I am not going to spend much time on Barry Larkin. He is a HOF in my mind. I do not see how anyone argues with this statement. He went to 12 All-Star Games. He also won 3 gold gloves. This may have been more if his career did not overlap with the best defensive shortstop ever (Ozzie Smith) and lost some later ones due to Rey Ordonez who was a wiz with the glove as well. He was a major threat with the bat as well. He won 9 Silver Sluggers, the most ever for a shortstop. It also is only behind Piazza and Bonds all-time for players.
He was so good in fact, that he won the 1995 MVP award while leading the Reds to a first place finish in NL Central. The Reds made it to the NLCS that year but lost to the World Series Champion Atlanta Braves. He even had a much better offensive year the following year but the Reds fell to third place. Larkin was also exemplary off the field which is evident by him winning the Roberto Clemente Award in 1993 and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1994.
Larkin had the excellence to go along with his character. He had around 70 WAR from both Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. Based on bWAR, he is better than 14 of the 20 shortstops in the Hall of Fame. People claim he was hurt so much that he might not have the longevity to be in the Hall of Fame. He has the 13th most games at shortstop. He also has the 25th most assists and 36th most putouts at shortstop.
He played a great deal of games. He was an offensive force for his entire career. He had a career wOBA of .366 with an OPS+ of 116. He produced these by having an OBP of .371 and SLG of .444 for an OPS of .815. He did all of this while playing gold glove caliber defense.
I do not see how anyone could feel he does not belong in the Hall of Fame. It seems like a pretty easy case.
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