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The Mariners have begun to ramp up their official campaign for Edgar. Per Ryan Divish:
#Mariners sent out this packet of stats on Edgar Martinez's HOF candidacyhttps://t.co/tbI7BoM3W7 pic.twitter.com/SBfSNp2kKU
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) November 30, 2016
A lot of the numbers included will be familiar to those of us who know the .300/.400/.500 club, batting titles, etc., but the facts are charmingly interspersed with quotes from people who played with Edgar and if I ever don’t puff up with pride when Mariano Rivera calls him the toughest hitter he faced put me in the ground because I will be dead.
The most compelling part of the argument in this packet for me, and some numbers I hadn’t seen as much, were the ones that stack Edgar up against the other premiere hitters of 1991 - 2003. I mean, dang:
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PEDs aside, any time you are within shouting distance of Barry Bonds, I think you’re doing pretty well. I only wish this wasn’t buried so deeply in the packet, because, in addition to the .300/.400/.500 club, I think this is the single most persuasive set of lists in the packet. Taking positional concerns out of the picture entirely, it’s obvious here that Edgar is among the game’s elite, and deserves to be recognized as such.
My only concern is that this packet of well-reasoned stats won’t be enough for the suppurating jackalopes who insist the DH isn’t a real position/Edgar didn’t have 3,000 hits and 40,000 RBI and a billionty home runs/etc. Also, I’m not so sure those people know how to operate the computer box enough to actually read this material (I hope hard copies were sent to the snowiest of the Q-tips). Or maybe some of them cannot actually read and simply fill out their ballots by letting their helper monkeys loose on them with a crayon, which is the only way I can explain this ballot:
New worst ballot leader: Has write-in for ineligible player & 2 RPs. No Edgar. Forgave PED users but no Manny because he "Quit on his team" pic.twitter.com/6mBm8iwntA
— Alex Carson (@AlexCarson) November 28, 2016
So what say you, LL readers? What else could we send to these reluctant voters’ houses to make them realize voting for Edgar is the right choice? (Do not say a team of hired goons, I’ve looked into that already.)