The return of Crime Dog

McGriff will eventually get into the hall of fame. While he has only been on one championship team, he hit well in the playoffs and that should count for something.

His Gaylord Perry-esque patchwork of teams played for is going to hold him back for a while.

Personally I don't want him to get in because he was responsible for Atlanta's midseason turnaround in 1993.

He doesn't belong, not that he'd be the worst player in there. How many first basemen / DHs during his career have had better peaks? A ton: McGwire, Bagwell, F Thomas, Palmeiro, Giambi, Helton for starters. Mark Grace (who doesn't belong either) might even have a better career case. McGriff's rate stats aren't even truly All-Star caliber.

The fact that his chances swell when his HR total goes from 491 to 500 when he's washed up shows the silliness of attaching great weight to round numbers in Counting Stats categories.

I'm sure Neyer wrote a good column illustrating this last year, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Even as a fan of Mark Grace, he wasn't nearly as dangerous a hitter as McGriff.

Cecil Fielder also put up better stats in the short run than McGriff.

McGriff was a good player for a long time and I think will eventually get into the hall. He is the Crime Dog, so he has the nickname working for him.

Palmeiro is going to be the player that everyone is going to look back upon and wonder if he was really that good, as he is going to put up some sick stats if he continues to play well into his early 40s.

McGwire will be elegible for the Hall a couple of years before McGriff.

Thomas, Bagwell and Palmeiro will probably be elegible for the hall two to five years after McGriff, if he retires after this season.

With Giambi and Helton it remains to be seen if they are going to be good enough for an extended period to be considered. Helton might play another eight to ten years and Giambi seems to becoming injury prone.

McGriff retires this year, who else will retire after this season that will perhaps be in the same Hall class: Larkin, Clemens?

This is not going to be Clemens' last year unless his arm falls off, or Houston wins the Series.

I can't see any way McGriff will be a first-ballot HOFer, Unless Harold Reynolds is on the Vets Committee?

i can't see clemens walking away while pitching as well as he is right now.

My gut feeling is McGriff = No, Palmeiro = Yes for the HOF, but I wouldn't bet the rent money. Part of that is alumni bias — I went to Mississippi State from '81-'85, and got to see Palmeiro, Will Clark, Jeff Brantley and Bobby Thigpen play.

The thing with Palmiero is that I never even connected his name with HoF until last year when the Rangers starting promoting him with ad campaigns in the vein of "Come out the Ballpark to see future Hall of Famer Rafael Palmiero on his quest for 500". My initial reaction was "Huh? Raffy's no Hall of Famer." I guess the numbers are there, I just don't feel that aura of greatness for Raffy that I get from other HoF caliber players. Not that I don't like him as a player, but I did lose some respect for him last year when he vetoed a trade to the Cubs, declining to help the team that brought him to the majors in their run for a World Series because he and his family were "comfortable" in Texas.

Not that Brent's Respect is any kind of criteria for the Hall of Fame.

I think I read somewhere a few years back that Palmeiro was always a bit mad that the Cubs traded him because they thought he would never hit for power. I guess he proved them wrong.

Chris Kahrl of BP on the McGriff callup:

"Is there anything gained by a return to playing recordball? I guess if the D-Rays had dignity in the first place, they wouldn't have to ask themselves the question, but contributing to McGriff's drunken-sailor stumble towards 500 home runs is about as odious as the lack of opprobrium surrounding Bob Novak's collaboration in an act of treason..."

I'd agree more if the D-Rays had a lot of players that much better than Crime Dog, who isn't gonna knock out 30-35 HR anymore but might have a good half-season left in the creaky tank.

Also, sorry CK, but a baseball player finishing up his career in less-than-stellar fashion is not comparable to Novak, jesus christ!

Sorry, I snipped off Kahrl's qualification:

"OK, it isn't quite *that* odious, but these Devil Rays, they do upset me so."

McGriff is from Tampa and played there for three and a half years when they got started. Criminy some of these people are nutty...McGriff hasn't played that bad the past few years other than last year when he missed about half of last season on the DL. He hit 30 hrs and drove in 103 in 2002 on a cruddy Cubs team.

If I was a GM and had to bet a batting slot on an aging 1b/dh, I'd go for McGriff over Tino Martinez (who also is in Tampa) and Olerud who seemingly has completely lost his bat.

And since the Cub year, McGriff is about .245/.320/.425.

What difference does squeezing the last drops of a vet do when you could be finding out about a young player in his place? What year is Tampa Bay trying to win for, 2028?

Oh they'll be contracted sooner rather than later anyway, let them have their McGriff fun in TB while they still have a team.

Smart McGriff "nay," love the Franklin Pierce analogy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=schwarz_alan&id=1825488

Aside from being at best the 5th-best 1b of his time, do you wanna explain to the grandkids how his nick comes from a PSA cartoon pooch?

I'm afraid people go overboard in damning Fred, whose worst "crime" is that he's not quite good enough. I suppose he's easily comparable to Harold Baines, another player who isn't appreciated enough because he wasn't quite good enough to be an immortal.

Will the Crime Dog return YET AGAIN? He's now tried out for the Yanks, who need someone to pick up the slack at first.

My god, when will the Yankees stop stacking up on offense?!

When they stop letting parasites into the clubhouse, that's when.

what exactly is the difference between the crime dog and tony clark?

McGriff sticks his arse out when he bats.