clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Hall of Fame Poll: Fred McGriff

I'm biased, but I don't know why Fred McGriff doesn't get more support for the Hall. 493 home runs, 1305 RBI, a 1550 RBI and 1305 walks with a.284/.377/.509 slash line. Fangraphs has him at a 50.5 career WAR.

I really liked him when he was a Jay. When they traded him, and Tony Fernandez to the Padres for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter, I told my friend that we were trading away a future Hall of Famer. 30+ homers, 100 walks a year seemed like a guy that should make the Hall to me.

Fred made 5 All-Star teams and had 3 Silver Sluggers. He was always close to the top of the league in OBP and Slugging. The top 4 players on his Similarity Score list are Willie McCovery, Willie Stargell, Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas.

His problem is that he played in an era where there a number of good first basemen and, of course, when steroids were all around. I don't remember Fred being accused of using PED,

Fred received 17.9% of the BBWAA vote last year, down from 21.5% the year before, so it does look good for his chances. If he had those 7 more homers to get to 500......