Under the Radar: Mike Griffin

[Rad_Hazard]

This is not a HOF debate post at all, but more of one highlighting a player that a lot of people probably haven't heard of.

Mike Griffin had a .296 avg, with some incredible power numbers to go along with one of the most impressive gloves (CF) according to his stats.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...riffmi01.shtml

It appears that if not due to a contract dispute, Griffin would have had a longer career and a shot at some impressive career totals. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/mike-griffin-2/

A couple of defensive stats that jump off the page are:

.956 Career Fielding % compared to a League Average of .916 for the rest of the league

2.64 Range Factor per 9 compared to a League Average of 2.12

2.56 Range Factor per Game compared to a League Average of 2.06

[SteveMitchell]

Rad_Hazard's partial listing of Mike Griffin's record raises a question in my mind: Why is so little known about this fellow? I went to Baseball-Reference.com to check out a bio and there's nothing but an invitation to write one! Mike Griffin batted, in order, .357, .332, .308, .317 and .300 for his last five seasons while serving as a regular Brooklyn gardener. In a dozen years of MLB play, Griffin never played in fewer than 95 games. (He scored 1406 runs in those 12 seasons!) I wonder what the rest of his story entails?

[z28jd]

One of his relatives was pushing for him for the Hall of Fame for many years. I used to get random emails from him with any story he could get printed. I know he helped get him elected to the Utica Sports Hall of Fame

[Beercan collector]

Baseball reference has that 162 game average (certainly not an accurate way to rate players ) but 151 runs in 162 games average is nuts

[z28jd]

Should have posted this before

[Rad_Hazard]

Originally Posted by SteveMitchell

Rad_Hazard's partial listing of Mike Griffin's record raises a question in my mind: Why is so little known about this fellow? I went to Baseball-Reference.com to check out a bio and there's nothing but an invitation to write one! Mike Griffin batted, in order, .357, .332, .308, .317 and .300 for his last five seasons while serving as a regular Brooklyn gardener. In a dozen years of MLB play, Griffin never played in fewer than 95 games. (He scored 1406 runs in those 12 seasons!) I wonder what the rest of his story entails?

His SABR bio I posted has a lot of info: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/mike-griffin-2/

His numbers are pretty insane, but his defensive stats really jumped off the page for me. With the amount of production and the length of his career, his stats read kind of like a 19th century Albert Belle (adjusted for power of course).