Ron Santo -- Newest Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Per a variety of sources, the "Golden Age" Committee has elected longtime Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This is a long overdue award for Santo, who passed away one year and two days ago, on December 3, 2010.

One of the things we've talked about before is how few third basemen there are in the Hall of Fame, and how many third basemen with solid Hall of Fame cases have ended up on the outside looking in. There's probably no one who was a better example of that phenomenon than Santo, whose raw counting stats were hurt both by his retirement at age 34 (although he debuted at age 20) and by the fact that he spent his career playing in the low-offense 60s and early 70s.

Santo's fWAR of 79.3 is 7th* all time among third basemen, behind Mike Schmidt, Eddie Mathews, Wade Boggs, Brooks Robinson, George Brett, and Chipper Jones, and his bWAR of 66.4 is also 7th, behind that same group.

* If you include Alex Rodriguez as a third baseman, he goes to the top of the list, and Santo is 8th.

Only eight players eligible for the Hall but not in have a higher bWAR than Santo -- Jeff Bagwell, Bill Dahlen, Lou Whitaker, Barry Larkin, Bobby Grich, Larry Walker, Edgar Martinez, and Alan Trammell.

The one sad note on this is that it is unfortunate that Santo wasn't inducted while he was still alive to appreciate the honor.