The most underrated shortstop to ever play the game made it in today.
As a Reds fan it makes me smile. That man was a great player and a greater man.
Go Reds! Congrats to Larkin. Like you said, too underrated.
He deserves it. Wasn't he a switch hitter King?
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Yay for Barry!
Reds fan since the 70's.
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Bitter Clinger. Deal with it.
No...he batted RH.
Underrated? Seriously?
ROY, MVP, 12x All-Star, 3 Gold Gloves, 9x Silver Slugger and now a Hall of Famer.
Exactly what about all that screams "underrated"?
As happy as I am to see Larken get in, I remain disappointed with the voters who only voted for Larry Walker on 22.9% of the ballets.
Congrats to Barry, but the MLB HOF is a crock of shit.
I got mind control while I'm here
You goin' hate me when I'm gone
Ain't no blood clot and no fear
I got hope inside of my bones
I loved Larry too Tinker but I think he only played at a Hall of Fame level for a couple seasons. Injuries killed him.
Counter Arguments:
1. “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”
2. Walker had 86.1 UZR rating in Right field for his career. That is in the top 10 of all of the Right Fielders who ever played the game. Speaking of Coors field, have you seen the cavernous outfield in Coors?
3. *12th among right fielders all time in WAR (73.2)
* Top-25 among all outfielders in wOBA (.414)
* Top-30 among all outfielders in wRC+ (142)
* Top-10 among all outfielders in WPA (48.9) – stat only goes back to 1974.
* Top-20 among all hitters in career OPS (.965)
* Top-75 among all hitters in career OPS+ (140)
I am cherry picking, but this article can sum it up much better than I can:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...-hall-of-fame/
I got mind control while I'm here
You goin' hate me when I'm gone
Ain't no blood clot and no fear
I got hope inside of my bones
All valid points, but he earned those numbers playing in Denver. You can call Coors as cavernous as you want, but I dare anyone to argue that he and guys like Castilla, Gallarraga, etc didnt benefit from the location.
Plus...he's Canadian.
He's in the Canadien Hall of Fame.
The thing is that Castilla, Gallarraga and the rest of the Blake street bombers didn't have the defensive ability that Walker did. If you discount his batting line (.313/.400/.565 which means he was able to still hit pretty damn well outside of Coors) because of LOLCOORZ, then you have to put more weight on his ability to play Right field at Coors.
But you are right, he does have that Canadian thing going against him.
I got mind control while I'm here
You goin' hate me when I'm gone
Ain't no blood clot and no fear
I got hope inside of my bones
At the end of the day, the human element is still involced in HoF voting. If it was based purely on what someone did on the field, then guys like Rose, McGwire, etc would be in. Perfect example. Steve Carlton. Arguably the best LH pitcher to play the game.
But there were MANY writers that stated they might not vote for him when he became eligible. Why? Because after 1973, he decided he wouldnt talk to the media anymore.
So, it's easy to see why people wont vote for Walker. A guy that benefitted from playing in Denver and only played more than 140 games in season 3 times.
Walker has only played about a half of a season games less than your Average Hall of Famer. I'm not saying that Walker's playing time isn't detrimental to his nomination, but its not like there aren't other players in the Hall that have played as much or less than Walker.
No, I don't expect him to get in on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th ballot, but I do expect to see him be on more than a quarter of the ballets.
I got mind control while I'm here
You goin' hate me when I'm gone
Ain't no blood clot and no fear
I got hope inside of my bones
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