Yesterday, in discussing Edgar Martinez's chances of getting into the Hall of Fame, Larry Stone linked us to an Edgar fact sheet that was sent out by the Mariners to members of the BBWAA, a fact sheet that makes a number of statistical arguments to support his candidacy. It's an impressive document, but then, it isn't all that difficult to make one of the best hitters in baseball history look impressive. What I came away wanting to know is what these fact sheets look like for lesser players who also find themselves on the ballot. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of a similar document in support of fellow first-time candidate Todd Zeile sent out by officials with both the Rockies and Marlins, an excerpt of which is shown below.
Todd Zeile. I was skeptical at first, but I gotta admit, it really makes you think.
9 recs | 53 comments
My favorite part about the Edgar fact sheet is the part they threw in that says Edgar was 10x36 against Mariano Rivera.
Goose - November 25, 2009
Highest OPS against Rivera for anyone with 10+ PAs!
1.888, against Aubrey Huff’s 1.229 in second place.
Jeff Sullivan - November 25, 2009
Holy shit
Ray Durham vs. Rivera: 0-26
Jeff Sullivan - November 25, 2009
Alex Rodriguez: 3-15
Clearly not Hall of Fame material.
Goose - November 25, 2009
The sacrifice flies has Tim Kurkjian sold.
Wilder. - November 25, 2009
really, how gullible do you think these voters are
to send out and ‘outs made’ factoid? that is some Olympic caliber contempt for audience
boyonthedock - November 25, 2009
Right Guard?
Eyebrows - November 26, 2009
... What?
CapSea - November 26, 2009
Clearly no more gullible than, say, a boy on a dock
pdb - November 26, 2009
I think he should get extra votes for being married to an Olympic Gold medal winning gymnast
His wife is Julianne McNamara who won a gold medal at the 1984 LA Olympics.
Coug1990 - November 25, 2009
That was my first thought.
Gold and Silver
msb - November 25, 2009
Wow.
I’d love to see the rest of that.
xero3k - November 25, 2009
Just how many more homophonic usages of Zeile would be in there?
msb - November 25, 2009
I must be tired...
I read that as “homophobic”…
PositivePaul - November 25, 2009
I'm guilty of that as well
And I spent at least 10 seconds trying to figure out how on earth they were homophobic before I moved on.
njd.aitken - November 26, 2009
Me too, and I wondered briefly what the hell msb was talking about before forgetting all about it for a day until I read your comment
gregrabble - November 26, 2009
You guys know this is fake right
Jeff Sullivan - November 25, 2009
I knew the punning was too good to be true
OlSalty - November 25, 2009
Of course I do
Poochie - November 25, 2009
Rockies and Marlins?
I was willing to believe it. I want to see what the Royals would write for Bloomquist.
seattlecougar - November 25, 2009
Yes. But I want it to be real SOOOOOO badly.
SethGrandpa - November 26, 2009
I was with you the whole time
Dewey N - November 26, 2009
What the fuck dude.
Seriously.
Aaron Campeau - November 26, 2009
What the fuck.
Aaron Campeau - November 26, 2009
.
Aaron Campeau - November 26, 2009
You mind is clearly slipping if you couldn't catch this
Robert - November 26, 2009
Bastard...
EnglishMariner - November 26, 2009
Did you make that?
vj - November 26, 2009
Somebody pulled a Matthew
Robert - November 26, 2009
Right after you posted this and there were zero comments...
…my comment was going to be: “PHOTOSHOPPPED!!!!!”
But I let it sit for awhile first…
PositivePaul - November 26, 2009
YOU HAVE RUINED THE INTEGRITY OF THIS BLOG SIR I DEMAND SATISFACTION
pdb - November 26, 2009
Well, it would be stupid of me to say "no" now.
The Typical Idiot Fan - November 26, 2009
I may have been lying
Poochie - November 26, 2009
Other stats blantantly ripped from Wikipedia
*most home runs by anyone whose last name starts with Z
*committed the most errors of anyone in the 90s
*Only player to hit a home run for more than 10 teams (11)
*Last player to hit a home run off an Expos pitcher
Dude’s got some serious trivia…
appleshampoo - November 26, 2009 via mobile
That most errors in the 90's is quite impressive.
EnglishMariner - November 26, 2009
My favourite has to be
In 1999, Zeile was part of a historic Rangers team. Along with Gregg Zaun and Jeff Zimmerman, he was one of three players on the team whose last names began with “Z”. Not since the 1916 Chicago Cubs had this occurred (Heinie Zimmerman, Dutch Zwilling, and Rollie Zeider).
njd.aitken - November 26, 2009
Heinie?
Awesome
tootthekazoo - November 27, 2009
Was the sacrifice fly even counted for most of those guys careers?
Kermit. - November 26, 2009
Hell if I know
Jeff Sullivan - November 26, 2009
This is awesome. You rock, Jeff.
Sam Regens - November 26, 2009
Wow
That was a thing of beauty to read. I was not really a big statistical follower of the Mariners until Edgar’s older days, but damn, did that guy put up some beautiful seasons.
On a related note, did anyone else notice how often Todd Helton’s name popped up?
moero - November 26, 2009
Yeah, it was odd that Helton popped in about one position behind Edgar on a couple of those.
I can’t tell if that’ll hurt Edgar’s chances, but it seems to me that your average BBWAA voter might look and instinctively say “Todd Helton’s not a Hall of Famer,” and use that to dismiss Edgar.
Two Rs and Two Ls - November 27, 2009
That's when we hit them with the Todd Helton Fact Sheet
In which we make the case that Helton is a Hall of Fame player, making Edgar look even better.
Gihyou - November 27, 2009
I stack up well against some hall of famers on some of these lists,
I’d be a shoe-in if only there were a team that would send out a fact sheet on me.
Attractive Nuisance - November 27, 2009
On my hall of fame fact sheet, I'm only 1 behind Ty Cobb on the "Beating a man with no hands" leaderboard.
joof - November 27, 2009
It's fun to go into the actual Hall of Fame at the hall of fame and just call people out.
“Racist, jackass, jackass, cheater, Yankee jackass…”
Two Rs and Two Ls - November 29, 2009
I have yet to make an out in the majors.
I’m a shoe-in.
marinerdan - November 29, 2009
My defense is impeccable
I have never made an error at any level. And although they will tell you that you can’t win just with defense, my runs saved / innings played is infinite, which obviously compensates quite well for my meager offensive stats.
pygmalion - November 29, 2009
I guarantee you that Zeile donated more than Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner.
If that doesn’t earn HOF induction, I don’t know what does.
CapSea - November 29, 2009
Edgar's fact sheet
Edgar is put in a lot pools almost exclusively of HOFers where he is near the bottom. I wonder if a better approach might be to create pools with fewer HOFers but pools where Edgar is near the top, ahead of most of the HOFers in each pool.
two_hands - November 30, 2009
No offence to Jeff
but I have no idea who Todd Zeile is/was and cannot wait for something new to be at the top of the page. C’mon Mariners, do something!
Eyeball Kid - November 30, 2009
Todd Zeile was the next Mickey Mantle
Poochie - November 30, 2009
Todd Zeile is two Chris Sabos.
The Chris Sabos are in sequence.
two_hands - December 1, 2009
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