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Burt Blyleven is officially in the HOF


Rabbethan

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He was in the top 10 for BA 6 times, the top ten OBP twice, SLG 8 times (leading twice), OPS 6 times (leading twice). He led the league in HRs and RBIs in various years and won the MVP. He had a career .854 OPS.

 

Jim Rice drastically fell off after 33 years old but he had a Hall of Fame run of 12 seasons or so. There are actually stupid choices in the HoF, Rice just isn't one of them.

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He was in the top 10 for BA 6 times, the top ten OBP twice, SLG 8 times (leading twice), OPS 6 times (leading twice). He led the league in HRs and RBIs in various years and won the MVP. He had a career .854 OPS.

 

Jim Rice drastically fell off after 33 years old but he had a Hall of Fame run of 12 seasons or so. There are actually stupid choices in the HoF, Rice just isn't one of them.

 

He had 4 seasons that were HOF worthy and several that were very good.

 

I'd say that makes him borderline, but not a HOFer. You can tout the accomplishments of virtually any player, but in the end he still falls short.

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He was in the top 10 for BA 6 times, the top ten OBP twice, SLG 8 times (leading twice), OPS 6 times (leading twice). He led the league in HRs and RBIs in various years and won the MVP. He had a career .854 OPS.

 

Jim Rice drastically fell off after 33 years old but he had a Hall of Fame run of 12 seasons or so. There are actually stupid choices in the HoF, Rice just isn't one of them.

 

Jim Rice has the 31st best OPS+ of any LFer, just behind Moises Alou. He had the 70th best OBP, just behind Bob Bescher. And those guys didn't get to be a right handed hitter at Fenway (he only hit .277/.330/.459 away from Boston). He only had 4 or 5 really special seasons and he didn't play for all that long. Unless you're a special case (going off to war or coming to the US at 27), that's just not enough to be a solid HOFer.

 

And it's not worth mentioning that he was a butcher even for a LFer manning some of the smallest LF real estate in the game.

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We used to debate Rice's status here all the time before he was inducted.

 

Rice is probably the most questionable inductee of the last 10 years or so. I still contend that if he weren't a career Red Sox player, he wouldn't have gotten in.

 

For two reasons, one being the media market and one being the monster.

 

Though I think that he wouldn't have been in the HOF if he was a Yankee. He owes so much to that big green wall.

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The past few years there have being some questionable inductees. Below are the positions players voted in by the writers going back to 2000. The first number is their runs above replacement (excluding the fielding component *) and the second number is the first number divided per PA.

 

Henderson - 1038 / 0.078 - No Doubt HoF

Boggs - 776 / 0.072 - No Doubt HoF

Molitor - 730 / 0.060 - No Doubt HoF

Ripken - 711 / 0.055 - No Doubt HoF

Alomar - 670 / .064 - No Doubt HoF

Windfield - 652 / 0.053 - HoF but Debatable

Gwynn - 648 / 0.063 - No Doubt HoF

Fisk - 628 / 0.064 - No Doubt HoF

Murray - 582 / 0.045 - No Doubt Not HoF

Carter - 536 / 0.059 - HoF but Debatable

Sandberg - 531 / 0.057 - HoF but Debatable

Dawson - 468 / 0.043 - No Doubt Not HoF

Perez - 465 / 0.043 - No Doubt Not HoF

Puckett - 459 / 0.059 - No Doubt Not HoF

Ozzie - 410 / 0.038 - No Doubt HoF Because of his Defense

Rice - 380 / 0.042 - No Doubt Not HoF

 

(*) I left fielding out of the runs above replacement not because I think it's not important but because there's no GOOD way to measure it. For example Rice was described as a butcher but according to his WAR his defense was 24 runs ABOVE replacement.

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I think it's best to look at the entirety of a guy's career rather than what he did in certain years so I would need to see he did up to and after 34. To me being a hall of famer is about accumulating very good / elite numbers over an extended period of time.

 

A player that was once "very good" who becomes "mediocre" and hangs around will continue to accumulate numbers (runs above replacement) but his rate (runs above replacement / PA) will decrease.

 

Eddie Murray is a good example.

 

Up to 34 - 543 / 0.060

After 34 - 41 / 0.011

 

If he retired at 34 he would in the HoF but debatable bucket. However, after 34, he had 3,692 PAs in which he was a "bad" player. His OPS+ was 103. The OPS+ of 1B is about 120. I think his poor play over those 3,692 PAs should be held against him.

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See, If I look at a man that should be in the Hall of Fame after 15 seasons, and then he is valuable enough to hang around in the average level for another 6-7 seasons, I don't think the 6-7 hang around seasons should negatively impact his canidacy. Tony Perez and Eddie Murray are clear examples of that, and perhaps Dawson as well.

 

Let look at Pujols right now. Lets say he has 2 more seasons where he can do what he is doing. But he has another 10 season where he is basically Todd Zeille. Should he "lose" his HOF cred?

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See, If I look at a man that should be in the Hall of Fame after 15 seasons, and then he is valuable enough to hang around in the average level for another 6-7 seasons, I don't think the 6-7 hang around seasons should negatively impact his canidacy. Tony Perez and Eddie Murray are clear examples of that, and perhaps Dawson as well.

 

Let look at Pujols right now. Lets say he has 2 more seasons where he can do what he is doing. But he has another 10 season where he is basically Todd Zeille. Should he "lose" his HOF cred?

 

I agree with the underlined but the thing is in the downside of their careers Murray and Perez were not "average" players. From 1991-1997 Murray was 71 runs below the "average" player. From 1979-1986 Perez was 61 runs below the "average" player. Both were bad players their last few years. Had Murray being "average" from 1991-1997 then he would be HoF worthy. I'm not sure about Perez.

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See, If I look at a man that should be in the Hall of Fame after 15 seasons, and then he is valuable enough to hang around in the average level for another 6-7 seasons, I don't think the 6-7 hang around seasons should negatively impact his canidacy. Tony Perez and Eddie Murray are clear examples of that, and perhaps Dawson as well.

 

Let look at Pujols right now. Lets say he has 2 more seasons where he can do what he is doing. But he has another 10 season where he is basically Todd Zeille. Should he "lose" his HOF cred?

 

I agree with the underlined but the thing is in the downside of their careers Murray and Perez were not "average" players. From 1991-1997 Murray was 71 runs below the "average" player. From 1979-1986 Perez was 61 runs below the "average" player. Both were bad players their last few years. Had Murray being "average" from 1991-1997 then he would be HoF worthy. I'm not sure about Perez.

 

Perez was a bench player for his last 6 years. He was questionable to begin with, but mostly because the Reds acquired Morgan, which bumped Perez off of 3rd. As a 1B his numbers were unremarkable. But Murray on the other hand:

 

Steady Eddie's similar batters:

 

 

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