The man's a Hall of Famer. Will he get voted in? I think eventually, but I don't care.
I think a lot of you give the writers too much credit. Not many of them are calculating numbers like you are. They're going by gut first, then using the basic numbers to confirm it. You've all been watching baseball long enough that you don't need a protractor to know a Hall of Famer when you see one. Troy Tulowitzki, Hall of Famer. Justin Verlander, Hall of Famer. Ichiro Suzuki, Hall of Famer.
Some players start off likable enough to be on that "Hall of Fame track" until they trail off on the numbers enough not to be included (Nomar). Pedroia could be an example of this in a few years. There was this "future HoF" vibe to him ever since his MVP season. If his numbers are close enough by the end of his career, he's in. If they're not, he's on the bubble.
Others are forgotten gems like Ortiz who come on so strong over the last half of their career that you are forced to notice. Minnesota mismanaged Ortiz. Those numbers should be completely forgotten. He was Ortiz from the beginning and they didn't let him be Ortiz. They wanted him to be Ichiro. I saw a clip on MLB network earlier this season from an old Home Run derby held at a minor league park. In that clip, you could see Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr marveling over the massive bombs this minor leaguer was hitting. "Who is this guy?" they'd laugh to each other with faces like kids watching a major leaguer who happened to show up at their little league game to put on a show. That guy, hitting bombs with the exact same swing and swagger as he has today? 18-year-old David Ortiz.
If you had to pick a single player to represent the past decade of MLB, who else could you pick besides Ortiz? He's been an ambassador off the field and an unstoppable force on it. Who knows what numbers he may have put up if the Twins organization didn't try to teach him how to bunt? Who cares? He's been the face of baseball for the last decade and one of the best and most feared hitters during that same span. He was a huge part of two Red Sox World Series championships, an impossible idea before he was picked up off the scrap heap, and is still going strong, having one of the best age-37 seasons in the history of baseball.
He's got two things that will keep him from being first-ballot. The PED issue, which is absurd unless he gets caught with something in his system post-2003 (all pre-2003 PED usage should seriously just be swept under a rug. It was an encouraged and unpunished practice until people started making a mockery of the game) and the DH issue which is absurd to the point that it actually pisses me off some times. Why some shitty first baseman who forces himself on the field should be considered more valuable than one flexible enough to be able keep up his production while letting someone better do it is beyond me. Which player helps your team win more ballgames? And when he's been needed on the field, he hasn't been completely incompetent, either.
So yeah, David Ortiz is a Hall of Famer if I've ever seen one. And it really doesn't matter to me if the writers agree, but some day, ultimately, I think they will.
Super late edit: I totally meant to say verlander instead of Jeter in that first paragraph but drew a blank when typing this up.
