
According to John Franco, he should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In an interview this past weekend with WFAN in New York City, Franco was asked about his Cooperstown omission and had quite a bit to say on the topic: “I’m still trying to figure it out myself, too. It is what it is. Writers at the time … guess they felt the save statistic wasn’t that important. The game has changed from early 90s to present where relief pitchers more important and part of that strategy of the game. It is what it is. My numbers are just as good as anybody in the Hall of Fame. Mariano’s off the chart, obviously, and Trevor Hoffman, but [my numbers] are comparable to everyone else in there. The Hall of Fame is supposed to be about numbers…relief pitchers in there have 400-600 saves. The other ones who have been in there a while have 300 saves, obviously that’s a different era. I have 424. In my mind, I think I deserve to be in there, but it’s up to the voters. Longevity, number of games I pitched in, games I finished – I think it was over 1,100 games I played in – my ERA has been really good…these are things that they consider and we’ll just have to see who is on that committee. The thing I like about that is that there are players voting on that, too. That’s probably how the Hall of Fame should be…we’ll have to wait and see what happens but I’m hoping vote goes my way next time.” Franco was on the ballot in 2011 and received 4.6% of the vote, thus failing to meet the 5% to remain on the ballot. The first thing to look at is the year he was on the ballot, 2011. It was a loaded year, and he finished 19thon the ballot, with 11 of them currently inducted. Look at what he was up against: Roberto Alomar, 2nd Year, 90.0%Bert Blyleven, 14th Year, 79.7%Barry Larkin, 2nd Year, 62.1%Jack Morris, 12th Year, 53.5%Lee Smith, 9th Year, 45.3%Jeff Bagwell, 1st Year, 41.7%Tim Raines, 4th Year, 37.5%Edgar Martinez, 2nd Year, 32.9%Alan Trammell, 10th Year, 24.3%Larry Walker, 1st Year, 20.3%Mark McGwire, 5th Year, 19.8%Fred McGriff, 2nd Year, 17.9%Dave Parker, 15th Year, 15.3%Don Mattingly, 11th Year, 13.6%Dale Murphy, 13th Year, 12.6%Rafael Palmeiro, 1st Year, 11.0%Juan Gonzalez, 1st Year, 5.2%Harold Baines, 5th Year, 4.8% The first reaction is that it is possible that some Hall of Fame voters left Franco off of their ballot, as he…
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