Blue Jays on the Ballot: Dave Parker
While most of the Hall Of Fame talk this winter has focused on the Baseball Writers of America Association Ballot, there is another, second ballot, which a former Blue Jay finds himself on, that could provide plenty of intrigue.
Dave Parker had already had a long a successful career by the time he joined the Toronto Blue Jays in the summer of 1991. He was in his last season and, after being released by California Angels, was signed by Toronto as insurance for the Pennant race.
While Parker only appeared in 13 games for the Bluebirds, he did go 21-36 with four doubles and three RBIs. That was good enough for a .333/.400/.444/ slash line and a 130 OPS+.
While Parker never got more than 28% of the writer's vote during his time on the ballot, the case for his enshrinement has been picking up steam in recent years.
Many analysts feel that Dave Parker's involvement with the Pittsburgh Drug Trials in the 1980s negatively affected his candidacy. Two of Parker's contemporaries - Keith Hernandez and Tim Raines - also had their cases impacted, though Raines was elected on his final try.
The comparison to Raines is an interesting one and his induction is one reason why could soon join him. It's important to point out that while Parker has higher counting stats than Raines, such as hits, home runs, and RBIs, Raines' 69.4 career WAR is miles ahead of Parker's 40.1
Because Parker isn't on the writers' ballot, and rather on the classic era committee ballot, whose voters are made up of former players, managers, and executives, stats like WAR matter less. Like the writer's ballot however, Dave Parker still needs to achieve 75% of the vote for induction. For the special ballot that be 12 out of 16 votes.
It should be noted however, that statistician Bill James ranks Parker at 125 on his Hall of Fame monitor scale. The higher the number above 100, the more likely one is to be elected. Out of the eight players on the ballot, Dave Parker, Tommy John, and Steve Garvey are the most likely to be inducted.
The classic era ballot results will be revealed on December 8th. Whatever the result ends up being, Dave Parker certainly has one of the more interesting and complicated Hall of Fame cases.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 5 | 111 ANSWERS Blue Jays on the Ballot: Dave Parker will Dave Parker get elected | ||
| Yes | 44 | 39.6 % |
| No | 49 | 44.1 % |
| He should be in already | 18 | 16.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
