Texas Rangers: Examining the Hall of Fame case for Buddy Bell

Third base is a position that has been vastly undervalued in recent years by Hall of Fame voters. Part of that is the recency bias of seeing by far the best third baseman of all-time, Mike Schmidt, play in recent times. But just because you aren’t the best at your position in your era doesn’t mean that you didn’t have what should be a Hall of Fame career. And just because you play on bad teams doesn’t mean that you didn’t have a Hall of Fame career either. Case in point: Buddy Bell.

Buddy Bell played third base for the Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Houston Astros for 18 seasons from 1972 through 1989. None of those teams ever made it to the playoffs, but Bell should get some serious consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Former Texas Rangers third baseman Buddy Bell should get more consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame

Texas Rangers legend Buddy Bell was a very good baseball player who saw his peak with the team in the late 1970s and early 1980s and modern-day stats indicate that he should be in the Hall of Fame.

If you look at the numbers from the time, it’s easy to see why Buddy Bell was overlooked for the Hall of Fame. He had one season with 20 or more homers (and it was exactly 20 homers) and three seasons with 80+ RBI (two of them were 83-RBI seasons). Right there, for Hall of Fame voters from 27 years ago, that’s enough to not put him in.

When Bell was on the ballot in 1995, he garnered just 1.5 percent of the vote and since he didn’t get 5 percent, he fell off the ballot.

However, you have to dive in deeper. Bell was a career .279/.341/.406 hitter. He had seven seasons with an on-base percentage north of .350, which is something that was not appreciated at the time. He also had seven seasons where he had an OPS+ of 115 or better. But Bell’s best asset was as a defender.

If you check out the predecessor to Defensive Runs Saved, Total Zone Runs (TZ or Rtot), Bell is one of the best defenders of all time. In 18 seasons, Bell had 174 TZ, or nearly 10 TZ per season. That is tied for 10th all-time. The only primary third baseman ahead of him is Brooks Robinson, who is in the Hall of Fame because he is the best defensive third baseman of all time and, by Total Zone Runs, the best defensive player ever.

That helps get his career rWAR to 66.3, which is 15th all-time among primary third basemen.

If you compare Bell and Robinson, Robinson had a higher WAR since he was so good defensively (78.4 rWAR) but offensively, Bell was better (109 career OPS+ to Robinson’s 105 OPS+).

Bell’s WAR is seventh-highest among non-Hall of Famers who have been on at least one HOF ballot, made their debut after 1901, and without a “character” clause issue (PED users, Pete Rose, Curt Schilling, etc. ).

Overall, Buddy Bell was penalized for not being a great power hitter. However, that doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t have more consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame.