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Is Chase Utley a Hall of Famer? (1 Viewer)

Eephus

Eephus

Footballguy
The Dodgers have called a press conference for this afternoon and speculation it's to announce Utley's retirement. 

He'll leave the game with 65.6 rWAR which is 94th overall and 13th among second basemen.  He doesn't have much in the way of MVP shares or black/gray ink HoF credentials.  His overall post-season numbers aren't great outside of 5 2009 WS HRs in a losing effort against the Yankees.  He is #8 in career HBP so there's that.

His top ten comps aren't that spectacular.

  1.     Ian Kinsler (922.0)
  2.     Bret Boone (918.2)
  3.     Hanley Ramirez (899.3)
  4.     Bobby Doerr (894.2) *
  5.     Vern Stephens (890.6)
  6.     Brandon Phillips (882.8)
  7.     Victor Martinez (882.6)
  8.     Travis Fryman (880.2)
  9.     Bobby Grich (880.2)
  10.     Joe Gordon (878.8) *
The only two HoF guys on the list were Veteran's Committee selections.  Boone got only one vote and Bobby Grich (71.1 rWAR) was undeservedly left off the latest Veteran's Committee ballot.  The recent selection of Craig Biggio works in Utley's favor.  Biggio has superficially better numbers (higher AVG, more HR and even more HBP) but they're almost identical in WAR

Utley would get my vote but I'm a big Hall guy.

 
as a Phillies' fan and proud wearer of my World Ph-ucking Champions tee shirt, I have to say no.  Although there were times when the game looked absolutely effortless to him (which is one of the things that I usually think about for a hall of famer), I don't think that his total body of actual achievement quite meets the standard.

 
Using fangraphs, and taking his peak 10 years of 2005-2014, only Pujols (58.0) has a higher WAR than Utley (57.8) over that span. And Utley did that while playing in 147 less games. 

If that doesn’t warrant serious consideration, you’re doing it wrong. 

 
Not in my opinion.  If Lou Whitaker isn't a HOF'r, neither is Chase Utley.  Of course, fairly or not, I use Lou Whitaker as my bar pretty frequently due to what I feel was a terrible snubbing.

 
Mene said:
Not in my opinion.  If Lou Whitaker isn't a HOF'r, neither is Chase Utley.  Of course, fairly or not, I use Lou Whitaker as my bar pretty frequently due to what I feel was a terrible snubbing.
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Whataboutulism works both ways.  Utley had a better career than HoFers like Mazeroski and Bid McPhee.  It doesn't make sense to exclude Utley because Whitaker and Grich didn't get their just rewards.  Two or three wrongs don't make a right.

 
Epic Problem said:
Using fangraphs, and taking his peak 10 years of 2005-2014, only Pujols (58.0) has a higher WAR than Utley (57.8) over that span. And Utley did that while playing in 147 less games. 

If that doesn’t warrant serious consideration, you’re doing it wrong. 
Click to expand...
Same timeframe among his 2B peers, his WAR of 57.8 is 40% higher than the next best Robinson Cano (41.1) and that was in 190 less games played.

 
Epic Problem said:
Using fangraphs, and taking his peak 10 years of 2005-2014, only Pujols (58.0) has a higher WAR than Utley (57.8) over that span. And Utley did that while playing in 147 less games. 

If that doesn’t warrant serious consideration, you’re doing it wrong. 
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I heard this earlier today and was surprised.

various other stats: https://mobile.twitter.com/theaceofspaeder?lang=en

Also didn’t help him that the Phillies kept him in the minors for so long.  

 
The only metric he really has an argument for is WAR:

Hall of Fame Statistics

Black Ink: Batting - 3, Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray Ink: Batting - 42, Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame Monitor: Batting - 94, Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame Standards: Batting - 36, Average HOFer ≈ 50
JAWS: Second Base: 65.6 career WAR / 49.3 7yr-peak WAR / 57.5 JAWS
            Average HOF 2B (out of 20):  69.5 career WAR / 44.5 7yr-peak WAR / 57.0 JAWS

Other than a 5 HR / 8 RBI WS against the Yankees, overall he didn't exactly light it up in the post season: .224./ 364 /.410 / .774 in the playoffs.

He had a really good 6 year stretch but tailed off a fair amount in his 30's and missed a lot of games each year. 

Not sure about the comment about him staying in the minors for "so long." He was drafted at 21 and got called up at 24. Is that considered a long stint in the minors?

 
I think to be a HOF you need both a dominant peak and you need not to drop off a cliff into your late 30s. He clearly has the former but not the latter. Not HOF imo. 

 
shadyridr said:
I think to be a HOF you need both a dominant peak and you need not to drop off a cliff into your late 30s. He clearly has the former but not the latter. Not HOF imo. 
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If you'd spent more than an hour at the Hall, you'd find that a lot of members had abrupt declines in their late 30s, including Ed Delahanty who literally dropped off a cliff.

 
Eephus said:
If you'd spent more than an hour at the Hall, you'd find that a lot of members had abrupt declines in their late 30s, including Ed Delahanty who literally dropped off a cliff.
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It amazes me someone of your age still remembers this

 
I voting a pretty resounding NO here. He had a nice 7-8 year run.  

I'm sure he'll be devastated having only earned 125M in his career to hear that I don't feel he has HOF credentials.

 
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