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... by Bill James Online readers, that is.  The Jan. 7 vote ran:

Edgar Martinez enters as the sole member of the 2012 class, joining Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Bert Blyleven, Alan Trammell (class of 2009), Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Mark McGwire, (2010), and Jeff Bagwell (2011). 

It's interesting to compare Edgar's support to the support for the other candidates'.

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=== WAR Grid ===

At Fangraphs, you can sort this grid to return all position players since 1900.  

When you do, it returns Edgar's 70.0 WAR as the 82nd-87th best total of all time.

There are 150 hitters in the Hall of Fame, and WAR has already penalized Edgar fully for being a DH, and here Edgar is with a WAR total that puts him higher than 50% of the players in the Hall.  

We're not talking about Edgar being as good as the Hall of Famers that we had to debate.   We're talking about Edgar contributing as much as most Hall of Famers did, including obvious Hall of Famers.  Only a minority of HOF'ers outproduced Edgar by any appreciable margin.

Some WAR totals through history:

• Ernie Banks - 74
• Yogi Berra - 71
• Barry Larkin - 71
• Edgar Martinez - 70
• Ozzie Smith - 70
• Hank Greenberg - 68
• Tony Gwynn - 68

1.  Players who amassed 68-72 WAR make up the 70th through 89th most-productive hitters ever.  The 70s and 80s is where Edgar resides, and there are 150 position players in the Hall.  You can't argue that Edgar didn't make his teams better, on the scale that HOF'ers make their teams better.  This argument is not feasible.

You can use WAR, or Win Shares, or any "total contribution" stat you want to.  They all say the same thing:  after you adjust for Edgar's DH'ing, he is still way, WAYYYYYYY up the ladder past a big group of hitters already in the Hall.  Edgar's total production is obviously far past standard, after you adjust for the DH.

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2.  Normally, players get a huge thumb on the scale for playing in one uniform their whole lives.  That's what baseball is about, having a "franchise icon" that children can grow up with.  Sandy wrote a piece on this a few weeks ago.  It's one thing to root for a rent-a-team; it's a different thing to root for a homegrown player.  We're all a bit saddened by Albert Pujols leaving the Cardinals.  Well, M's fans more than most...

Baseball writers loooooovvvvvve players who birthed and died with one team.  Derek Jeter will be a unanimous selection.  This bias is being waived for Edgar Martinez.

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3.  Normally, players get a huge thumb on the scale for "Black Ink" accomplishments.  Edgar is the only right-hand hitter since WWII to win multiple batting titles.  This bias is being waived for Edgar Martinez.

Had Edgar played 1B for the Mariners for 15 years, he'd have been in the Hall first ballot.

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4.  People are voting against Edgar as a (conscious or subconscious) statement against the Designated Hitter rule.  That's all.  

True, they later proceed to construct arguments in support of their "No" vote.  But those arguments are not seminal.  They vote against the DH, not against Edgar.

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4a.  I cannot relate to the resentment against this rule.  Systems whose rules cannot flex over time, are systems that break, over time.  The evolution of rules is critical to the well-being of the human condition.  To resent adaptation is illogical.

BABVA,

Dr D