There are a lot of baseball fans who take great umbrage at the designated hitter. I’ve never been one of those fans; I like that the National League and American League have at least one defining characteristic. In fact, I’d advocate that the AL and NL should have more difference. How about we put a kibosh on one-batter relief appearances in the NL? And what about doing away with the intentional walk in the AL?
Anyway, this article isn’t about the designated hitter. It’s about a designated hitter, Edgar Martinez, and whether or not he should be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.
Let’s start this discussion with a few questions:
1. Should designated hitters be elected to the Hall of Fame?
There is a strong bias against designated hitters because designated hitters do not play a defensive position. Taking two players of equal offensive output; the general perception is that a bad defensive first basemen has more value than a designated hitter.
To my mind, it’s a silly bias: Edgar Martinez was a fine hitter and a lousy defender. The Hall of Fame has a few players who were like that. Harmon Killebrew fits that profile: he was a great hitter, but a lousy defensive player. Rogers Hornsby was, too. Ted Williams.
The difference between Martinez and those other guys is contextual: Martinez played in a league that happened to have a place for all-hit, no-field players. He didn’t invent the designated hitter; he was just happened to fit the job description. Had a National League team signed Martinez, he would have been a very bad corner infielder.
Should designated hitters be elected to the Hall of Fame? Of course they should be. Keeping a deserving player out of the Hall of Fame strictly on the basis of his position on (or off) the diamond would set a bad precedent.
2. Where should we set the standards for a designated hitter being elected to the Hall of Fame?
There’s the tricky question. There are no designated hitters in the Hall of Fame, so there isn’t a standard for designated hitters being elected to the Hall of Fame. We need to set the standard elsewhere.
This shouldn’t be too hard: after all, we already make adjustments based on defensive position: Tony Lazzeri, a second basemen, hit .292 during his career with 178 homeruns. John Olerud, a first basemen, hit .299 with 186 homeruns. Lazzeri is in the Hall, Olerud isn’t.
Even among great defensive players, we make adjustments: Ozzie Smith, who many consider the greatest defensive shortstop to ever play the position, is in the Hall of Fame. But Keith Hernandez, perhaps the greatest defensive first basemen to play the position, is not in the Hall of Fame, despite better offensive statistics than Ozzie Smith.
It seems to me that, as designated hitters get no extra credit for defense, a designated hitter would have to be an historically elite offensive player to gain entrance into the Hall of Fame.
3. So where does Edgar Martinez rank among the elite hitters in the game’s history?
Well…there are 150 hitters in the baseball Hall of Fame. Let’s start by asking where Edgar ranks among those 150 in important offensive catagories?
-His career batting average, .312, ranks him 55th among the Hall of Famers, along with Johnny Mize, Joe Sewell, and Fred Clarke.
-His career on-base percentage of .418 would rank him 14th among Hall-of-Famers, between Mickey Cochrane and Stan Musial. Let’s repeat that: Martinez is ahead of Stan Musial.
-His slugging percentage is .515. which ties him with Willie McCovey for 16th among all Hall-of-Fame hitters.
-His Adjusted OPS is 147, which ties him with Mike Schmidt, Willie McCovey, and Willie Stargell for 25th among the Hall of Famer hitters.
Another route: let’s pick some elite Hall-of-Fame hitters, and how Edgar does against them. To narrow things down a little, we’ll go with six truly great hitters who played leftfield/first base. And we’ll narrow it to players who had careers similar in length to Edgar Martinez.
Six players: Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Johnny Mize, Hank Greenberg, Willie McCovey, and Willie Stargell. Anyone doubt they were great hitters? Hall-of-Fame hitters?
No? Okay…how does Edgar do? Let’s look at some funky stats: Adjusted OPS (on-base plus slugging, adjusted for park and league contexts), Runs Created Per Game (RC/G), and Offensive Win Percentage (Own%), which measures the percentage of game a team of Edgar Martinez’s would do, given a neutral defense and pitching staff.
|
G
|
OPS+
|
RC/G
|
OWn%
|
Lou Gehrig
|
2164
|
179
|
10.8
|
.803
|
Jimmie Foxx
|
2317
|
163
|
10.0
|
.780
|
Johnny Mize
|
1884
|
158
|
8.4
|
.766
|
H. Greenberg
|
1394
|
158
|
9.3
|
.762
|
W. McCovey
|
2588
|
147
|
7.0
|
.718
|
W. Stargell
|
2360
|
147
|
7.0
|
.717
|
E. Martinez
|
2055
|
147
|
8.3
|
.712
|
Martinez is tied with Stargell and McCovey in OPS+. He is ahead of Stargell and McCovey in Runs Created per Game, mostly because RC/G doesn’t take into account league contexts. He ranks last in Offensive Win Percentage.
Now: showing Edgar doing badly against a few Hall-of-Famers is probably not the best way to advocate for his enshrinement. But take a look at those names again: Foxx, Gehrig, Mize, Greenberg, McCovey, and Stargell.
Edgar Martinez holds his own against those guys. He probably wasn’t a better hitter than those players, but he was damned close. He was one of the elite hitters in the history of the game.
Okay: one more…Edgar had a career batting average over .300. He had a career on-base percentage over .400. He had a slugging average over .500. How many players in history have had a slash line of .300/.400/.500?
.300/.400/.500 Club Members
|
Babe Ruth
|
Ted Williams
|
Lou Gehrig
|
Rogers Hornsby
|
Ty Cobb
|
Jimmie Foxx
|
Stan Musial
|
Frank Thomas
|
Manny Ramirez
|
Mel Ott
|
Harry Heilmann
|
Chipper Jones
|
Todd Helton
|
Larry Walker
|
Edgar Martinez
|
Good company, eh?
4. Is Edgar a Hall of Famer?
I think so, yes. Sorry to make such an abrupt close, but I have to wrap this up, as the actual Hall of Fame voting results will be announced tomorrow.
Remember to cast your ballots under the ‘comments’ section of my article, “The 2010 BJOL HOF Ballot.” I’ll tally the votes on Friday and announce who the BJOL readers elected sometime this weekend.
Dave Fleming is a writer living in Chicago, IL, where he is proud to call himself one of “the stat geeks, those get-a-lifers who are sucking all the joy out of our national pastime.” He welcomes comments, questions, and snarky put-downs from Boston Globe writers both here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com