Rolen to HOF

[Wonderful Monds]

It's those five lost years in Seattle in what should have been his prime. That park ate him alive. He rebounded and became one of the best post-30 players in history, but you really have to wonder if he could have put up a few more seasons like 2004 if he had gone anywhere but Seattle.

You’re probably right on that yeah, actually

[LeatherPants]

I do not think Beltre is a hall of fame either but I like him better than Rolen.

This is insane. If Beltre isn’t a Hall if Famer nobody is.

[Mitri]

Beltre is an easy "first-ballot" HOFer. Maybe not truly upper-echelon (who is, and what does that even mean anymore?), but he was damn good throughout his entire career for longer than just about any player in history.

True 2-way guys like Beltre and Rolen get nicked a bit because they weren't *utterly elite* at one end of the spectrum (defense or hitting or power, whatever). But that type of thought is just plain dumb. They're the types of players teams should be desperately trying to develop/keep/acquire.

You can't tell me Brooks Robinson was clearly better than either of these guys, just because he got to play on a couple of WS teams.

[M2]

Last 30 years have you heard of Ken griffey Jr. Miguel Cabrera Puljos trout arod arenado Judge Ortiz Jeter
Sosa McGuire those are exciting and top players in the game.

Arenado is a curious mention.

Through their age 31 seasons:

Arenado - .289/.346/.535, 338 D, 299 HR, 968 RBI, 124 OPS+, 52.2 WAR, 36.2 oWAR, 18.8 dWAR

Rolen - .285/.375/.515, 356 D, 253 HR, 954 RBI, 129 OPS+, 53.3 WAR, 42.1 oWAR, 13.8 dWAR

[HokieRed]

It's going to depend for Arenado on how he ages: always critical, but especially for 3rd basemen.

[Ron Madden]

Scott Rolen, Chipper Jones and the 25 Greatest Third Basemen in Modern MLB History

Welcome back to Bleacher Report's series of the 25 greatest players at each position in modern MLB history. Up next, the third basemen.

The first step in this exercise was to decide what "modern" means for the sake of this discussion, and we settled on everything from the 1969 season forward.

That was the first year of the "divisional era" when each league expanded from 10 to 12 teams and split those clubs into two divisions. That also meant an expanded postseason format, with the ALCS and NLCS played for the first time that year after the playoffs had previously just been the World Series.

That gives us 54 years worth of players to consider for a spot in our rankings, but we didn't simply ignore what happened prior to 1969. A pair of top 10 lists were also created for the dead-ball era (pre-1920) and the pre-divisional era (1920-68).

Players were ranked throughout based on a combination of their overall body of work and their peak performance, with postseason success also taken into account.

1. Mike Schmidt
2. Chipper Jones
3. George Brett
4. Brooks Robinson
5. Wade Boggs
6. Adrián Beltré
7. Scott Rolen
8. Nolan Arenado
9. Manny Machado
10. Graig Nettles
11. Buddy Bell
12. David Wright
13. Matt Williams
14. Sal Bando
15. José Ramírez
16. Darrell Evans
17. Evan Longoria
18. Josh Donaldson
19. Bill Madlock
20. Robin Ventura
21. Ron Cey
22. Eric Chavez
23. Aramis Ramirez
24. Ken Caminiti
25. Justin Turner

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...rn-mlb-history

[Big Klu]

I may not agree with the exact order, but pretty much all of the usual suspects are there.

I might put Travis Fryman over someone like Ken Caminiti, who I think was largely a steroid construct.

[OldFashionedRed]

Scott Rolen, Chipper Jones and the 25 Greatest Third Basemen in Modern MLB History

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...rn-mlb-history

I'm very impartial due to my age, I think. I see names there from the 70's and 80's and think "that's how good the game was".

[RFS62]

I will never see Rolen as a "Red", might be my dislike for the Cardinals. Just seemed he came here to hang on. I'm tired of getting other teams' leftovers.

Yeah, this was on page 2, that's as far as I've gotten so far. So, I apologize if this has been thoroughly discussed already.

Rolen was one of those guys who if you got to see him play in person, he was different. Solid and smooth, powerful and smart. Different. The difference that shows up in his stats are just validation of that difference.

There have been plenty of great third basemen. Brooks seemed more flashy, I think, because he just got every freakin thing you could get out of that body. His iconic moment was throwing Bench out with an impossible move. Arms and legs going everywhere as he tumbled towards the dugout. That wasn't Rolen.

Rolen belongs in the HOF.

And I'm happy I got to see him as a Red. I was also happy to hate him as a Cardinal and a Phillie, mainly because he was so good. Same reason I loved him as a Red.

[Redsfan6272]

I am still bothered that when the Phillies were trading Rolen in 2002, the rumor was the Reds were asked for Scott Williamson and Brandon Larson in return, and Linder said NO!!, when i heard he went to the Cards AND what the Reds said No to i was so pissed!!!.. could you imagine if we had Griffey Jr batting 3rd and Scott Rolen batting 4th then???

[HokieRed]

Glad to learn a good part of my life is no longer in the "modern" period.

[westofyou]

Glad to learn a good part of my life is no longer in the "modern" period.

We come from the "Pony Keg Era" this era is the "Craft Brewery Era"

[foster15]

There have been plenty of great third basemen. Brooks seemed more flashy, I think, because he just got every freakin thing you could get out of that body. His iconic moment was throwing Bench out with an impossible move. Arms and legs going everywhere as he tumbled towards the dugout. That wasn't Rolen.

.

Are you sure it's not Lee May he threw out on the play you described? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_XHZbhR9qc

[HokieRed]

We come from the "Pony Keg Era" this era is the "Craft Brewery Era"

Yeah. When I'd go to Crosley, there were four beer guys carrying bottles: Hudi, Burger, Schoenling, Wiedemann. The local argument was over which one you were faithful to.

[Roy Tucker]

Are you sure it's not Lee May he threw out on the play you described? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_XHZbhR9qc