The Curse of Wrigley Field

Well, for the third straight time, the new and so called improved Veterans Committee failed to vote in Ron Santo.  The position is very under represented in the Hall of Fame and Santo was one of the great.  In Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, he has Santo as the sixth best third baseman ever.  The five guys in front of him are all in the Hall of Fame as are the two guys behind him (Paul Molitor and Brooks Robinson).  And I won’t even go into the George Kell thing.

From 1964 to 1970, Santo hit no fewer then 26 homeruns in any given season and never drove in less then 94 runs.  I know that’s only seven seasons but he also won five gold gloves during that time period.  He led the league in walks in four of those seasons and from 1964 through 1967, he hit at least 30 homeruns each year.

Of course Santo suffered because he played on some bad teams.  He had only two top five MVP finishes with his best showing being a fourth place finish 1967.  Regardless, he drove in over 1,300 runs and had a career OPS+ of 125 with the glove to boot.  He’s one of the best players ever at his position and I’m not alone in thing Ron Santo deserves to be in the Hall.

I guess this is the safe choice.  Rather then going out and trying to find a better backup catcher, the Cubs have gone back to what they know.  Henry Blanco re-signed with the Cubs for two years and he’ll gross $5.25 million.  Pretty low cost but Blanco has hardly torn it up.  He’ll of course back up Michael Barrett.  The Cubs also have an option on Blanco for 2009.