Darowski: Bobby Grich’s Hall of Fame case
From Adam Darowski at Hall of Stats on May 21, 2015:
One of my favorite parts of being a SABR member is all the great baseball talk over email. Today, I was emailing with a SABR member who recently interviewed John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball. He asked Thorn for some 20th century players who belong in the Hall of Fame. Thorn mentioned Bobby Grich, among others. This SABR member couldn’t see it.
I said:
Yep, Hall Rating has Grich as one of the very best outside the Hall.
- 139 Hall Rating (100 is Hall cutoff)
- Ranks 87th all time (among hitters and pitchers)
- Ranks 7th among 2B (with one non-HOFer ahead of him—Lou Whitaker—and THIRTEEN HOF 2Bs behind him)
Totally agree with him on that one.
He replied with the dreaded “WAR doesn’t match my impression of how good a player was, so WAR is therefore flawed” argument, so I did what I had to do. After rattling off some bullet points, I realized this is a pretty good look at how I dig into a (perhaps) questionable WAR figure and see where it comes from (like I did with Rick Reuschel). I figured I’d share it here.
I kept it as is, so the passion in feverishly jotting down bullet points remains.
Read the full article here: http://www.hallofstats.com/articles/bobby-grich-hall-of-fame-case?utm_content=15393387
Originally published: May 22, 2015. Last Updated: May 22, 2015.