Chase Utley to the HOF?

Fivethirtyeight had a great post about Chase Utley and his chances to get inducted into the HOF. Based on JAWS, Jay Jaffe’s system for evaluating a player’s peak in terms of WAR, Utley is one of the very best second basemen of all time. The article compares his peak to that of Jackie Robinson, which is nothing to sneeze at. However, his traditional stats are extremely pedestrian, and the Hall’s track record isn’t great when it comes to players who don’t hit magic numbers. It’s an interesting argument, to be sure. I don’t know if I would put him in the Hall or not. Jeff Kent’s case is much better, except for being a tremendous ass and possibly having issues with PEDs. Utley certainly wouldn’t cheapen the HOF by any stretch, and I wouldn’t complain if he made it, but unless there’s a huge grassroots movement to get him in, ala Blyleven, I just don’t see it. Maybe he has another three or four productive years; he’s 31, but he’s been injury prone. I guess we’ll have to see!

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