re dave kingman for the hall of fame in article apr news yale edu steve tomassi writes hi baseball fans so what do you say don t you think he deserves it i mean heck if dave winfield ho hum is seriously being considered for it as is lee smith ha then why don t we give dave kingman a chance or darrell evans yeah yeah after the hall of fame takes in them it can take in eddie murray and jeff reardon oh yeah dave winfield marginal player guy didn t hit a lick had negligible power was a crap fielder and had no staying power dave winfield now entering his i believe th big league season is still a damn decent hitter admittedly his defense has slipped a great deal but in his prime he had a powerful arm and great range take a look at the stats i don t know where you even begin to make an argument that winfield and kingman are similar players kingman was a one dimension power hitter he couldn t field he ran like an anvil hit for a low average though if i remember right his obp wasn t that hideous and for those who consider such things important was a absolute primo dick eddie murray yup only the best st baseman of the s i know that mvp votes are conducted by mediots but given that he got jobbed out of the mvp he deserved in it seems that he wasn t overrated by the media lee smith hmmmm this one s actually pretty close he s had a s solid dependable career as a closer despite pitching in some nasty parks wrigley fenway i d have to take a closer look at the stats it s been a while but it seems lee arthur is of hof caliber you do make a legitimate point about the hof credentials of relievers simply racking up a lot of saves doesn t mean a whole hell of a lot if you blow a bunch too simply because minnesota and boston and for a month atlanta used reardon as a closer for longer than he should have been one the equalizer has racked up an impressive number of saves no way should homerman be in the hof imho darrell evans nice career actually a bit underrated kinda like ted simmons imho but not a hof er well in any case i am sick and tired mostly sick of everybody giving hall of fame consideration to players that are by today s standards marginal lemme ask you this who the hell playing the game isn t marginal honestly ozzie smith and robin yount don t belong there they re both shortstops that just hung around for a long time big deal let s be a little more selective huh stop handing out these honors so liberally save them for the guys who really deserve it face it if something now wait a goddamn minute here ozzie smith absolutely redefined the position of shortstop his defense was so good that he s won something along the lines of gold gloves again gold gloves are mediot biased and a good argument could be made that larkin deserved one or two of ozzie s more recent awards but usually this is tempered by someone else in the early s getting the gold gloves ozzie deserved earlier in his career ozzie s offense you ask good obp great speed numbers in a park which for most of his career depressed offense admittedly no power cept against tom niedenfuer but still a definite asset offensively yount hits mvp at two different positions uh huh a real stiff his was one of the great years ever by a player in recent memory and probably ranks behind only the peak seasons of wagner and banks as far as ss numbers go he s a clear hof er imho isn t done there will be little prestige in the hall of fame anymore when certain individuals believe that steve garvey or jack morris are potential candidates the absurdity is apparent gee can these guys even compare to the more likely future hall of famers like kirby puckett or nolan ryan well as far as garvey goes you re right garvey is a mediot candidate pushed because of his winning attitude a minor factor if one at all and his great defense no errors admittedly but the range of a tree stump garvey shouldn t be in the hof skyjack i ve said a lot of nasty things about skyjack in the last year or so but this is mostly in response to mediots and woofers who talk about morris ability to win which is nothing more than morris ability to pitch when toronto to score tons of runs at this point morris is an average pitcher although from his early returns in he may be damned close to done but in all fairness morris was a dominant pitcher in the s for up and down tiger teams while was obviously a great year for detroit the rest of the decade the team was generally in contention but not favorites morris career numbers are quite good and worthy of hof consideration ryan of course but be careful i guarantee you that someone will throw back your earlier logic about yount and smith being shortstops who hung around a long time after all nolan never won a cy damn he s just pitcher who hung around for years his w l record is mediocre of course nolan s a hof er puck probably although he s got to play reasonably well for a few more years years even good ones aren t enough to make the hof most likely that said i believe puckett will make the hof pretty much regardless of how the rest of his career turns out barring something really tragic or sudden he s very popular in the media and with fans and legitimately has been one of the best cf s in the game since he joined the league i ve always liked the guy and i hope he does make it and in the end i think the puck will make it in but really it s too early to sell this debate comes up rather frequently on the net and believe it or not i never tire of it it s an interesting subject here s an off the top of my head list of potential hof ers from each team i probably left a couple of guys off so feel free to follow up i won t consider anyone who started playing after about again too early to tell note these are all active players i m not counting recent retirees baltimore cal ripken should be a lock by now even if gehrig s record stands boston roger clemens might be a lock already which is amazing dawson detroit alan trammell and lou whitaker possibilities milwaukee robin yount discussed earlier new york wade boggs possibly mattingly long shot toronto paul molitor and jack morris possibilities kansas city george brett lock minnesota kirby too early to tell winfield lock oakland eckersley lock mcgwire too early rickey lock welch long shot texas the mighty nolan too early to consider canseco or strange cubs sandberg lock st louis ozzie lock lee smith probably new york murray almost a lock saberhagen obviously he s got to regain past form and most certainly not vince coleman despite what he ll tell you los angeles butler strawberry and hershiser are all long shots san diego tony gwynn pretty good shot colorado dale murphy a good shot ryan bowen just to see if you re awake before i get flames this is an off the top of the head list there s probably a few deserving candidates that i left off and i didn t include barry bonds will clark any atlanta starting pitcher frank thomas canseco mcgriff etc because i only considered guys who started playing before e mail or post i almost fear what i may have started here bruce hasch hasch jhuvms hcf jhu edu sell the team eli if a hitter is a good fastball hitter does that mean i should throw him a bad fastball larry andersen
