The series on similar players continues with Craig Biggio. Biggio should make the Hall of Fame, if not this year then soon. The players most comparable to him, however, don’t have much of a chance of that honor:

This group is identified by a low home run rate, both in terms of total hits and balls not in play. They own above average BABIPs in general, and strike out about 1/2 the time they don’t put the ball in play. Given their low home run rates, they also draw a good deal of walks, striking out just a bit more than they draw a base on balls or get hit by a pitch. They are players with good batting averages, good OBPs, and not much power.

The closest player to Biggio is Naehring, and if you look at their career averages, the two match up pretty closely. It took Tim a long time to earn a starting job with the Red Sox, and then injury ended his career. In fact, the difference between most of these players and Biggio is career length. The only other one on the list who gets any Hall of Fame talk is Johnny Damon, and without 3000 hits he probably won’t make it.

That gives us a good clue as to how a player like Biggio gets to the Hall. He needs to avoid injury and rack up the counting stats. If Ray Durham had been able to survive another five seasons in the majors, we might bring him into the HOF conversation.