If you had to lay down $100...

[howie14]

I got a few.

Felix Hernandez, Hanley Ramirez, Tim Lincecum, Nick Markakis, and Matt Wieters.

I think Wieters doesn't count 'cause he's already in.

Ramirez is a winner.

[birrman54]

I can think of 2 other SS who moved to 3B (one is in the Hall, one will be).

Hanley is definitely on the track, he's just got to keep it up for another decade

Tim Lincecum is going to have 2 Cy Youngs in his first 2 full years. He's one of the only active pitchers to have a legitimate shot at putting up 300K seasons.

Justin Upton is very very young and already good. He's a special talent.

[Migrant Redbird]

I can think of 2 other SS who moved to 3B (one is in the Hall,...

My recollection is that he started out as a 3rd baseman, moved to shortstop until the O's had the opportunity to acquire a better one, then moved back to 3rd base.

... one will be).

Unless the BBWAA voters get themselves worked up into a tizzy over his steroids use. Where are they going to draw the line? McGwire? Palmeiro? Bonds? Manny? A-Rod? Clemens?

The common excuse is that "He was already a HOFer before he used the steroids", but no one really knows that. Baseball players have been using steroids to improve their performance, with varying success, since the sixties. Some of them have simply responded better to the steroids, or had access to better, scientifically developed doping schedules, which is why their careers took off. There's nothing which says that a player who flunked a steroids test in 2003 wasn't using steroids since he was in high school. In fact, that allegation has been made about A-Rod. Since we don't know the writer's sources, we don't know how credible the allegation was.

This is why the steroids issue won't go away; it can't go away. We're going to be discussing the merits of players who used steroids, or who might have used steroids, forever. The next big thing will be fast twitch versions of Aicar, the "marathon mouse" drug. Aicar increases the concentration of mitochondria in muscle tissue, converting it into slow twitch muscle that's best for endurance events. It's being held off the market pending human trials and development of tests so that regulatory bodies can prevent athletes from using it. There will be other performance enhancing drugs, not to mention genetic alterations to produce "super athletes".

[TGO]

My recollection is that he started out as a 3rd baseman, moved to shortstop until the O's had the opportunity to acquire a better one, then moved back to 3rd base.

This is sort of close but not correct. He played SS through his entire prime, 2302 games vs 675 at 3rd (76 in 81/82 and the rest after he turned 35). He was consistently an above average SS in the field and a much better fielder than Hanley Ramirez.

[Mackus]

Miguel Cabrera, Hanley Ramirez, Evan Longoria, Matt Wieters, and Justin Upton would be my top 5 I think.