Bruce Jenkins Likes Gut Feeling Over Stats in Hall of Fame Voting

I'll just get this out of the way. I hate people who are too reliant on stats when judging baseball players and/or teams. I've said it before, but the game is not played on a spreadsheet. Human beings play this precision sport on the field. On the other hand, it's very much a stat-based game when you are arguing for things such as MVP awards or who qualifies as a Hall of Famer. Bruce Jenkins, of the San Francisco Chronicle, flies to the opposite of the stat-based point of view.

If you require a set of numbers to make a case for someone, you're probably trying too hard. More often than not, players strike a Hall of Fame look by their fifth or sixth year in the league. You see them play, watch how they carry themselves, hear tributes of respect from other players, and you just know.

Look, I'm not going to go as nuts on this paragraph as Ken Tremendous would have (sigh), because I do believe there's a happy medium between the stat sheet and the eye test.

I guess my main issue with the paragraph is that stats of any kind provide evidence. Going just on gut feeling is fine, but there's no real backing or argument being made. It's like if someone asks you to prove your point, and you just say, "because I said so." Imagine trying to have a fictional court case on whether or not someone should be a Hall of Famer. Jenkins would be sitting on the witness stand getting torn to shreds while Rob Neyer would be analytically supporting his arguments. Who do you think wins that case?

Again, I think there's a happy medium, but you have to use stat-based arguments in baseball. There's no other real way to explain to those people who never saw certain players just how great those players were. You can tell me how impressive Hank Aaron was, but until I start hearing 755 and other numbers, I don't know just how great he was.

If you only go on memories and "gut feelings," you run the risk of hypocrisy -- like when Jenkins dismissed Tim Raines' candidacy because he was a "level down from (Rickey) Henderson," while in the same column wanting Don Mattingly in the Hall. I'm a fan of Donnie Baseball, but he's certainly a "level down" from Eddie Murray, who played first base during the same time span.

A final note, I found it funny that Jenkins mentioned Jim Rice's four 200-hit seasons, Jack Morris' 133 complete games, and Rickey Henderson's stolen base record. Aren't those stats?

There you go, Bruce, trying too hard. Stick with that gut, it's gotten you this far.