Just like everything else in baseball these days, there’s a statistic that can tell you whether or not a player has what it takes to be voted into the Hall of Fame.
Gone are the days of arguing that your favorite player has been overlooked, because the “Hall of Fame Monitor” is a pretty good barometer of who’s bound for Cooperstown after retirement and even while they’re playing.
BetKansas.com took a break from Kansas sports betting and utilized Baseball-Reference.com's “Hall of Fame Monitor” stat to see which current players are worthy of Cooperstown. The figure assesses how likely an active player is to make the Hall of Fame. Using its rough scale, 100 means a good possibility and 130 is a virtual cinch and the site explains how it came up with the “Hall of Fame Monitor.”
Most Likely Active Hall of Famers
Kansas sports betting apps list the Royals as +100000 to win the American League Central. Atlanta is the current World Series favorite at +350.
Greinke Back Where He Started
The Kansas City Royals selected Zach Greinke out of Apopka High School in Florida with the sixth overall pick in 2002, he joined the club in 2004 and has compiled a monitor score of 114.
The six-time All-Star won the Cy Young for the Royals in 2009, but since then he’s been traded three times and signed away as a free agent three times. He spent nine of his 20 big league seasons with Kansas City, but he’s played for the Brewers, Angels, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Astros.
Now 39, he’s in his second season back with Kansas City and chasing his 3,000th strikeout. He’s 54 shy of the milestone and battling the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw to be the 20th member of the club. Kershaw has 2,912 strikeouts and at 35 he’s as good as ever at 10-4 with a 2.55 ERA. BetMGM Sportsbook Kansas has the Dodgers as +550 to win the World Series, second to the Braves.
Meanwhile, Greinke is struggling at 1-9 with a 5.44 ERA. Still, he’s 224-150 with a career ERA of 3.48, and the odd thing about it is how much better his numbers were when not in a Royals uniform.
During nine seasons in Kansas City, he’s 65-85 with a 3.92 ERA in 254 games. In those other 11 seasons, he’s 159-65 with a 3.19 ERA in 320 games. He’s pitched in 22 postseason games and all of them have been for those other teams.
If his final career numbers bring him to Cooperstown, he’ll be the first and only other regular Royals player to enter the Hall of Fame besides George Brett in 1999. Three others who only played their final year in Kansas City are in the Hall of Fame – Gaylord Perry, Orlando Cepeda and Harmon Killebrew.
However, it’s hard to answer the question of which logo would be on the Hall of Fame plaque. With a career like he’s had, it’s not hard to imagine his plaque being like Mike Mussina, who was a star for the Orioles and Yankees. His hat bears no logo, but Royals fans would still celebrate his inclusion.
