Thomas/Molitor vs Martinez/Ortiz

[calsnowskier]

He still had a career high of 155 while having seasons of 42, 89, 97 and 65 (granted, his first "full" season). At an impact-lite position, that is not good. Heck, Posey "rests" while playing 1B...

 

[StanMarsh51]

He still had a career high of 155 while having seasons of 42, 89, 97 and 65 (granted, his first "full" season). At an impact-lite position, that is not good. Heck, Posey "rests" while playing 1B...

In his 65 game season, he really only got playing time at 3B when Jim Presley got hurt. His first full season wasn't until the next year, 1990.

The 89 game season was a strike year.


If you look at him from 1990-2004, he average 131 games per season....and that's with the strike, which probably brings the average in the 135-140 range if you normalize those 2 seasons for 162 games.

In other words, it wasn't as if he was missing 50 games every year.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

In all fairness, he was a September callup in 2 of those seasons where he came up for a cup of tea (maybe a donut or two as well)...should we really hold that against him?

The point I was making, is that he may have played 18 seasons, but he did not play 18 seasons if games. And that is without mentioning he played DH.

His offensive numbers belong. But did he play long enough to compensate for not playing the field.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Outside of the assholes who just won't vote for anyone from the steroid era, steroids only seem to be a problem for players people dislike and Ortiz is Mr. Popularity. I don't think he has any business being in the Hall, I don't think any career DH does, but I would be shocked if he's not a first ballot.

The man is practically the face of baseball right now.

I'm not 100% sure that's accurate, Mike Piazza is clearly being lumped in with the steroid era guys and he's generally considered a great dude.