When Nick Markakis went down with a broken wrist, Atlanta Braves fans mourned the loss of their veteran leader that could return in September.
While this injury doesn’t mean his career is over, looking at his career we can consider — could he end up in Cooperstown? Before we dig in- this Atlanta Braves fan will go the record as saying I think the Hall of Fame process is incredibly flawed.
To me, there are many people in the HOF that don’t belong, and I’ve always been the kind of guy that thought the HOF was for the no-doubters.
Voting 15 times was crazy to me, and voting 10 times isn’t that much better.
The Veterans committee? It’s baseball’s version of politics. But don’t get me wrong — it’s all political.
Writers shouldn’t vote, either.
The Atlanta Braves outfielder has never been a superstar — let’s make that clear.
In my mind, Hall of Famers typically fall into two categories — players who were dominant for an extended period of time, and players that were above average to excellent for a long period of time. Others call them compilers.
A good example of this would be 2018 inductee Harold Baines, who played 22 seasons and racked up 2,866 hits, 384 home runs, and 1,628 runs batted in. However, his 162 game averages are good, but don’t necessarily point to an all-time great. Baines averaged a .289 average with 23 home runs and 93 RBI.
If Markakis were to make the Hall of Fame, it would be as the latter — an above-average to excellent player that played long enough to reach a nearly untouchable statistical goal.