There is always a lot of debate on the position of designated hitter. Everyone always says that because they don’t play a position in the field on defense that DHs are less valuable than any other player, thus lessening their accomplishments in general.

That’s just ridiculous.

Sure, I can buy that argument for the Most Valuable Player race. If candidate A is a good defender in center field who hit the crap out of the ball and candidate B was designated hitter who hit the crap out of the ball, then yeah, candidate A probably was more valuable. He helped his team in both of the major categories that players contribute to: scoring runs and preventing runs. Meanwhile, candidate B only helped in scoring runs.

(On a tangent, you can make the argument that if candidate A is a crappy fielding shortstop and candidate B is a DH, candidate B may actually be more valuable. Depending on how bad A is at fielding, he may be actually costing his team runs with the glove. But, I digress.)

However, when it comes to honoring players in the hall of fame, whether the player was a designated hitter should have no bearing on their candidacy. In about a couple, we’re going to hear a lot about this argument when Edgar Martinez comes up to vote for the hall. He is the first full-time designated hitter that can make a real case for the hall of fame. Although, I would argue that there is no case to be made, Edgar should be in easy.

Look at his career stats:

2055 games, 309 HRs, .312 batting average, .418 OBP, .518 slugging pct.

If Edgar has played a position in the field, no matter how bad of a fielder he was, he would be in for sure. But, since he played as a designated hitter most of his career, finding a spot in Cooperstown is not a given. In turn, Edgar may be done in because of the rules of the game. He only played designated hitter because it was an option. Had there been no possibility of DHing, he probably would have played a combination of third and first base. To penalize him thusly seems quite a bit unfair.

One thing I wanted to point out about his stats that really makes his case as well as anything else is his on-base percentage. Reading Joe Posnanski’s blog, I noticed this. Of the 22 players in baseball history who have had a career on-base percentage of .400 or better (It’s .418 for Edgar) in at least 2,000 games played, the only ones who aren’t enshrined in the hall of fame are players whose five year waiting period isn’t up yet. Every player who could be in the hall of fame who achieved that IS in the hall of fame. Edgar, along with Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, Manny Ramirez, Jeff Bagwell, Jim Thome and Rickey Henderson are all knocking on the door.

I hope that when it comes time for someone to answer that knocking for Edgar, that it’s the hall of fame committee on the other end with some good news.