[zeprock]

Who gives a rats a** about all star game apperances. They do not a HOF'er make!!

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Q: Who gives a rats a**?
A: The people who vote for the Hall of Fame.

[mgruber2]

Q: Who gives a rats a**?
A: The people who vote for the Hall of Fame.

If you really believe that then you dont know baseball.

[uvaspina]

I understand that but as i said before, Smith only has him by .001 career fielding percentage point. Plus factor in the fact that Tram played in the A.L. with Cal Ripken and still won 4 Gold Gloves. Who was there to rival Smith in the N.L?? Nobody.

These days, I don't think fielding percentage is the key metric in assessing defensive effectiveness. -More like ultimate zone rating, defensive runs saved, wins above replacement, and so forth. Personally, I was a huge tram fan growing up and think he belongs in the conversation, but he hasn't struck me as a sure-fire HOFer. It's reasonable to compare his career to that of HOFer Smith, but you have to draw the line somewhere. (He'd probably receive my vote, but I recognize he's a borderline candidate)

[mgruber2]

He's a borderline candidate if Smith isn't in the hall. But seeing as how Smith is then Tram should have been a shoe-in.

[ringers1993]

One thing that hurt Tram was that he played in Detroit. He was a star here in Detroit as for the rest of the country he never got the same coverage as Ripken or Ozzie. All I know was he was a great player, MVP of the World Series and class act. HOF in my book!

[piyn]

I think some of it has to do with popularity. I think he should be in and will eventually get voted in. But I think his brief stint as the Tigers Manager may have hurt his popularity just a little. Even though he was screwed from the get go and not really given much of a chance. Tram and whitaker were one of the best double play combos in baseball during the 80's and I loved watching them play. He will always be one of my favorite Tigers of all time.

[natejeffries]

The thing about the field percentage is misleading because Ozzie had six years where he had more than 800 chances, even one year with 933 chances whereas Trammell only had two years with more than 700 chances.

Despite this, Ozzie led the league in fielding percentage eight times, while trammell never did it one time.
Ozzie also led the league in assists for a shortstop eight times and assists for any position six times, while Trammell never did.
Ozzie led the league in range factor for a shortstop seven times. Trammell never did.
Ozzie also set records for most assists in a season and career. He also set the career mark for most double plays.
Ozzie also set the NL record for fewest errors by a shortstop.

This doesn't take anything away from Trammell, who was a very good defensive shortstop and one of the best hitting shortstops. He has a good chance to get in with the veterans one day.

[uvaspina]

Bumps

[uvaspina]

I decided to look up Trammel vs Smith relative to their WAR and found out they were almost exactly equal (67). Also, I came across this little piece about WAR featuring Tram: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2011/2/...xplain-war

I think the "experts" would agree that trammel was a very good player across the board, but didn't stand out in any one area. Joe Posnanski wrote an article for si.com about this a couple weeks back.

[piyn]

Nice article thanks for sharing it.