Now, I am not referring to guys like Edgar Martinez, who are borderline cases. I am talking about guys who almost never appear in HOF discussions, yet have better cases than you realize at first. Hopefully you will see what I am saying by the time I am finished.

 

Julio Franco: 25 players have collected 3,000 hits, and among those, only Pete Rose has been denied the Hall. Franco recently collected his 2,460th hit, and obviously, he is not going to make 3,000. But Franco did play four seasons in the Mexican and Japanese leagues, where he amassed an additional 602 hits. In 1995, Franco played for the Chiba Lot in Japan. The year before, he hit .319 with Chicago, and the year after he hit .322 with Cleveland. He hit .248 in 1997 before he went to Japan a second time, but that includes a .373 OBP.

 

The argument is this. If Franco had played full time and not traveled abroad, it is likely he could have reached 3,000 hits over his career. He hit .309 last year, so this is not a case of a player playing past his expiration date to seek a milestone. Franco contributes. And it is not a case of a player who MIGHT have been good. Franco was good, he just played elsewhere.

 

Franco's 268 win shares are not going to get him into the Hall. But he was a better player than alot of us remember.

 

Jim Edmonds: At the age of 30, Edmonds had a 124 OPS+, 923 hits, and 163 career home runs. Five years later, and Edmonds has posted a peak equal to that of Ken Griffey Jr., Reggie Jackson or Roberto Clemente. Plus he has won a gold glove each of the last five seasons. Edmonds is perhaps a season or two away from knocking on the door of the Hall.

 

That's all I've got so far, but I wanted to post it while it was still in my head.

Why didn't Franco get signed every year in MLB? Did Japan/Mexico offer him more?

 

Edmonds, World Series performance notwithstanding (although I always like whe players grossly underperform against the Sox) is a great player. I love watching him play.