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Cowtipper
06-12-2009, 10:39 AM
A first baseman, Jack Fournier played from 1912 to 1927, hitting .313 with an OPS+ of 142. He also had 136 home runs and 145 stolen bases in his fairly long career.

Fournier's black ink is nowhere near that of an average Hall of Famer's, however his grey ink is pretty close (136). Nevertheless, Fournier led the league in slugging percentage once, games once, home runs once, BB once, runs created once, HBP three times, power-speed number once and AB/HR twice.

Statistically, he is similar to one Hall of Famer - George Kelly, and that's not much to brag about. The other players he is similar to are Irish Meusel, George McQuinn, Sean Casey, Bill White, Baby Doll Jacobson, Bob Meusel, Frank McCormick, Pedro Guerrero and Ken Williams.

The Baseball Page ranks him as the 41st best first baseman of all time, and Bill James ranks him as the 35th best first baseman of all time.

So, do you think Jack Fournier should be in the Hall of Fame?

Freakshow
06-12-2009, 11:44 AM
Good discussion of Fournier's case can be found in the thread The BBF HOF Forum Collaboration Game – Game On! (http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=81709&page=75), from post #2970 to #2993.

SABR Matt
06-12-2009, 12:13 PM
It wasn't just bunts...he was a horrible fielder in general. Good hitter, but this was during a time when infield defense was more important and he was not a good glove at all. And there are a lot of great first basemen around...

Maybe he'd have a case if he were dominating the league when he did play...and you could argue that his offense should have continued if not for over-valuing of defense...but he was merely "pretty good"...not a dominant bat.

bambambaseball
06-12-2009, 12:52 PM
Maybe. Its hard to say. He did play before his time. In 2000s he could have been Jim Thome. Either way, Im surprised he doesnt already have a thread about him. A very interesting player!

Freakshow
06-12-2009, 02:06 PM
Maybe he'd have a case if he were dominating the league when he did play...and you could argue that his offense should have continued if not for over-valuing of defense...but he was merely "pretty good"...not a dominant bat.Well, he wasn't Cobb or Hornsby, but he was one of his league's top 3 offensive players in 5 seasons, according to Adjusted Batting Wins.

1914 8th
1915 3rd (Cobb, Collins)
1920 6th
1921 2nd (Hornsby)
1923 2nd (Hornsby)
1924 3rd (Hornsby, Wheat)
1925 2nd (Hornsby)