Professional Hitter. What more is there to say about one of the best all time right-handed batters? 5 Silver sluggers were given to Edgar; 4 at Designated Hitter which is supposed to be a position for great hitters and the other at 3B. He won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2004. The Award is given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team". Edgar went to 7 All-Star games in his career. And remember, at this time the DH was only a starter every other year (when the AL hosted).
His 71.6 fWAR ranks him 80th all-time position players. According to bWAR, he is better than 12 of the 18 1B in the HOF. If you compare him to the 3B, he is better than 5 of the 10 HOF’s according to bWAR. The 67.2 bWAR places him 71st among position players. His bWPA of 44.1 is good for 44th for players since 1950 and his fWPA is 45.21. His Hall of Fame Monitor and Standards score of 132 (100 likely HOF) and 50 (50 Avg HOF) show him as a likely HOF.
If we take a look at his career compared to 3 in the HOF, we notice one thing right off the bat. According to fWAR, his ten best seasons are better than Gwynn’s, Molitor’s and Murray’s ten best. He was actually better than Gwynn for their 12 best seasons. This is a big deal.
Looking at this second graph shows that his career parallels the three Hall of Famers. He started playing full time at a later age but still had a better career fWAR than Gwynn. His short career hinders his overall counting stats considerably. He “only” hit 309 Home Runs. This is still good for 116th all-time. His rate stats show that he was still a great player; BA .312, OPB .418, SLG .515, OPS .933. He hit great. His OPS+ was 147, good for 43rd place all-time. He won the AL batting title twice (once at 3B and DH each) as well as leading the league in OBP 3 times.
One thought though is Martinez started his career later than the rest of these guys. He was good throughout this time though. From age 31-41 he was better than these three HOFs. He posted 10 seasons with over a 4.0 bWAR.
Some people say he did not play a real position and hold this against him. There are already great hitters who did not field well in the HOF. Why is this different? Is this different because he did not have to make up runs if he was a bad defender? Well that makes no sense. He is more valuable as a DH than a bad fielder who hits just as well as he does. He does not seem to be a bad fielder on either FanGraphs or Baseball Reference for the years he did play in the field. He would have been serviceable at 1B for a team. He just was not needed in the field at the time and was kept at DH for his health. His bat was too valuable to take out of the lineup. If we discount him for being a DH, Molitor’s stats from his time as a DH should not count, and Mauer’s DH stats should not count toward his MVP votes or his career accomplishments. The DH is a part of baseball. Do not punish Edgar for his team playing by the league rules. Fight the rule if you do not like it, but do not discount a great player career.
Sorry about that quick rant. Edgar is just one of the great hitters. Edgar and Frank Thomas are probably the two best right-handed hitters of that generation. I just hope people can see how good Edgar is. I hope this shines a little light on it.
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