Lol. A fat bum on the corner even though he was one of the best defensive players ever at that spot. Let's pretend you're being the slightest bit objective. Position is taken into account on WAR. 70.1 > 62.7
I like how Philly fans want to claim Rolen now, but they booed him relentlessly when he went to the Cardinals
That was never me. He was my favorite player even after he was gone. The dumbest thing was that phans were bitching about him because he wouldn't re-sign and was calling the organization cheap, which was EXACTLY what the phans were saying about them. They tried to open their pocketbook for him but he didn't trust them to keep spending. I'm not sure they ever would have, but they did finally after he left. He played hard and the right way, much like Utley after him.
Neither did Utley (other than numerous times for HBP). He filled up the stat sheet across the board while playing great defense though.
I think both should be in the HOF, but Phillies don’t get claim him anymore than the Braves get to claim Babe Ruth
I agree that the Phans have lost the right to claim him based on how he left and their reaction to him every time he came back. But comparing their claim right to him to the Braves fans’ right to claim Babe is just ridiculous. Babe made an appearance for the BOSTON Braves at the tail end of his career. When he was hardly even a shell of his former self. Rolen came up and played the bulk of his career for the Philth. He played almost as long for the Cards, but had more team success with them. He SHOULD go in as a Card, but there is a (losing) argument for him going in as a Philth. There is no sane argument to be made that Babe should have gone in as a Brave.
Lou Whitaker had a career 75.1 WAR (Derek Jeter had a 71.3 WAR) Sweet Lou received 2.9% of the Hall of Fame votes (Jeter 99.7%). No drinking, no PEDs, didn’t argue with the umpires, longest double play combo with Alan Trammell and gentleman with exceptional class. Rolen should have never been a consideration, and Andruw Jones even less, until “Sweet Lou” Whitaker joins Alan Trammell.
My wholly unbiased opinion is Rolen is a fat bum and Jones is the defensive war leader for CF
Baines and Ortiz I won't argue against, but setting a bar of "you have to have led the league in some offensive category" isn't a good line in the sand, because a) Rolen did lead the league in defensive categories multiple times and b) there's a lot of HOFers who never led the league in offensive stats beyond dumb shit like ABs, sacrifice bunts, or GIDP (Pudge Rodriguez, Yogi Berra, Barry Larkin as examples of guys voted in by the writers, ignoring the veterans committee jokes like Baines).
www.baseball-reference.com
You have to go back to 2018 to find a hitter elected to the Hall of Fame with a higher WAR than "Sweet" Lou Whitaker (non Hall of Famer).Also, you're comparing DHs to an elite defensive 3rd baseman... and Rolen had a better OPS+ than Baines.
He ranks 59th among HOF position players in WAR and rates above the HOF averages, not to mention he beats the 3B averages for WAR/WAR7/JAWS.
Hall of Fame Batting Register | Baseball-Reference.com
Complete batting stats for every player in the Hall of Fame
Rolen has nothing to do with Whitaker, but they had similar career success. If Whitaker was a Yankee then you'd have some people bitching that he didn't get 100%.
Again, Jones is unquestionably fatter than Rolen. Rolen was also one of the greatest defensive 3B ever, so I'm not sure why you keep bringing up defense for one and not the other.
