Time to Tackle Some Controversy!

When most voters go to cast their ballots for the Hall of Fame, two major questions usually enter their mind beyond “Should I vote for this guy?” One is obviously “Do I think steroids made this guy a HoF player?”  The other is “Will I vote for a DH?”  A lot of voters believe that if you didn’t play a position then you don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.  A fair statement.  I don’t agree with it for two reasons.  One is that if MLB is going to add a position, you’re going to have greats at that profession and ignoring them isn’t fair for Hall of Fame consideration if you’re great at it.  The other reason I have is that I’d rather have a guy that’s awesome with the stick and not hurt me in the field than a guy who is awesome with the stick and hurt me in the field, a la Derek Jeter.  The hall of fame has no player inducted as a DH for their primary position.  Not a one.  So, how am I going to get around this?  I’m going to average the other offensive positions and take it a little bit lower than that for my baseline.  The average for the offensive positions was 4.3 WAR/yr.  I’m going to take it down to 4 WAR/yr because DH’s do tend to play longer than a few of the positions just due to the nature of the position.  What I’m going to do is look at the prominent DH’s of today and yesterday and see who would make my cut for inductions.  And, I suppose that we should start with the first player any kid from the 90s thinks of when he hears “DH”:

1) Edgar Martinez.  WAR+ of 109, which is a B tier in my rankings.  Why he isn’t in the Hall of Fame when guys like Dawson and Rice got in is a giant sin in terms of baseball history.

Well, who else out there is a DH that could be worthy?  Let's see....

2) Frank Thomas.  WAR+ of 100.  Probably should be looked at as the standard for great DH’s.  Hey, he even has the milestone of 500 HR that writers get all excited about.

3) Jim Thome.  WAR+ of 90.  Please retire Jim.  You’ve been done for the last few years.  I know you love the game, but you’re done.

4) David Ortiz.  WAR+ of 75.  Not yet there and I don’t know if he’ll ever get there.  I don’t know if the writers will take sympathy for him playing for the Sawx, but it’s possible.

That’s everyone on offense.  Next up is the top starter tiers (S and A).  Some big big names are up there, and some are left off.  It’ll be interesting to most people I’m sure.