In my first Hall of Fame post I will be showing you all why Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers is on track to becoming a Hall of Famer. To some this may come as a surprise, but it shouldn't. All stats used don't count the 2012 season.
Since Adrian Beltre started his career in 1998 he's been one of the best players in all of baseball. In terms of WAR he comes in at 13th, with a total of 56.1. When it comes to third basemen he comes in at 4th, behind Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, and Scott Rolen. All are regarded as future Hall of Famers. They are all more known for their offense, while Beltre possesses the steller glove. When looking at Beltre I also looked at Scott Rolen, and Ryne Sandberg, the latter being a second baseman, but he has similar traits to Beltre.
Beltre and Sandberg have nearly identical strikeout and walk rates, but Beltre has shown more power throughout his career. On the flip side Sandberg has more career steals. Overall Sandberg finished with 62.6 fWAR, through 9282 plate appearances. Beltre has managed 56.1 fWAR, through 8043, meaning he's been much more productive.
Rolens and Beltre also aren't that much different. Rolen's career .212 ISO is slightly better than Beltre's career .192 ISO. Rolen's walk rate and strikeout rates are also better, and in 8188 plate appearances he accumulated 73.9 WAR.
These graphs were taken from Fangraphs, the first one shows Sandberg's, Beltre's, and Rolen's "n-th best season", and the second graph is showing their cumulative WAR. Based on these graphs we can see that Beltre has been neck and neck with both of these players. He's only 33, and if he has a couple more solid seasons he should be in the Hall of Fame when his career ends.
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