Continuing the HOF debates -- Who Should NOT be in and why

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Posted By: Brian Hodes 

I figure since the last one just passed 50 I would sort of start a new one where we left off with the converse question -- who should NOT be in (among both candidates and inductees).

I'll start with a couple of categories:

Fielders only - Maz (even assuming he was about as good a second baseman as ever played I think that in the last analysis the difference between him and an adequate 2b isn't enough to warrant induction even coupled with one very big World Series homer. Conversely, a great hitter who was (at best) an adequate 2b like Hornsby clearly won enough games for his teams and established such excellance that he would be a 1st tier HOFer as would Ted Williams.
Ozzie Smith is a tougher call than Maz because he played a more important infield position and his hitting stats while not being great was certainly close to the HOF level for Shortstops which (at least until the coming of Arod, Derek and Nomar) was significantly lower than for 2nd Basemen. Rey Ordonez certainly is no HOF assuming things continue. He is a spactacular fielder but not all that consistent yet and his hitting is sub par. We can seriously talk about him after about 10 more gold gloves and a couple thousand hits...

Right place right time players -- these are "the supporting cast" players on great teams. Certainly good players (and usually good teamates, too) but really fortunate to be where they were when they were there. The best examples here are probably Rizutto, Joe Tinker a bunch of those 20-30s Giants Frisch put in, and perhaps, Rollie Fingers too. The closer calls in this group are guys like Catfish Hunter and Pee Wee Reese.
This would include candidates like the beloved Hodges, Ruelbach (sorry Scott), Dave Concepcion and certainly Paul O'Neil. Really, these are baseball's equalivalent of Rick Fox on the Lakers (perhaps minus some of the looks and the gorgeous wife).

Anyway, that should get us started....