Roberto Alomar Should Be a First Ballot Hall of Famer

Roberto Alomar appears for the first time on the HOF ballot this year. The Hirschbeck incident stains his legacy, as does failing in front of the New York media with the Mets in 2002. “Having said that,” Alomar is the best second-baseman after 1960 not named Joe Morgan. He belongs in the HOF. He should enter on the first ballot.

From 1991 to 2001, Alomar was the game’s premier second baseman. He hit .313/.389/.477 with an OPS+ of 126 and 168 home runs. He had a better than .400 OBP five times. He hit better than .300 nine times. Under the official Duffy standard, he had one outstanding season (2001), four great seasons (1993, 1996, 1997, 1999), four good seasons (1991, 1992, 1994, 2000).

Here are Alomar’s competitors. Sandberg had six great seasons (1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992). Biggio had four great seasons (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998) and four good seasons (1992, 1993, 1996, 1999). Jeff Kent – experiencing a career renaissance at 30 in the late 1990’s with Barry Bonds – had one outstanding season (2000), four great seasons (1998, 2001, 2002, 2005) and five good seasons (1999, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007).

Though prolific early in his career, Alomar also developed into a remarkably proficient base stealer. During the tail end of that stretch, 1999 to 2001, he stole 106 bases and was caught just 14 times. Chone Figgins stole 117 bases over the past three seasons. He was caught 42 times.

Alomar’s offense was extremely valuable given his position. His defense is more controversial. Alomar won 10 gold gloves in 11 seasons. All that tells us is that sportswriters thought he was great.

Gold Gloves are about being noticed. Had Alomar wielded Mark Lemke’s career 71 OPS+ stick, maybe he doesn’t win. He had great range going to his left and may have positioned himself accordingly, increasing the number of Sportscenter highlights, integral in the pre-MLB package era.

Fielding metrics are convoluted. For brevity, His fielding percentage was quite good. His range fluctuated. He was poor at home in Toronto, probably because of the faster turf. For most of his career, his range was roughly average on the road.

This page has Alomar ranked as one of the top five defensive second basemen of all-time. That was the perception while he was playing. We would say he was not as good as Sandberg, but significantly better than Biggio or Kent.

During the 1991 to 2001 stretch, Alomar’s teams made the playoffs 7 of 11 years. He was on two World Series winners. He had four great series (1991 ALCS, 1992 ALCS, 1993 WS for Toronto and 1999 ALDS for Cleveland). Over a 230 AB sample size in the playoffs, Alomar was as good as his regular season self .313/.381/.448.

Alomar’s career ended abruptly. He did not linger long enough as an average or below average player like Biggio to get 3,000 hits. To denigrate him for that would be perverse.

Roberto Alomar was the best second-baseman of his generation during his best season. He was the best second-baseman over his prime, which lasted longer than any of his contemporaries. His offensive production would warrant HOF consideration at any position. At second base, he is a no-brainer.