SocraticGadfly: Fred McGriff - will Crime Dog take a bite at the Hall of Fame?

January 01, 2013

Fred McGriff - will Crime Dog take a bite at the Hall of Fame?

There's plenty of good candidates, steroid users aside, on this year's Hall of Fame ballot.

Fred McGriff will ot jump past Jeff Bagwell or Tim Raines, whether or not they or Craig Biggio get to 75 percent or not.

Now, what about his eventual chances?

On the plus side, a career OPS+ of 136 is good, solid. More than 1,500 RBIs looks good, too.

But, other sabermetrics undercut him. His oWAR is only a touch above 50, low for a 1B. His WAA is even worse, respectively, less than 20. And his dWAR is horrible. So, his runs by positional scarcity is way in the negative.

So, he's not really deserving.

Plus, as one of those players who played in several different cities in his career, he'll not have a single loyal core of BBWAA writers to support his case. That's part of why Blyleven took so long to get in, and McGriff isn't a big-name broadcaster, unlike Bert.

So, here's the trio:
1. He shouldn't be in the HOF;
2. He definitely won't be this year;
3. He probably won't ever be.

Now, a little background to my Hall of Fame blogging —

I am a "small Hall" guy. In fact, I think there's plenty of people we should vote back OUT of Cooperstown. Here's some pitchers, and some batters, looking just at the modern baseball era, who need the boot.

Oh, and while you're here, please vote in my poll.

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