Hall of Fame Poll: Vladimir Guerrero

So let's talk about Vladimir Guerrero.

I'm hugely biased here, because I loved him as a Expo. The biggest thing I remember about him is that he was the best bad pitch hitter I've ever seen. He could hit the ball if it was an inch off the ground or a pitch two feet off the outside corner or a pitch over his head. He was fun to watch. I remember him hitting a pitch that bounced. He was pretty hard to pitch to, he could hit anything.

He had very quick hands, and could wait longer to decide to swing at a pitch. Even with his willingness to swing at anything, he did take his fair share of walks and he didn't strikeout all that much. He never had a 100 strikeout season.

Vlad played 16 years, 8 of them with the Expos, 6 as an Angel, 1 with the Rangers and 1 with Baltimore. And you might remember he signed a minor league contract with the Jays, in 2012, but left the organization when he wasn't called up by mid-June.

In 2147 games, he hit .318/.379/.553 with 449 home runs and 1496 RBI. He even stole some bases, 181 (ok he was caught 94 times, he really shouldn't have been stealing). Baseball Reference has him at 59.3 career WAR.

He won 1 MVP award and got MVP votes in 12 seasons. He played on 9 All-Star teams and won 8 Silver Slugger awards. If you want a strange stat, he is 5th all time in Intentional Walks.

Defensively? Well, he had a great arm in right, but he alo made a ton of errors. He had pretty good range early in his career, but playing on the carpetted concrete, at the Big O, put an end to the range quickly.

PEDs? I don't remember any rumors about him.

You can see his stats here.

Matt W. gives us this:

A lot of debate about the Hall of Fame relates to comparing a candidate against others elected and excluded. The chart below shows all players who played the majority of their career after 1945 (excluding active players, and those on the ballot or yet to hit the ballot) according to how long they played and how productive they were. TRC+ is wRC+, just for all runs rather than just batting runs. This is not meant to be definitive, but a high level starting point showing how players with similarly productive and lasting careers have fared.

Similar players: Jim Rice (elected BBWAA), Pee Wee Reese (elected Veteran's Committee), Enos Slaughter (VC), Orlando Cepeda (VC), Kenny Lofton, Willie Randolph, John Olerud, Jeff Kent, Todd Helton, Jose Cruz, Jason Giambi