Edgar Martinez and The Hall

It’s the off season and I got around to thinking about Edgar Martinez out of sheer boredom and the more I look at his numbers the more I think he has got to make it into the Hall of Fame when he comes up for election in 2009. The voting is based on “The player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.” and if you apply these to Edgar’s career there is no reason I can see that should exclude him from the hall.

If we start with playing ability it is evident that he was a great ballplayer. He hit for a career line of .312/.418/.515 and a 147 OPS+. Consider the job of a hitter, what is the most important thing you can do? That would be getting on base and not making an out allowing you to score runs. Taking a look at career OBP numbers Edgar ranks 22nd all-time, that’s right only 21 men were better than him at getting on base. And if you want to take a look at just right handed batters Edgar is 5th, fifth! Only behind Hornsby, Foxx, Helton, Frank Thomas, and Pujols. The first two are in the hall and the last 3 are probably on their way there. Looking at his OPS+(OPS adjusted for both park and league factors.) he is 46th all time, tied with the likes of Willie McCovey, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Schmidt, and Willie Stargell. That is a bunch of pretty good hitters right there, three Hall of Famers and a guy that is obviously going to be. Edgar didn’t play defense all that much, he played 70% of his games at DH, and all of the Hall of Famers I quoted are better than him because of it. But fielding is only one component of being a good ballplayer, just because somebody didn’t play defense does not mean they were not great and Edgar is proof. Look at Paul Molitor, he played more games at DH than any other position and he is in the hall, and if Molitor is there Edgar deserves to be there too.

Now onto the second component, his integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team he played on. Much less important than his playing ability but still a criteria for hall induction Edgar shines here as well. Its 1995 and the M’s are 13 games back of the Angels in the West, and what did Edgar decide to do? He only hit for a line of .398/.560/.786 when things were looking their worst and getting this team on its comeback trail, which was and still is the most improbable comeback in the history of baseball. Then, in the ALDS, Edgar hit’s the most famous double named simply “The Double” for no name could accurately describe the emotion and importance of the moment. In this season which may have saved Mariner baseball as we see it today Edgar’s star burned as bright as anybody’s. His character is also a shining star in the Seattle area. He has made contributions of time, money, and other resources to the Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. Just this year Edgar was elected into a sports hall of fame because of his generous contributions to the community, on June 20, 2007 he was inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in Boise, Idaho.

People may believe that his Humanitarian work means nothing, but even if they do his playing career spoke for itself as one of the most brilliant hitting careers the league has seen and he deservedly belongs in Cooperstown, New York along with the other legends of baseball lore.