6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

... and no gimpy little dunker over the shortstop's head, either, but a solid ringing double. There are those who say Raffy doesn't belong in the Hall, including Skip Bayless at ESPN, but I happened to stumble across a well-written Fisking of that particular misconception. The first clue that Bayless is hitting below the belt -- literally -- is his cheap shot "Mr. Viagra" moniker. (By the way, I happened to see his wife in the stands last night while they were showing his 3,000th hit on Baseball Tonight. He needs Viagra? That's one, uh, hard case!) The Jamesian Hall of Fame Monitor gives him a 156 score, and that's plenty for me.

Update: I continue to lose respect for Buster Olney after reading this thumbsucker (a great term I cribbed from FJT):

But it's evident, from what's been written and said in the last week, that an aura of greatness does not surround Palmeiro; the fact that anyone's even debating about whether or not he's a Hall of Famer tells you this. He's got the statistics of a baseball god yet he's regarded as a mere baseball mortal, someone who compiled enormous numbers at a time when a lot of numbers lurched upward.

Oh, so the natterings of halfwits and out-and-out imbeciles (look in the mirror, Buster) counts as to whether somebody should or should not be in the Hall? Riddle me this, then: why is it that steroids didn't make Cy Young out of former Angels pitcher Derrick Turnbow? Oh, but it gets better:

But then you place him within the context of his own era, and suddenly Palmeiro descends. He achieved 40-homer seasons when others hit 70. He drove in 120 runs when others were having seasons of an RBI per game. Place Palmeiro shoulder to shoulder with Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, the mercurial and muscled stars of the time, and suddenly Palmeiro's numbers don't look so great.

And, as one commenter pointed out below, none of them hit 38 or more home runs in nine straight seasons. They had higher peaks, yes, and that is what I think men like Olney are remarking upon. (By the by, whereever is his "productive out" stat in all of this bilge? Don't we want to consider that vital stat-of-stats when considering the utility of these players?) This is essentially the same argument, from the other side of the mound, made about Bert Blyleven's supposed "lack of dominance", and you all know what I think of that.

I suspect that it's not the numbers that eats away at Olney and all the other keep-Raffy-out-of-the-Hall sophists, but the peripheral issues. For instance, he had the temerity to play for losing teams. His first three years were with Cubs teams that never finished higher than fourth. His second club, the Rangers, finished no better than second. His third club was in the AL East with the O's during the rise and dominance of the great Yankees teams of the mid-to-late 90's. Finishing first only once -- in 1997 -- they went to the postseason twice and were knocked out in the ALCS both times, in 1996 to the Yankees and in 1997 to Cleveland. Moving to Texas in 1999, he helped that team make it to the postseason for only the third time in that franchise's history -- and again, lost to the Yankees in the ALDS, getting swept three games to none. It would be the last team he would play on (to date) to go to the postseason.

In fact, Raffy's only played on winning teams eight years of his nineteen-year career. The collective won-loss record of the teams he's been on through 2004 is 1418-1427. I can't help but wonder whether he's being blamed for the losing records of the clubs he's been on; sure, Raffy's no Bonds, but he's also not Rob Deer.

Another suspicion I have is that Olney and pals are penalizing Palmeiro because he hit poorly in the postseason. It's true, as far as it goes -- .244/.308/.451 with four home runs isn't a terrible record, but then, it's not the kind of gaudy record that the likes of Derek Jeter can amass simply because of the number of appearances a Jeter will get. That is, Mr. Small Sample Size rears his head, and such arguments must retire.

A third suspicion comes to mind, and that is the notion that Palmeiro couldn't hit in the clutch. But that's odd; he's a lifetime .281/.401/.475 hitter with runners in scoring position. In fact, 20% of his home runs (114 of 566) were with runners in scoring position, and 42% (236 of 566) with runners on base. So Raffy wasn't getting empty solo home runs. Raffy also has more career RBIs (1,826) than Sosa (1,559) or McGwire (1,414) -- if you like those kinds of things. Raffy has also had well over 10,000 at bats (10,393 as of this writing), while McGwire only amassed 6,187, Sosa 8,283, and Bonds 9,098. Durability counts.

I'm sure others will take this apart, and in more detail than I'm willing to put in here; but take the background noise for what it is. Raffy belongs in the Hall; the only question comes from those numbskulls unwilling to make the arguments with hard numbers.