I was tempted to rate McGriff ahead of Anson and Connors but noticed that Anson and Conners were much better in WAR. Since I used Win Shares more, I decided to just use my results. As close as these guys are it can go either way.
I didn’t remember McGriff being a good hitter in post season, but actually his postseason stats are better than his regular season stats.
McGriff had some mistiming in his career. While other players homerun totals went up because of some help from their friends, McGriff homeruns followed a normal career path as he was clean. However, since a lot of people got better his analytical stats like WAR and Win Shares were hurt. The amazing this was he still made my Hall of Fame.
After a few years in Atlanta was sold by the Braves to Tampa Bay. In part it was because he was going to be 35 years old in the 1998 season. The Braves were winning their division every year. Tampa Bay was an expansion team. The quiet McGriff even got less coverage. The interesting thing was the Brave replaced McGriff with Andres Galarrage who was older, but was still hitting the ball very well, Hum.
One thing about McGriff that is interesting while a lot of players walk more when they are older, McGriff had his best season for walks at age 25 and his second best at age 27.
