Why are these guys in the Hall-of-Fame? When guys like Riggs Stephenson (.336), Mike Donlin (.333), Tip O Neill (.326) and Babe Herman (.324) are not?

Why indeed?

The short answer is that some selections were mistakes or maybe there's more to a player than batting average. However I don't wish to focus on the bottom list of players who have their noses pressed up against the glass. Looking at the list of HOFers with low batting averages it seems a mite odd that you'd classify them with the likes of Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby or Ted Williams.

Does it mean that batting average isn't important when assessing a player's qualifications?

Yes and no.

I'm sure you know by now that these guys were not elected because of their BA's but they were elected despite them. Simply put, their other qualifications far outweighed their low averages. Killibrew, Mathews and Jackson all hit well over 500 HR, Robinson was the most brilliant defensive hot cornerman ever, plus his average is depressed somewhat from playing in the 1960's plus he fell one decent season short of 3000 hits was a key player on a great team etc ...

I'm not going to argue whether that's correct or not, it simply exists and has to be taken into consideration. It's similar to looking at the high average guys not in; Riggs Stephenson played in a great hitter's park in a big hitting era and was abysmal defensively, ditto Babe Herman. Mike Donlin had less than 4000 AB and Tip O Neill is statistically quite similar to Ross Youngs who is in but Youngs was a poor selection. So, the negative marks on their records outweigh their high batting averages.

Which brings us (as you may have surmised by now) to a phenomenal player with a low batting average ... Graig Nettles.

Therefore we have to decide whether or not his plusses outweight the minuses that is his BA.

His plusses?

He's first all time in home runs for an American League third baseman.

He's third all time in HR for hot corner residents (390) trailing Mike Schmidt and Eddie Mathews.

Only Brooks Robinson made more assists and double plays at third than Nettles, only Robinson played more games or accepted more chances at the hot corner. He actually averaged more assists per game than Robinson. His fielding percentage is higher than Mike Schmidt but fairness dictates that I mention that Schmidt beats both Robinson and Nettles in fielding runs by a good margin but Robinson eclipses Nettles in that category by just nineteen. You could make a case that Nettles is among the top five (if not top three) defensive guardians of the hot corner of all time.

Other distinctions with the glove include the all time single season record for assists by a third baseman in a season (412 in 1971) as well as double plays (54).

Based on his production and fielding prowess you could make a decent case for Nettles as perhaps being one of the five best third basemen ever.

He is second in American League history in RBIs at third, trailing only Robinson, and is fourth overall in big league history. His 2225 hits tops Hall-of-Fame hot corner residents Frank "Home Run" Baker, Jimmy Collins, George Kell, and Fred Lindstrom.

He was a key member of teams that won a total of seven division championships, four pennants (3 AL and 1 NL), and two Fall Classics.

He averaged 21 dingers per season from 1970-1986, but was not a free swinger, the owner of a selective batting eye, he walked (1088) as often as he whiffed (1208). Granted his OBP isn't terrific on its own but when you take into account it was 81 points above his BA it shows he was quite selective. For a quick comparison Ty Cobb's OBP was 77 points higher than his [average] and Joe Jackson's was 67. Stated another way, Cobb's OBP was 15% higher than his BA, Jackson's was 16% and Nettles' was 25%. In short, he had a well above average batting eye.

Finally ... he was named to seven All Star teams. So to get back to the original question; do Graig Nettles' plusses outweigh his .248 batting average?

You decide.