Edgar Martinez - Hall of Famer?

I was afraid that was what you meant. Please put your desperation to justify his candidacy aside and start thinking. That is a terrible idea.

 

Hector Espino for Baseball Hall of Fame. I mean, look at the numbers he put up over his career in the Mexican League.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Hector_Espino

 

In Martinez's case, he proved he was a great major league hitter three times before they kept him up. That's what makes him unique. The Mariners were sitting on one of the best hitters in baseball for four or five years. If he'd been in the majors, he'd be a clear-cut Hall of Famer to all but the extreme anti-DH camp.

 

You don't know that. You are projecting. Maybe he wouldn't have hit so well those first few seasons. Maybe he would have suffered with injuries. Weren't injuries part of why he ended up becoming a full-time DH so early in his career?

Players need to be be judged based on what they did at the major-league level.

 

I would agree with you if the player was not allowed to play MLB due to discriminatory rules, but the only thing that was keeping Edgar out of the bigs was probably his glove.

 

Egdar was held back by an incompetent front office.
It should not be held against him when Steve Finley and BJ Surhoff have more hits and will never sniff the Hall.
Voters need to get past counting stats at some point.
This is not 1980.

 

Ted Williams spent the seasons when he was 24, 25 and 26 in the military.

Still did pretty well.

 

No, what voters need to do is look at the full range of statistics, rates and counting statistics.

Martinez should not be given credit for things that he did not do. That is exactly what you and Versatile are suggesting, giving him credit for the seasons he didn't get to play. Sorry, but that would be completely unfair. You would be giving him credit for things he didn't earn.

 

Football Hall of Fame gave Gale Sayers credit for counting stats he didn't earn.
He is 122nd on the all-time rushing list.
Behind greats such as Adrian Murell, Sammy Winder, Duce Staley and Antowan Smith.
Yes I know his career was beset by injury.
If you want to be draconian about it- "Tough luck- but you don't have the numbers."
Edgar Martinez has all the peripheral stats you could want.
Maybe the most sabermetric friendly player on the ballot.
But we know the writers don't go for that.

 

I stopped reading at "Football Hall of Fame." Their standards have fuck-all to do with Cooperstown's decisions.

 

No one ever claimed they were the same.
It's dumb to hold hits against a guy when he was an on-base machine.
He reached base 3500+ times in just over 2000 career games.
Listen, the voters shouldn't be allowed to prorate stats.
But nor should they be allowed to sanctify 3000 hits when a guy brought much more than hits to the table.

 

I don't argue with farts.