<<I spent the last week (like everyone else here) rewatching the season 3 episodes, and found the baseball card trade that Bart makes for Millhouse pretty interesting. In the episode, Bart trades Omar Vizquel for Carl Yastrzemski. The joke is that Yastrzemski is a hall of famer, and Vizquel sucks (at the time his career AVG was about 220.) Twelve years later, it seems likely that Vizquel will be a hall of famer as well (great defensive shortstop - 9 gold gloves).>>
Yastrzemski was also chosen, probably because of his last name, as well his
sideburns. It wouln't have been as funny if it was a Mickey Mantle, Hank
Aaron, Frank Robinson, etc. Vizquel was also chosen for his name.
Despite his defensive prowess, Vizquel has virtually no shot at making the
HoF. Two current shortstop HoF candidates, Dave Concepcion and Alan Trammell,
both superior allaround performers than Vizquel, have come nowhere near
election to the HoF. Concepcion has received approximately 12 percent,
cumulatively, in his 10 years of eligibility. Tramell has received around 15
percent of the vote in his 2 years of elibility. 75 perecent of the vote is
required for induction into the HoF.
Vizquel, adjusted for era and park effects, is a worse hitter than Ozzie
Smith, and is also an inferior fielder and baserunner. Barry Larkin, a far
superior total player, has a 50-50 shot at making the Hall, I'd rate Vizquel
chance as less than 5.
<<Yes, the Vizquel card was ripped, but Bart probably should have held on to it and traded Brady Anderson instead. Well, just goes to show that you never know. Well, I found it interesting, at least.>>
Vizquel, to his credit, did improve offensively, taking into account park effects and increase offesnive prodction in general. However, he did not improve nearly enough to warrant anything close to serious consideration for the HoF. Anderson had the long sideburns similiar to Yaz's.
<<Jugular>>