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- Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2012 5:32 am
pwootten wrote:If there were no DH, Ortiz would be the same player, except he would have camped out at 1B like a statue for all these years, possibly becoming passable defensively. Same for Edgar at third. Being a defensive butcher does not enhance someone's HOF credentials, in my opinion. Teams make the decisions on where guys play or don't play.
You don't know that for a fact, and the Hall of Fame committee doesn't vote on what could have been or what players might have done; it votes on what the players actually did. So, regardless of what the players might have played defensively; they still barely played defensively; so they weren't full-time players. And the fact managers put them at DH doesn't change that. Some players missed out on the HOF because scouts unfairly judged them or managers unfairly misused them. Those are just the breaks and they don't factor into HOF judging...Negro League players being the notable exception.
Secondly, there are few "defensive butchers" in the Hall of Fame. Almost all hall-of-fame position players/non-pitchers played (at-least) competent/workable defense. So, the Hall of Fame does take defense into account, if less so for sublime hitters like Ted Williams. So, none of the factors you mention change the fact full-time DHes are part-time players and don't deserve to be in the HOF.