Paul Konerko: Hall of Famer?

[MankyJimy]

Even Dave Kingman doesn't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Have you asked him or are you just being glib?

 

[sgreenwell]

I enjoy a good HOF debate. Stats guy in our newsroom got me a list of all 1B/DH who are 'contemporaries' of Konerko (within 10 years of age either way). Minimum 175 homers. I ranked them subjectively to see where Konerko falls in:

Albert Pujols
Frank Thomas
Jim Thome
Jeff Bagwell
David Ortiz
Todd Helton
John Olerud
Jason Giambi
Miguel Cabrera
Mo Vaughn
Tim Salmon
Paul Konerko
Ryan Howard
Mark Teixeira
Tino Martinez
Derrek Lee
Adrian Gonzalez
Prince Fielder
Justin Morneau
Mike Sweeney
Joey Votto (doesn't have 175 HRs yet but I added him anyway)
Eric Karros
Travis Hafner
Richie Sexson
JT Snow
Carlos Pena
Tony Clark
Jeff Conine
Aubrey Huff

I have Konerko 12th among 1B/DHs of his era. But, I expect Howard, Teixeira, Gonzalez, Fielder, and Votto will move ahead of him by the time their careers are done. So basically Konerko = 17th best 1B of his era. Not a Hall of Famer

I'm shocked at how high you have Mo Vaughn, however, I like the idea of your approach. One thing I loved about Bill James' old "rank the players in the HoF" books is that you could easily see and read why he picked one guy over another.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Even Dave Kingman doesn't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Have you asked him or are you just being glib?

I understand being open-minded on this, but if Dale Murphy (and many others) can't get an honest hearing anymore then there's no reason a lesser player like Kingman should.

 

[MankyJimy]

I enjoy a good HOF debate. Stats guy in our newsroom got me a list of all 1B/DH who are 'contemporaries' of Konerko (within 10 years of age either way). Minimum 175 homers. I ranked them subjectively to see where Konerko falls in:

Albert Pujols
Frank Thomas
Jim Thome
Jeff Bagwell
David Ortiz
Todd Helton
John Olerud
Jason Giambi
Miguel Cabrera
Mo Vaughn
Tim Salmon
Paul Konerko
Ryan Howard
Mark Teixeira
Tino Martinez
Derrek Lee
Adrian Gonzalez
Prince Fielder
Justin Morneau
Mike Sweeney
Joey Votto (doesn't have 175 HRs yet but I added him anyway)
Eric Karros
Travis Hafner
Richie Sexson
JT Snow
Carlos Pena
Tony Clark
Jeff Conine
Aubrey Huff

I have Konerko 12th among 1B/DHs of his era. But, I expect Howard, Teixeira, Gonzalez, Fielder, and Votto will move ahead of him by the time their careers are done. So basically Konerko = 17th best 1B of his era. Not a Hall of Famer

I'm shocked at how high you have Mo Vaughn, however, I like the idea of your approach. One thing I loved about Bill James' old "rank the players in the HoF" books is that you could easily see and read why he picked one guy over another.

I'm pretty comfortable with the rankings down through Cabrera, after that its harder to rank them. The point was to see just how many players at his position have better HOF cases than Konerko. And there are quite a few

 

[cyclingwriter]

Kingman never finished higher than 11th in MVP voting, was terrible defensively, struck out a lot and led the league in homeruns one year while batting .204....

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Kingman never finished higher than 11th in MVP voting, was terrible defensively, struck out a lot and led the league in homeruns one year while batting .204....

We're so blessed that Kingman was such a douche, sufficiently-so to keep him out of the HOF on humanitarian grounds.

 

[Moose A. Moose]

Even Dave Kingman doesn't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Have you asked him or are you just being glib?

Actually, he said "Rats!"

 

[shockey]

anyone making an argument for kingman in the hof couldn't POSSIBLY have seen him play for any extended period. if you had and would still make an argument for him, well, turn in your baseball acumen card at the door and drive home safely.

he's a guy i can only imagine a youngin' examining his 'numbers' and thinking, 'wow, ya know, this fella really fell through the cracks. what a power hitter in the pre-steroid era!'

forget his personality. who gives a spit? but he rarely came through in the 'clutch,' much too vulnerable to the strikeout, was among the WORST defensive players of his time, was despised by his teammates/was a cancer in the clubhouse.

the guy hit home runs. bravo for him. there wasn't a single other aspect of his game that anyone would dare describe as so much as even 'average.' the man was the very definition of a 'losing' player.

oh, man, would spnited wanted in on this discussion!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Does Susan Fornoff have a HOF vote?

 

[cyclingwriter]

Mi

Does Susan Fornoff have a HOF vote?

Ouch...

Didn't any SJer have a run-in with him as a kid? I vaguely remember something on a thread awhile back that was pretty douchey on Kingman's part.

And Schockey thanks for bringing up lack of "clutch," I remember him being the guy who did absolutely nothing to help a team as well.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Mi

Does Susan Fornoff have a HOF vote?

Ouch...

Didn't any SJer have a run-in with him as a kid? I vaguely remember something on a thread awhile back that was pretty douchey on Kingman's part.

And Schockey thanks for bringing up lack of "clutch," I remember him being the guy who did absolutely nothing to help a team as well.

I will say this. As bad as Kingman sending the rat to Fornoff was, McGwire taking the baseball from the kid and signing the names of a bunch of serial killers was worse.

 

[Moose A. Moose]

And, of course, Kingman and McGwire both entered USC as Pitchers.