Is David Ortiz a Future Hall of Famer?

When David Ortiz passed Harold Baines as the DH with the most career hits, a couple questions popped up. The first I addressed earlier…is David Ortiz a great hitter? The second? Is David Ortiz headed to the Hall of Fame?

A fine question.

The first issue that comes to mind when discussing his candidacy is his position. Does a DH belong in the Hall of Fame? Of course, Paul Molitor is already there. As are Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski. But, what about a full-time career DH? Can they get in too?

Why on earth not?

The Designated Hitter has been a baseball position for 40 years now. Why wouldn’t someone who played that position better than anyone be eligible? This isn’t people insisting that closers should be in the Hall of Fame, when “closer” isn’t even a position.

The main argument against the DH is that since they don’t play the field, they’re only playing half the game. Which is true. But, wouldn’t that argument apply to pitchers too? They don’t hit. (Even in the NL, you’d be hard pressed to say the pitcher “hits.”) Isn’t that like saying an outfielder can’t play catcher, so they only play in part the game? Every player only plays the parts of the game their position calls for.

Even if that’s not enough for you, and you think DHs should be punished for not playing the field. Can you really say that a DH can’t play first base? Do you not think David Ortiz could play a bad first base? Jason Giambi once won an MVP award playing a terrible defensive first base. Is that better than Ortiz letting someone else have those duties? I don’t see how. So, DH should certainly be able to make the Hall of Fame for their position.

Now, what about this specific DH?

If you read my last Ortiz post, you probably know that I’m going to say, “Not quite.”

He just doesn’t quite do it for me. I always say I need five years of “elite” stats. I could give Ortiz the four years from ’03-’07. I say I need ten “all-star” type years. I might be able to give Ortiz eight or nine.

Now it’s possible that Ortiz’s peak years were so good that I’m discounting his other less elite years. Possibly. But, I suppose, if I need to be reconsidering “less elite” years, I’ve already made the decision. He doesn’t quite make it.

But, it’s not because he’s a DH.

His Final All-Star Game

Yes. After last night, we will no longer be subjected to Tim McCarver trying to call an All-Star game. About 20 years too late, but I’ll take it.

I’m going to give McCarver the benefit of the doubt a little bit. I’m going to assume that SOME of the stupid things he says are based on commands from FOX. Like the Manny Machado play last night. I’m sure that once Machado entered the game, the truck told McCarver that they had his play from a few weeks ago all cued up. He just needed a way to get it on the air. So, when Machado backhanded a ball and threw out a slow runner, he made a big deal about it. Then he could easily segue from that “great” play to another great play by Machado. I get that.

What still baffles me is the baseball stuff. He’s been watching baseball for a long time. His seemingly spontaneous amazement over mundane things is incredible. Take the Brandon Phillips double play. I’d understand if he had direction from FOX once again to find a reason to replay the double play he turned from earlier in the year. I even get it if he was trying to make a bigger deal out of it than it really was as a way to promote the game, or Phillips himself. It was the giggling. He actually chuckled to himself before he could get out an amazed, “bare handed double play.” Was this the first time McCarver had seen a bare handed double play turned? He didn’t realize that not only are they fairly common…but they’re the way you’re supposed to do it? I think it was Barry Larkin that I once saw give a tutorial on how when he absolutely needed to use his glove to slow down a hard toss, he didn’t catch the ball. He just used the back of his glove to deflect the ball to his bare hand. But, last night using a bare hand makes McCarver giggle with glee? Huh?

Unfortunately, I’m guessing that having McCarver gone won’t solve all the problems with the broadcast. The in-game interviews are beyond annoying. Last night they interviewed Tom Seaver during the game. Seaver was going on and on about how exciting the game was. While he’s doing this, FOX is showing him on screen. Not the game! Sometimes they would go split screen with it. But, they made the Seaver portion bigger than the actual game. They didn’t take the hint and actually show the game that was apparently so good to watch. And they kept doing it. Here’s a hint FOX. If you constantly imply that the actual game is the least interesting part of the broadcast, people are going to start to believe it. If you want to use the audio to have an interview, I’ll allow it. But, keep the camera on the game! The whole reason that MLB manages to get away with the ridiculous fan voting is that they think it lets the fans select players they want to see play. Then FOX ignores those players to show us off-field antics.

Why would they do that?

