People on Fark sure are stupid.

Granted, one shouldn't look on the internet for any type of wisdom, but Fark is the biggest collection of blathering retards this side of 4Chan.

To quote from the complete idiocy (regarding Biggio's Hall of Fame worthiness):

I'm saying that his most impressive stat (3,000) hits) was reached by merely being average for a long time.

There are obviously quite a few things wrong with this statement:

1) 3000 hits was certainly Biggio's most heralded stat, but it was not his most impressive. I'd say most career doubles by a right hander is more impressive, to me at least. His HBP record is also remarkable.

2) Biggio was anything but average. He has a career OPS+ of 111. If you don't include his post-knee injury years, it gets higher. He had 5 years posting an EQA of 300. He had 7 of at least 290. EQA takes into account park effects, and 260 is league average. His career EQA was 286. He was a spectacular hitter.

3) Being an average hitter for 20 years will not get you 3000 hits. Yes, he stayed in the game an extra year to get to that number (and I think most would agree that doing that was a little selfish), but he would have had 3000 hits if he (a) played somewhere other than the Astrodome or (b) hadn't injured himself in 2000.

The problem is that Biggio played 20 years in Houston. Had he done it in New York, Chicago, LA, or Boston, this wouldn't be an issue. ESPN would've covered his ceremony live and spent days talking about how fucking fantastic he was.

Instead, he played for an expansion club that never won a World Series. So he gets shit on by stupid fucks on the internet who never saw him play. Bidge and Bags were two of the best hitters of their era. Anyone who thinks differently on this is probably functionally retarded.

Edit:

Fark is also frequently the source of great wisdom. From "Clonod":

Craig Biggio deserves to be the Hall of Fame, even if he had 2,800 hits.

What is the most important job of a hitter? Get on base, don't make outs. This is especially true if you are hitting in the #1 or #2 hole ahead of players like Jeff Bagwell, or Lance Berkman, like Biggio.

In his prime, Biggio's on base averages were:

.378
.373
.411
.406
.386
.415
.403
.386
.382

He was slo posted slugging percentages in the high .400s-low .500s. Most of these seasons were played in the Astrodome, one of the toughest hitters parks in baseball over the last 40 years.

All of this means that Biggio's best seasons has OPS+ of 141, 139, and 138. By comparison, MVP candidate 2nd baseman Chase Utley has a 135 OPS+ this year.

Oh, and during his prime, he was also stealing 35-50 bases a year at a high frequency. And playing a capable (though unspectacular) 2nd base.

So no, the biggest redneck here:, he was not merely very good for a long time. He was one of the very best players in baseball when he was at the top of his game. I'm sorry you can't see past batting average to understand this fact.


Since WWII, I would rank Biggio the 3rd best 2nd baseman that payed the game, after only Joe Morgan and Jackie Robinson, better than HOFers Rod Carew (if you want to put him at 2nd), Ryne Sandberg, Red Schoendienst (and I'm a Cardinals fan), and Bill Mazeroski. Te only contemporary close to him is Jeff Kent, and you could make an argument that Kent if better (I would disagree) but even so, it's pretty clear that Craig Biggio is one of the greatest 2nd basemen who ever lived, and he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Couldn't have said it better meself.