

As for Biggio, his overall numbers are better than I thought, especially when you adjust for the position he plays.

baseball-reference.com has a thing where they take a guy's stats, and they list the 10 players that have the most similar stats. Here are the hitters who are most similar to Biggio:

Robin Yount
Roberto Alomar
Joe Morgan
Paul Molitor
Lou Whitaker
Ryne Sandberg
Cal Ripken
Brooks Robinson
Charlie Gehringer
Vada Pinson

All but Alomar and Pinson are inthe hallof fame, and Alomar will get in. I guess Giggio is a pretty good bet for the hall of fame...

Freak

Tom, you think Alomar will get in? I'd kind of written him off these past few years, especially since he spit all over that umpire.

Anyway, I agree with Thomas being a lock. The two MVP awards actually change it from lock to landslide, in my opinion.

Biggio is iffy. Like Blade said, he's a "compiler," and I don't know how the baseball HOF voters take to that.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

I just realized, my posts lately have had a TON of typos...i should type a little more carefully...

As for Alomar, I think the spitting incident will kinda fade out of people's consciousness after a while. I think Alomar's not eligible until 2010, and by then people will have forgotten about the spitting thing (I almost did).

Alomar made the All-Star game 12 straight years, won 10 Gold Gloves, he stole 474 bases (at an 81% success rate), batted .300 for his career (.371 OBP for his career), and was widely considered the best player at his position for the duration of the 1990's. He's a lock. It would be criminal for him to be kept out of the Hall of Fame for one stupid, disrespectful act that was pretty harmless, in hindsight

Freak

Yeah, you're right. He was also an enormous part of two World Series-winning Jays teams.

He was a lot better than Biggio, too.