Fire Brand: Checking in with Rob Neyer

Jim Rice. People are either adamantly for or violently against. You’ve come down on the negative side. Are you against Jim Rice because he doesn’t fulfill the ideal of a “true” Hall of Famer or because he doesn’t belong with the people currently in the Hall?

That strikes me as a distinction without a difference. I can’t support Jim Rice’s Hall of Fame candidacy because I don’t believe he’s among the 20 best left fielders in major league history, or even among the five best corner outfielders who are today not in the Hall of Fame. Just to make the most obvious argument, Rice wasn’t nearly the ballplayer that Tim Raines was. That’s objectively true, and it’s frustrating to me that so many Hall of Fame voters believe that Jim Rice was a great player, but Tim Raines was not.

My reaction: I was particularly interested in this question because I think that Rice has a similar career trajectory to David Ortiz. A player needs to play at least 10 seasons to be eligible for the Hall, and since Ortiz got a late start as a starter, he has 12 total seasons in the bigs but only eight with over 400 at-bats. He finished in the top five in MVP voting five straight times from 2003-2007. If he can produce two more excellent seasons and then play his career out at an above-average level, it will be interesting to hear the discussion on whether Big Papi belongs in the Hall. Of course, Edgar Martinez will have a big say on the future of DH’s in the Hall.

Thanks to Nardone.