Edgar Martinez, 3B-DH
Seattle Mariners (1987-2004)
A seven-time All-Star, Edgar Martinez was signed by the Seattle Mariners as an undrafted free agent in 1982. After Martinez became a full-time major leaguer in the 1990 season, Martinez was one of the most feared right-handed hitter for almost 15 years. If it were not for an injury that occurred before the 1993 season, and robbed him of two productive seasons and the ability to be a full-time fielder, Martinez may have been a first-time ballot Hall of Famer.
As stated above, Martinez was elected to seven All-Star Games, nearly all as a Designated Hitter. Martinez has a career .312 batting average. He has two batting titles, finishing in the top-ten seven times. He was consistently on-base, walking almost 1,300 times in his career, finishing in the top-ten nine times. With this ability to get on base, there were very few that were on base more than he was, leading the American League three times in on-base percentage, finishing in the top-ten a dozen times. Although not fleet of foot, he hit over 500 doubles in his career, leading the American League twice. He scored over 100 runs five times, leading the Al once. He drove in over 100 runs six times, leading the AL once. Although becoming the first full-time Designated Hitter, there were very few hitters as dominant as Martinez was during his prime as a Seattle Mariner.
There are very few major leagues in history that had at least 300 home runs, 500 doubles, a career batting average of at least .300, a career on-base percentage of at least .400, and a career slugging percentage of at least .500. There are seven people who have achieved this. Five are Hall of Famers (Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams) one is active (Manny Ramirez) and the other is Edgar Martinez. He is in the Top 100 of All-Time in the following categories: Batting Average (.312, 91st), On-Base Percentage (.418, 22nd), Slugging Percentage (.515, 69th), On-Base Plus Slugging (.933, 34th), Doubles (514, 41st) and Bases on Balls (1,283, 40th). He walked more times in his career (1,283) than he struck out (1,202). Even with his injuries, if you average out all of his career statistics, Martinez would have averaged 96 runs, 177 hits, 24 home runs, 99 runs batted in and walked 101 times throughout his 18 year career.
Although he only received 36.2% of the vote in his first year of eligibility as a Hall of Famer, we at Inside Pulse Sports have elected Martinez into our Hall of Fame.
