Just in case there is some confusion about my comment above, I did not mean it as a shot at anyone for bringing up Brogna or Lieberthal. I truly do enjoy that line of discussion.
But I don't see the relevance to the HOF of how a player ranks on his own team. Earl Combs was the seventh best player on the 27 Yankees. Good arguments against his HOF-ness can be made, but why would the excellence of his teammates be a mark against him?
I moved back to St. Louis in 2004, so I was able to watch or listen to almost every game of Rolen's in St. Louis from '04 to his unfortunate exile to Toronto. And I will argue the merits of Jim Edmonds all day too, but I think it is difficult to compare the two and say who was better than the other (and as I said, irrelevant to their respective HOF cases). Their positions are both demanding, but very different, and the style in which they played was very different. But from watching or listening to most games, if I had to choose, I think that Rolen's game and importance to the team would probably be harder to replace than Edmonds'. Not a knock against Edmonds - he was absolutely amazing during those seasons. One key reason, besides his defense, was that the offense he provided in the clean-up role came with minimal strikeouts. His tough and dangerous at-bats were a key factor in making that middle-of-the-order juggernaut run. It is harder to imagine these days when most power hitters strike out 25-30% of the time, but not-striking out in the middle of the order keeps the RBIs and Runs-scored falling like rain for everybody. Edmonds earned his numbers, but he was blessed to have two hitters in front of him that gave him a wealth of opportunity. All that is to say, Claiming Edmonds was better than Rolen on Rolen's own team is more complicated and debatable than it might seem based on some of the stats and MVP votes.
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