Hall of Fame in Manny's future?
Posted: Monday, June 02, 2008 2:23 PM
I had a brief up close look at Manny Ramirez while covering the Red Sox in last year’s playoffs. My having been a National League broadcaster throughout Ramirez’s career, the views I had on him previously were few.
What did I take away from seeing him in the postseason? Well, he’s smaller than I thought and fitter than the baggy uniforms he wears make him appear on television. Asking around I learned that he earns admiration from teammates for his work ethic, often going to Fenway Park in the morning of game days for workouts.
I also saw his ability to match the moment. Last year he had a mediocre regular season but October uncovered a hero in Ramirez. He launched a Francisco Rodriguez heater over the Green Monster to win Game 2 of the ALDS and never stopped during Boston’s march to a second World Series triumph in four years.
So what I saw matched what I had heard: the San Francisco Giants investigated trading for Ramirez before the 2007 season. Looking for a bat to replace Barry Bonds after failing to sign Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Lee, Giants management considered Ramirez. Their investigation found two things: Manny was not the questionable clubhouse presence often believed and that he was one of the purest right-handed hitters to play in years.
And there’s the key point. Of all the numbers that wash over us after Manny’s 500th home run, one stands out above all: his .312 career batting average, fourth highest among the 24 players who have 500 or more home runs.
Ramirez is not just a slugger, he is a great hitter. He needed the eighth fewest at-bats (7,263) to reach the 500 home run milestone. And he has 24 postseason home runs in 353 at-bats -- a superb ratio given the caliber of pitching generally faced in October.
So where does Ramirez stand in the hierarchy of the game’s hitters? Hitting 500 home runs has been devalued. That’s not the fault of Ramirez but it is something with which he must live. We don’t know yet the degree to which Hall-of-Fame voters truly value home runs in the BALCO era given Mark McGwire’s paltry Hall-of-Fame vote totals.
There some other things to reflect upon. Ramirez hit 437 home runs as an outfielder. He has not used the DH, yet, to extend or save his career. He has eight straight years in which he has finished in the American League’s top 10 MVP vote getters -- a measure of the respect he gained in his era. And at only 36, he is looking strongly at enough years left in his playing career to surpass 600 career home runs, enhancing his legacy.
Baseball-reference.com is a favorite tool for studying playing careers and their comparative values. At the bottom of each player’s stats page, the website names 10 players most comparable at the current moment. Again, this is objective, strictly based on numbers. So imagine my surprise when the player listed as most comparable to Ramirez at this stage of his career is Larry Walker.
My first reaction is that Ramirez is a Hall of Famer but Walker is not. There are some differences in their numbers, the 500-home-run milestone foremost among them, and there is the Denver factor (unlike with the BALCO issue, the writers who take part in the Hall-of-Fame voting have yet to render a verdict on the impact of stars playing their home games in the Mile High City.)
The next most comparable player to Ramirez listed is Jim Thome – Ramirez’s peer from his Cleveland playing days. While Thome has 500-plus home runs he does not register to me as a no-brainer for the Hall of Fame.
So the question of Ramirez’s legacy may be more debatable than I initially thought. Of course, Ramirez can end the debate with three or four more solid seasons which will push him past 600 homers and well past 2,500 hits. Now I wonder if he is trying to separate himself from Jim Rice, another Red Sox right-handed power hitter who was devastating in his era, but who didn’t play long enough to earn Hall-of-Fame status. I think Ramirez is a stronger Hall-of-Fame candidate than Rice, but does Ramirez need to pad his numbers to make sure of his place in the Hall of Fame?