List of 36:

Red Sox All-Stars I’ve Seen Perform Live

1. Luis Alicea

2. Jason Bay

3. Josh Beckett

4. Adrian Beltre

5. Wade Boggs

6. Clay Buchholz

7. Matt Clement

8. Johnny Damon

9. JD Drew

10. Dennis Eckersley

11. Jacoby Ellsbury

12.  Carl Everett

13. John Farrell

14. Terry Francona

15. Nomar Garciaparra

16. Adrian Gonzalez

17. Tom Gordon

18. DeMarlo Hale

19. Shea Hillenbrand

20. Jon Lester

21. Mark Loretta

22. Derek Lowe

23. Mike Lowell

24. Pedro Martinez

25. Victor Martinez

26. Jose Offerman

27. Hideki Okajima

28. David Ortiz

29. Jonathan Papelbon

30. Dustin Pedroia

31. Manny Ramirez

32. Curt Schilling

33. Ugueth Urbina

34. Jason Varitek

35. Mo Vaughn

36. Tim Wakefield

Is David Ortiz a Great Hitter?

When people break records, it often results on everyone trying to find their place in history. When David Ortiz passed Harold Baines as the all-time leader in hits by a DH, it was no different. Did that make Ortiz the greatest DH ever? Did it make him the best hitting DH ever? Did it make him an all-time great hitter? The debate was on.

It’s the “hitter” question that interested me at first. Is he a great hitter? Clearly he’s not the greatest hitter. That title goes to another Boston great. But, even that begs the question. What makes the greatest hitter?

When questions like this come up, I like to go to the source. Whether you agree that Ted Williams was the greatest hitter who ever live, or think it’s just a nice thing to say, you have to at least put him high on the list. When it came to hitting a baseball, Ted did the two things you most want a player to do. He hit the ball a lot. He hit the ball far a lot. That sounds like a logical place to start. A great hitter need to hit the ball a lot, and needs to hit it far a lot.

When you make those rules, you can see how they affect some common “great hitters.” Take Ichiro. Boy does he get a lot of hits. But, most of them don’t leave the infield. That doesn’t exactly fit the standard Ted set. It works the other way too. There are plenty of all-or-nothing guys. How about Wily Mo Pena? Boy could he hit the ball far. But, not exactly a great hitter.

Just as easily, people can leap to mind that are great hitters. Miguel Cabrera certainly fits that mold. Manny Ramirez. Jimmie Foxx.

David Ortiz?

My gut reaction was to say no. He doesn’t hit often enough. Looking over the numbers, he’s better at it than I thought. I was probably clouded by his recent struggles and by Manny overshadowing his best years. Ortiz was actually batting .290 in his Red Sox career entering this season. That’s pretty good. Not sure it’s great.

Maybe this is where Red Sox fans get in trouble. When you cheer for a team that has had bot Ted Williams and Manny Ramirez, are other hitters dwarfed? Like Pedro ruining Jon Lester?

Maybe. But, I still think I have to put David Ortiz as a very good hitter. But, not one of the greats. That average still bugs be just enough.

Still glad he’s on the team.

I Love West Coast Games

For one simple reason. They allow me to get some sleep.

I know right from the start that there’s no way I’m going to finish the game. While technically I could stay awake and catch the whole thing, there’s no possible arguemnt to make that it would be a good idea. So, I don’t even try. A regular 7:00 start? I assume I can make that. So, even when it’s a Yankees game and drags on for four hours, I’m already vested and have to stick it out. Same with the 8:00 starts for ESPN, or when they’re in Chicago. I convince myself that I can make it through the game, and end up pushing it too far.

But, when the game starts at 10:00? Nope. Never going to happen. I can tell right away, so I don’t even need to try. I might catch an inning or two, but I can easily break it off. I’ve already mentally resigned myself to the fact that I’m not finishing it. There’s no pressure.

It’s also apparently a fairly healthy way to follow the team. I didn’t know that the Sox blew a four run lead in Anaheim the other night. All I knew was that when I checked the score in the morning, they had lost. There was just the one second of disappointment. I didn’t anguish over run after run as it crossed the plate. They just lost. I didn’t know that they had trailed big time against Seattle. I wasn’t swearing at myself that they were blowing another chance against the hapless mariners. I just knew that they won big in the end. Last night when I stopped listening, they had a pretty big lead. When I woke up, they had won. Not too shabby at all.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no intentions of making this my standard practice. I won’t be ignoring any of the regular games just to avoid any torture. Catching scores in the morning can’t compare to watching the game unfold before you. But, it’s not exactly a terrible thing that geography has forced my hand.

Of course, I’m dreading the game on Saturday. A 9:00 start? On a weekend? I could convince myself that’s doable.

I need to come up with a better argument.