Atlanta Braves – Fred McGriff
Atlanta Braves fans and writers on this site are split on whether McGriff belongs in the Hall of Fame.
- Last week Mitchell wrote that McGriff was an in-betweener,
- In 2014 and again in 2015, Jeff said Crime Dog should enter the Hall of Fame
I respect Mitchell’s opinion, but in 2013, I wrote this about McGriff.
"Fred McGriff had ten consecutive seasons with 30+ home runs for the Padres and Braves. Pitchers didn’t want to see him at the plate with the game on the line. If he’s not elected, Crime Dog should bite the nonvoters hard and often."
I haven’t changed my mind. Baseball is swimming in numbers, but let’s cut to the chase. During an era when players openly cheated while Bud Selig and others turned a blind eye, McGriff was the most dangerous steroid-free hitter in the game. Tom Verducci sums up the case for Crime Dog better than I can.
Atlanta Braves – Dale Murphy
Two weeks ago, Sam said Dale Murphy isn’t a hall of fame player because he doesn’t measure up to past center fielders already in the Hall.
In many ways, the case for Murph resembles that of McGriff. He gets little credit for winning back-to-back NL MVPs and playing so well for that weren’t always good. From 1978 through 1989, the braves finished higher than fourth place three times. In two of those seasons, Murph was NL MVP; in the third year, he finished ninth in MVP voting.
In 2012 I wrote that Murph wouldn’t be selected and why I felt he should.
"In order to compare him with his peers during that time I ran a search on Baseball-Reference for players with numbers similar to his. Specifically they had to have: Played 50% of at least 1900 games in LF, CF or RF Had an OBP of at least .350 a slugging % of at least .475 and OPS+ of at least 120 The search turned up one name; Dale Murphy."
"My conclusion then and now is that had he played for the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers he would already be in the hall."
The coming ballot is Murph’s last and best chance, but I don’t think he makes it.