Fred McGriff was a very good baseball player–and I think people sometimes forget how good.
McGriff spent 19 seasons in the big leagues and was an above average player for pretty much all of them. His “peak” seasons ran from 1987 through 2002 and during that time he averaged 30 HR with a line of .287/.380/.514. That is good for a 136 OPS+. Also:
- Led the league in HR twice–36 in 1989 and 35 in 1992.
- He was selected to five All-Star teams
- Won three Silver Sluggers
- Rated Top-10 MVP votes six times
- Retired with 493 HR
- Amassed 52.6 WAR in his career, good for 171st all-time.
- JAWS rates him the 31st bets first baseman in history.
That is a nice collection of accolades…but probably not enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. It’s a shame that he could not crack the 500 HR barrier since that would have probably pushed him over the edge.
I was digging on this card for a while. I missed one go for less than $20, which bummed me out. I contacted a collector who had one for sale but was asking twice that and he was willing to come down to a more reasonable number and I pulled the trigger. Glad I did. Its a very nice looking card from a Topps set that I grew up with.