Basic Appreciation for Edgar Martinez

As we noted in our last post, one stat never tells the whole story. Nonetheless, it is widely believed that the most important offensive statistic is On Base Percentage. As readers of Moneyball may remember, outs are a baseball game's most valuable commodity. A team gets only twenty-seven outs per game, and each one is precious. OBP is baseball's most treasured offensive statistic because reaching base is the act of avoiding an out.

In this spirit, here is the today's quickest argument in favor of Edgar Martinez's Hall of Fame case:

Career OBP Leaders, past 50 years
Barry Bonds .474
Todd Helton .421
Mickey Mantle .421
Albert Pujols .421
Frank Thomas .419
Edgar Martínez .418
Stan Musial .417
Wade Boggs .415
Manny Ramírez .411
Lance Berkman .409

If we were to make a longer argument, we would say that the penalty for being a DH has been too harsh on Edgar. Would he have a stronger case if he had been a terrible defender, like Jim Rice, Reggie Jackson, or Willie Stargell?

Good luck, Edgar!!!!