Posts Tagged Andruw Jones

If Pujols Quit Now, He Might Get In...He's That Good

I consider Joe Posnanski to be a pretty smart guy. Having said that, anytime you rank the top 10 players under 30 who will make it to the Hall Of Fame, you take some big risks. Posnanski recognizes the risks right away, when he admits that if he made this list in 1985, only 4 of his 10 would currently be in the HOF. Obviously, many factors come into play when you make this type of list. Injuries, ineffectiveness, inability to live up to the hype, and other external factors can derail the careers of some of the best players in the league. Even within the article, Posnanski compares Hanley Ramirez to Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter, two players who probably would have made this same list 10 years ago. You already know the rest of the story, Jeter is still a lock, while Nomar continues to sign one year deals as a super-sub. These were two of the most dynamic players in all of baseball a few years ago…and only one of them is still considered a lock for the Hall. The point is, it’s really hard to be a top player in the MLB for an extended period of time. While Posnanski makes some very good selections, its just as likely that only 4 out of 10 actually make it to the Hall. I can’t stress this enough, Posnanski picks some of the best players in the game right now…and many of them will not go on to the HOF. That’s crazy! Posnanski makes this point when he lists would-be choices from 1985, so while guys on his 2009 list all look like good selections, it’s likely that only half of the players on that list make it to the Hall. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a closer look.

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