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Originally Posted by JustinD
I think some of the posts on stats are ignoring the historic actions of the hall. Negro League stats were not official prior, this did not hold back elections of those players. The same can be said for the small amount of Cuban players.
Up to now, Japanese and other international stats have been ignored. This is not the tradition of the Basketball HOF or Hockey HOF and I see some changes possible in the future to be more inclusive as a logical progression with these current moves of stat adjustments. I expect more Cuban elections and perhaps a well deserved recognition of Sadaharu Oh.
Ohtani could be that player to move the needle and open that door. I don't see the impact he had on Japanese ball being ignored in it's entirety.
Again, this is crazy early talk...anything can happen. I think he's well on his way and already the better player on a team that has Mike Trout on the roster. Although, I think we need to see where he sits in five years.
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I agree that NPB stats deserve more recognition, but with Ohtani I don’t think they would make much difference since he has actually been more dominant in MLB than he was in Japan. In five years in Japan he only hit a total of 48 home runs, fewer than he is likely to hit this year alone. His pitching was better, but he only amassed 42 wins, so it doesn’t move the needle much.
NPB stats would be way more relevant for guys like Hideki Matsui whose career numbers in both MLB and NPB are “good” but not “great” when viewed in isolation, but become very impressive when combined.
Ichiro is just weird since he basically had two HOF careers in each country, something that is unlikely to ever happen again.