Quote:
Originally posted by goombah:
I would have to say no, Larkin is not a Hall of Famer.
With the exception of Ernie Banks (who played half of his career at first base), Honus Wagner, and Robin Yount (who played a good part of his career in the outfield), Larkin's career statistics are comparable to or better than every other HOF shortstop.

The voters don't place that much of a premium on offensive numbers for shortstops, but Larkin's 190 career homers are more than any other shortstop who played his whole career there.

Here are the stats for all the modern shortstops and a few well-known players from yesteryear currently in:

AVG OBP SLG H HR RBI RUNS SB

Luis Aparicio
.262
.313
.343
2,677
83
791
1,335
506

Luke Appling
.310
.399
.398
2,749
45
1,116
1,319
179

Ernie Banks
.274
.333
.500
2,583
512
1,636
1,305
50

Lou Boudreau
.295
.380
.415
1,779
68
789
861
51

Joe Cronin
.301
.390
.468
2,285
170
1,424
1,233
87

Pee Wee Reese
.269
.366
.377
2,170
126
885
1,338
232

Phil Rizzuto
.273
.351
.355
1,588
38
563
877
149

Ozzie Smith
.262
.337
.328
2,460
28
793
1,257
580

Honus Wagner
.327
.391
.466
3,415
101
1,732
1,736
722

Robin Yount
.285
.346
.430
3,142
251
1,406
1,632
271

On the other hand, here's a shortstop with better offensive stats than most of those who are in....

Vern Stephens (1941-1955): 15 years, 1859 hits, 247, 1174, .286. He had three straight years, 1948-50, when he averaged 33 homers and 147 RBIs. True, he played in Fenway Park, but still....

Strangely enough, a shortstop who I think greatly resembles Larkin in offensive stats is his Cincinnatti predecessor, Dave Concepcion, who, you could argue, compared to the guys above also deserves election.

Code:
 
              Larkin    Concepcion
-
Years           18          19
Games          2609        2488
Hits           2240        2326
Runs           1274         993
Doubles         426         389
Triples          73          48
Homers          190         101
RBIs            916         950
SBs             377         321
Average        .295        .267
Obviously you can't compare Larkin to Jeter, Nomar, Tejeda, or A. Rod, assuming that all four complete their careers.

But the thing is, all four of them are also HOF shortstops.

Just because Larkin wasn't as good, that doesn't mean he doesn't belong.

(BTW, the year he hit his 33 homers was 1996. His MVP year was 1995.)

"Difficult....not impossible"