Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 05, 2006
Trammell and the Hall

The Detroit Tigers Weblog points to a discussion of Alan Trammell's hall credentials. I agree with this point from the discussion:

It’s truly amazing to me on how asleep a majority of the voters could be on these two players, considering their all-time ranking.

Trammell was a good hitter and a good shortstop at a time when you seldom saw both. He deserves a lot more consideration than he's getting.



Posted by David Pinto at 02:45 PM | All-Time Greats | TrackBack (0)
Comments

re: Alan Trammell & Sweet Lou Whitaker

Hey, if Jack Morris is going into the HOF, his up the middle defense/offense better go too. Trammel and Whitaker were together for like twenty years, and no two SS-2B combo was better, arguably. In win shares and in post-season, these guys were a lot like Reese-Robinson or other great keystone combos, Boudreau-Gordon, but they lasted so much longer.

Also, Detroit does not have an African American HOF. Sweet Lou should be that man.

--Arthur John Kyriazis
--Philly

Posted by: arthur john kyriazis at January 5, 2006 03:49 PM

I think the argument for Trammell is much better than the one for Morris. Even though neither won an MVP/Cy Young or proved to be "the best" among their peers.

Posted by: Devon at January 5, 2006 04:39 PM

Trammell should have won the MVP in 1987. Unfortunately sportswriters have a breast fetish with RBI and usually vote for the one with the most. Now, almost twenty years later, you're hoping that these very same writers will vote him into the hall. Good luck!

Posted by: GEB4000 at January 5, 2006 04:54 PM

Trammell deserves to be in... he's better than Ozzie Smith in every way except range. He was robbed in 1987 when they gave the MVP to George Bell.
Morris deserves to be in for his postseason heroics, and solid career.
Whitaker is harder to sell, but if Johnny Evers is in, then Lou should be, too.

pt

Posted by: tdmsu at January 5, 2006 05:41 PM

Trammell should definitely be there. He's one of those guys who has clear credentials, but for some reason doesn't capture the imagination of the BBWAA. Leave Morris out, and we'll all be better for it.

Posted by: Dave S. at January 5, 2006 09:52 PM

Why would HOF voter Dave Hyde, Florida Sun Sentinal
and Tim Sullivan BBWAA SanDiego Union both give up
their vote, resign from baseball awards voting (both in the past couple of months)? Why do
many news organizations no longer allow their employees to vote, including the NY Times, the Baltimore
Sun, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, any AP sports
writers, and others? Who remains? The baseball awards
voting organization is crumbling, but you won't hear
them tell you that, & baseball won't complain because
it would erode money & power for them. This needs to
be in the open---even those who remain in the process
relate horror stories of what goes on. And I'm talking
about a lot more than the mathematical Borda method
. I'm talking about the people. I want names, who
votes, and how they voted. There's something very
wrong with this PR vehicle when guys who've worked
many years to qualify to vote, then just quit. We continue to prop up this sham by our yearly debates
about it, but what we should be doing is demanding
its problems be brought in the open. No cliches please
about how it's always been this way.

Posted by: susan mullen at January 5, 2006 10:52 PM

The induction of Smith would leave people thinking that his defense was that much better than every other shortstop who posted better actual numbers. A player doesn't stay at SS for 19 years like Trammell if their defense is subpar. Reality is there is not an incredible difference defensively between Smith and Trammell, Larkin or Vizquel. Except one guy did a silly backflip. Is it the baseball HoF or the acrobatic HoF.

Posted by: LargeBill at January 6, 2006 09:29 AM

Well...Smith was actually more than just a back-flip better than the three mentioned above. Both Trammell and Larkin had otustanding gloves, but both were also excellent hitting shortstops. Smith wasn't quite a liability with his bat...much due to his baserunning prowess...but he really was the Wizard with his glove and well apart from the others in that regard. He is just in a class of his own.

TDMSU gets it right when he says that Trammell should have won the MVP in '87: his .343/.402/.551 line combined with outstanding defense was a staggering year, especially when you consider the context of '87 averages. He hit 28 homers, scored 109 runs, drove in 105, and stole 21 bags to 2 times caught. What a season!

Posted by: Dave S. at January 6, 2006 10:24 AM

Allen Trammell & Ozzie Smith were both drafted by the Tigers, When it became clear that ozzie would never be able to hit like trammell. The Tigers sent him packing for the Padres. To have Ozzie Smith in the HOF when he could not start over trammell is shall we say questionable.

Posted by: Colorado at January 6, 2006 11:21 AM
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