Dave Parker: Hall of Fame afterthought

FILE - In this July 17, 1979, file photo, National League’s Dave Parker of the Pittsburgh Pirates holds the trophy after winning the MVP award in baseball’s All Star Game in Seattle. Parker might have been baseball’s best player in the late 1970s. Once on the fast track to Cooperstown, his career was derailed by a cocaine scandal. Now that one-time rival Jim Rice is in the Hall of Fame, Parker thinks it may hasten his own induction. (AP Photo/File)

AP

Buster Olney doesn’t actually endorse Dave Parker’s Hall of Fame candidacy, but he does throw out a morsel to chew on, courtesy of the ESPN stats department:

If you go on the idea of a player being a dominant player in his era being an important qualification: Dave Parker finished in the top five of the MVP voting five times. That may not qualify as prolonged dominance, but it’s still impressive. Twenty three players have ranked in the top five of the MVP voting at least five times.

Of those 23 players, Barry Bonds (12 times), Albert Pujols (8 times), Frank Thomas (7 times), Alex Rodriguez (6 times), David Ortiz (5 times), Ken Griffey Jr. (5 times) and Pete Rose (5 times) are not currently eligible for the Hall of Fame. Of the other 16 players, 15 of them are in the Hall of Fame.

Interesting, but such a standalone stat approaches meaningless. Parker played for a team that won a lot during his prime, so his MVP vote numbers are going to be higher than many other players to begin with. And while MVP votes are nice, they could simply be a function of Parker being overrated. One of those top five finishes was 1986 when he had an .807 OPS. The votes were no doubt due to his RBI total, which was a function of Eric Davis and Buddy Bell hitting in front of Parker most of the year, getting on base at an excellent clip.

While Parker’s prime was nice, it was short, and then drugs and weight problems blew up most of the rest of his career. If that hadn’t happened, sure, we’d be having a different conversation right now. But it did, and as a result, Parker had less overall career value than Jim Rice did, and Jim Rice shouldn’t have made the Hall of Fame himself.

Whether the writers’ failure to come anywhere near electing Parker is an appreciation of Parker’s less-than-compelling Hall of Fame case or, alternatively, punishment for Parker’s getting caught up in the cocaine trials of the 1980s is an open, though, probably irrelevant question.