Mark McGwire and the 2007 HOF

[Bonny]

I hate the McGwire/Canseco era of the A's by the way.

[Stock]

I hate the McGwire/Canseco era of the A's by the way.

That might be my favorite era growing up.
This was the same time as the Yount/Molitor era for the Brew Crew.

[Bonny]

The Royals spent a lot of money and had great teams on paper, but always finished behind the A's. Im talking late 80's early 90's.


They had some great games though.

[BeefMaster]

Raines willl never get in and that's extremely shitty.  I think he was nearly as good as Rickey Rickey.

In Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups, he points out that Raines was the second-best leadoff man of all-time (behind Rickey Henderson), probably the best player in the NL during '85-'86, and should be a Hall of Famer.  He also says that he doesn't think he'll ever make it, because the voters don't realize the value of walks and won't notice him because he was always in Rickey's shadow as a leadoff hitter.

[Bonny]

You also hear people calling Raines a "compiler". Dude owned the 80's and was a solid player thru most of the 90's

He should be in.

[ultimate7]

He stole over 800 bases at an 85% rate, career OBP of .385, reached base just short of 4000 times in his career (2600+ hits, 1300+ walks) and scored over 1500 runs.  He should be in, not first ballot, but maybe in 5 years.

[Bonny]

Montreal guys get screwd by voters.

[fknmclane]

Raines willl never get in and that's extremely shitty.  I think he was nearly as good as Rickey Rickey.

In Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups, he points out that Raines was the second-best leadoff man of all-time (behind Rickey Henderson), probably the best player in the NL during '85-'86, and should be a Hall of Famer.  He also says that he doesn't think he'll ever make it, because the voters don't realize the value of walks and won't notice him because he was always in Rickey's shadow as a leadoff hitter.

Thanks for confirming that like Rob Neyer, I'm very smart.

[Dryden]

Raines should be an absolute mortal-lock hall of famer.  He'll be lucky if he even comes close to getting in, though.

[fknmclane]

Raines should be an absolute mortal-lock hall of famer.  He'll be lucky if he even comes close to getting in, though.

That's so fucked up.  I guess he should have hit a homer to win the Series or something.

[Metal King]

Raines has the numbers,  we'll see.  I say yes.  Might depend on who is up for election that year.

I also have Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups.  It's so cool.  I emailed him and asked if a Big Book Part II is coming in the near future, but he said around 2009 or 2010 he's gonna consider doing another one.

I love the Iron Glove section, LOL it's so funny to read.

[Dryden]

Raines' problem is he did a lot of things well that aren't well appreciated - he was a good fielder, stole a ton of bases at a very high success rate (but not as many as Rickey), walked a ton (but not as much as Rickey), got on base a ton (but not as much as Rickey), had a bit of power (but not as much as Rickey) and scored a lot of runs (which HOF voters have never appreciated).  And he has the whole cocaine thing working against him.

He's clearly one of the best leadoff hitters ever, but he's been so totally overshadowed by playing in Montreal most of his career and by Rickey, no one really appreciates what he brought to the table.  It will almost certainly take years for his candidacy to pick up any kind of momentum at all.