The American League’s Future Hall of Famers
The American League East and the Yankees in particular, have cornered the market on Hall of Fame worthy players. Derek Jeter, the Yankee captain, is a lock first ballot selection when his time comes. He has a career average of .314 entering this year, with a postseason mark of .307, in over 450 at bats! His Yankee teams are 17-6 in postseason series with him on board, and he has made more memorable plays than any one individual could ever hope to. His November home run in the 2001 World Series, his game tying single off Armando Benitez in Game One of the 2000 Subway Series versus the crosstown Mets, or his heads up flip to Jorge Posada to nip Jeremy Giambi at home plate on an errant outfield throw- take your pick. Add to these thrills the fact that he is hands down the best base runner in the game, and a two time Gold Glove winner at shortstop and you see why the Hall has already reserved a space for the Yankees’ captain.
On the same side of the infield as Jeter is another sure thing to enter Cooperstown in third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Approaching 450 home runs for his career, A-Rod already owns eight Silver Sluggers Awards for being the best hitter at his position, two American League MVP Awards, one batting title, and two Gold Gloves. What he lacks is a defining playoff moment, something that would only add to a resume that certainly will wind up gaining him Hall of Fame admittance.
New York doesn’t lack Hall of Famers on the mound either. 6-10 left hander Randy Johnson is a shoe-in first ballot choice himself, with his 263-136 record as 2006 commences, five Cy Young Awards, and his own World Series moment; who will forget how he shut down New York out of the Diamondback’s bullpen in the seventh game in 2001? Incredibly, Johnson did not win his first Cy Young Award until he was 31 years old! He is still pitching at a high level despite the fact that he will be 43 in September of this year.
No reliever has pitched at as high a level for so long as Yankee closer Mariano Rivera has. He has been lights out since he took over the role in 1997, as he has racked up over 380 saves in that time with an ERA of 2.33, a full two runs better than the average pitcher’s of his era. If it is possible, Rivera has been even stingier in the playoffs, with 34 saves posted to an 0.81 ERA. All this with basically a cut fastball that neither righties nor lefties have figured out how to hit. There are few relievers in the Hall of Fame; there will be one more five years after Mariano throws his last pitch.
Staying in the American League East, the Yankees bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox, have their own Hall of fame bound slugger in Manny Ramirez. Forget the quirky personality and the odd behavior at times, this Dominican born baseball player can simply flat out hit. His average 162 game season in thirteen years reads like this; a .314 batting average, 42 homers, 136 RBI, and a .599 slugging percentage. In 1999, as a member of the Indians, he accumulated 165 runs batted in. He has hit thirty or more homers in a season ten times, has garnered eight Silver Sluggers, won a batting title, and hit 20 post-season homers. Enough said. That’s just Manny being Manny, the Hall of Famer.
Checking out the Baltimore Orioles’ roster for future Hall members, you cannot overlook shortstop Miguel Tejada. Only 29 years old, he already has five 100 RBI seasons and an American League MVP Award under his belt. He has won two Silver Sluggers at short and has hit over twenty homers seven times. In 2004, his first full season with Baltimore, he had one of the greatest seasons ever by a shortstop, hitting over .300 with an amazing 150 RBI! There is no reason to think he will slow down over the next few years, and no reason that the ensuing statistical parade will not lead him to be knocking on the doors of the Hall of Fame.
The White Sox can present Jim Thome as their future inductee to the shrine dedicated to baseball’s best ever. The slugging first baseman is one of the classic all or nothing frees wingers in baseball, leading his league in strike outs on three separate occasions, but also hitting forty or more home runs five times and sending over a hundred runs across the plate in eight seasons. Thome also has eight campaigns in which he walked over one hundred times. His fast start in 2006 shows that he has fully recovered from injuries that limited his production as a Philadelphia Phillie in 2005, and he may have a couple big years left in his bat. He inches towards the 500 homer plateau, as he now has 437, to go with over 1200 RBI.
2004 American League MVP Vladimir Guerrero, only thirty years old, already has over 300 round trippers, almost one thousand RBI, seven seasons of one hundred RBI, and a lifetime .324 batting mark, all this despite having a reputation at swinging at anything the pitcher tries to throw him. He has only walked more than 63 times in a year once in his ten season baseball career; being from the Dominican Republic he took to heart the old saying that “you can’t walk your way off the island”. The Angel’s Vlad also possesses what is widely regarded as the best arm in all of baseball, one that he has used to rack up an average of 10 outfield assists a year on those base runners foolhardy enough to test it out. All this adds up to a certain ticket to the Hall of Fame.
Clearly Frank Thomas, now an Oakland Athletic after sixteen years with the White Sox, has his best years behind him at age 37, but what great years they were. He has 1465 RBI and 448 homers coming into 2006, plus a career .307 average. He won back to back American League MVPs in 1993 and 1994, and if he had not had to battle constant injuries in three of the past five seasons, his numbers would be even more impressive. As it is, they are easily good enough to get him a Member’s Only pass to upstate New York.
There you have it. Nine current players who are the sure things to be in the Hall of Fame someday, many of them on the first ballot after their mandatory five years after they retire are up. This list does not include some other players that will get Hall of Fame consideration. Those include New York’s Bernie Williams (1200 RBI), Gary Sheffield (over 400 homers and 1400 RBI), Jason Giambi (300 homers, 1000 RBI, an MVP Award), Mike Mussina (225-128 career won-loss record), the Red Sox hurler Curt Schilling (coming up on 200 wins), and Garrett Anderson of the Angels (over 1000 RBI and a .298 average). Of these, Sheffield and Mussina are very good possibilities for Cooperstown induction eventually.
And then there are the players who are the up and coming stars of today or just coming into their primes; Eric Chavaz of the A’s, Richie Sexson of the Mariners, Hank Blaylock and Mark Texieira of the Rangers, Travis Hafner from the Indians, Johan Santana of the Twins, Paul Konerko of the White Sox, Jorge Cantu and Carl Crawford of the Devil Rays, Josh Beckett from the Red Sox, and the Blue Jays’ Roy Halladay and Vernon Wells. All of them have their best years ahead of them and plenty of time to fill their resumes with Hall of Fame statistics and deeds. Yes, we remember the good old days of baseball. They are now!
