Where Does Craig Biggio Stand for the Hall of Fame?

Craig Biggio (Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)

Craig Biggio is a Hall of Famer. Well not yet, but he should be. In fact, he needs to be.

Biggio’s stats and credentials do a very good job of illustrating that point for him.

• He has a WAR (Wins Above Replacement Value) of 64.9 which is 134th all time.
• Per Bill James‘ statistical measurements, with 50 being an “average” Hall of Famer, Biggio has a rating of 57.
• Biggio was a seven time All-Star, including five straight times between 1994 and 1998.
• His 3,060 hits are 21st all time. Biggio hit .281 on his career and had a .363 on base percentage.
• An overlooked part of his game, was the power production. Biggio had 291 home runs and drove in 1,174 runs.
• Along with that power, Biggio also stole 414 bases.
• For Biggio, an average 162 game season would be:  174 hits, 66 walks, 17 HR, 67 RBI, and 24 SB.
• It must be noted that he was durable only playing in less than 141 games in a season once after his first full year. Biggio also played three positions, moving to the outfield late in his career to make room for Jeff Kent.
• We also cannot forget that he was hit by pitches 285 times on his career as he did anything possible to get on base.

As it currently stands with the ballots that have been made public, Biggio is primed to be elected to Cooperstown in 2014. Astros County does an excellent job of keeping a running tally of the votes, and at the time of this writing, Biggio has 81.1% of the votes (75% is needed for election).