Murphy also has a career 46.5 WAR to Kingman's 17.3 WAR.
Printable View
Are MLB voters as shady and vindictive as some NFL HOF voters have historically shown?
One thing to remember too, it's not just about offense. Murph was an elite defender with a cannon arm. He was one of the best outfielders in the game for almost a decade.
I'm saying that we don't give equal credit sometimes based on some pretty arbitrary measures, that get thrown out the window when the voters want them to be.
If you had asked me in 1990 who I thought would be a HOF lock of 1990s pitchers who still had years left I would have said Brett Saberhagen and Doc Gooden. Sabes was 92-55 with a CY in 7 seasons - and was only 26. He played for 9 more season, but was injured in 5 of them and pitched sparingly. Doc was 119-40, with 4 AS games, ROY, and a CY in 7 seasons and was only 25. We all know what happened to Doc. So, Saberhagen and Gooden - who were arguably the best pitchers in baseball from 1984 - 1990 gets penalized for trying to fight through injuries and drugs to have a long careers while Koufax is regarded as one of the best ever.
Say Koufax had gotten surgery for arthritis (which were probably bone spurs), and comes back and fights through 4-5 more years and is basically a .500 pitcher over 80 starts and ends up 195-127 (almost identical to Doc's 194-112). Is Koufax a HOF?
5 Gold Gloves, 3 seasons of top 10 in putouts as CF, 6 seasons top 10 putouts as RF(led league 3 times), 6 seasons top 10 in assists as CF(led league once), 2 seasons top 10 in assists as RF(led league once), 4 seasons top 10 in Fielding Percentage as CF, 4 seasons top 10 fielding percentage as RF, 66th in career putouts as an OF.
I'm sorry but that's not a below average outfielder.