Fred McGriff Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com

Does Fred McGriff belong in the Hall of Fame?

Yes, I think he must. Three of these are solid Hall of Famers, the other is McGriff.

• HR RBI Hits OBP SLG OPS
  
• 512 1453 2315 .376 .509 .885
  
• 493 1550 2450 .377 .509 .886
  
• 521 1555 2211 .374 .515 .889
  
• 475 1540 2232 .360 .529 .889
  

As you can see, their stats are indistinguishable. And the other guys are not marginal HOF candidates like Jim Bottomley or Highpockets Kelly. They are Willie McCovey, Ed Mathews, and Willie Stargell.

The top two listed in the chart above are McGriff and Mathews, and they are the same guy except that one played third base, the other first. That makes no difference in this case. Ed Mathews did not win games with his glove, so defensive value is not a significant issue if the two men are compared directly. Furthermore, McGriff performed well in the post-season, with 10 homers, 37 RBI and a lifetime .303 batting average. In the World Series, he hit four homers in only 43 at-bats. In contrast, Mathews had only one Series homer (albeit a big one!) in 1957, bombed out completely in 1958 (4-for-25, no homers, 11 ks), and ended up hitting only .200 overall in post-season competition.

It seems to me that McGriff is a Hall of Famer when you look at his career objectively and see whose careers were similar, and yet there's that nagging lack of black ink. The Crime Dog never did anything spectacular. For about 15 years, he showed up every year and had essentially the same year as the year before. He hit 30 homers and knocked in 100 runs every friggin year, but he never hit more than 37 or knocked in more than 107. He was a good teammate, and a gentleman. Will the voters recognize a guy who came out and did his job well for 15 years, but never made any big headlines?

Stay tuned.

Here is one voter's case for McGriff. Here is a rebuttal.