On Sunday in Cooperstown, Pedro Martinez became only the second Dominican-born player to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, joining fellow pitcher Juan Marichal. It took over 30 years for the baseball-crazed island to get its second representative. Fortunately for the Caribbean island, it shouldn’t take another 30 years for them to get a third representative, as Dominican slugger Vladimir Guerrero will be on the ballot just in two years. In his 16 MLB seasons, most notably with the Montreal Expos and the Anaheim Angels, Guerrero finished just shy of 500 home runs, racking up 449, was a nine-time All-Star and a MVP with the Angels in 2004. Guerrero also won 8 Silver Sluggers as a right fielder, and as a designated hitter in his lone season as a Texas Ranger.
Vladimir Guerrero: Hall Of Famer
Guerrero was predominately a right fielder; there are currently 23 right fielders with plaques in Cooperstown and Guerrero compares favorably to other Hall of Famers at his position. His career average of .318 is only worse than 11 of the 23 enshrined players, his .379 OBP would put him tied for 12th, and his slugging percentage would rank 3rd . His 449 HRs are better than all but six of the right fielders elected to the Hall and his 1496 RBI would put him 10th among his contemporaries. Guerrero’s offensive achievements easily get him into the Hall, but it is his defense which makes him a virtual lock to get a plaque. During his time as a player, Guerrero’s arm from right field was the stuff of legends; he finished with 126 outfield assists and threw out 10+ runners in seven of his 16 seasons.
Helping Guerrero’s case is the fact that, although he played in the steroid era, his name was never linked to performance enhancing drugs. Players such as Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell, who have the numbers for the Hall, unfortunately haven’t reached the 75 percent threshold for entrance simply because of steroid whispers and nothing more.
Furthermore, Guerrero was arguably the best player in the game for a time, along with being a very good player over the entirety of his career. On the one hand, players such as Craig Biggio were never amazing players but get into the Hall based on longevity and greatness over a long period. If he had not passed the 3,000 hit milestone, Biggio may not have been elected to Cooperstown. On the other hand, some players are amazing for a short period of time but don’t have great consistency over a long period, i.e. Dale Murphy, the back-to-back NL MVP for the Braves who never got into the Hall of Fame. Guerrero’s MVP, career averages, and counting stats validate the fact that he was both consistently great and one of the best players in baseball for at least a few years.
With the Hall of Fame ballot becoming more crowded due to steroid era players, and with the limited number of players a BBWA member can vote for, the question isn’t if Vladimir Guerrero will be enshrined as one of the games immortals, but when.
