Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabe
He has no case. A 1B with no power who hit under .300? Would you vote for John Olerud, who was better offensively and 98% defensively? Of course not.
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He has a GREAT case. A five time All Star, a batting champion, an MVP, eleven Gold Gloves, and ist baseman for two different World Championship teams. A little known fact, but he also is the single season and all-time leader in Game Winning RBIs, which is no longer tracked.
With respect to advanced sabermetrics (i.e., JAWS, WAR), the only retired first baseman that ranks higher than him not in the HOF (other than PED users Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGuire) is Todd Helton and that is almost a dead heat. Of the 21 first basemen in the HOF, Hernandez ranks higher than Hank Greenberg, George Sisler, Harmon Killebrew, Jake Beckley, Tony Perez, Orlando Cepeda, Frank Chance. Jim Bottomley, and High Pockets Kelly.
Also, with respect to WAR, Defensive WAR is always being tweaked and as it stands right now, Hernandez gets virtually no credit for his defense. Anyone who watched him play knows his defense saved a lot of runs over the years. It’s possible his WAR will increase as improvements are made to the defensive calculations.
More anecdotally, I watched most of the Mets games from 1983-1987 and I always considered him the most valuable Met based on the eye test.
As for Olerud, he is borderline and I wouldn’t vote for him but there are many worse players in the HOF then him.