[timn1]

I think to fetishize the "5-tool player" when arguing about the HOF is a bit silly. Players who are genuinely outstanding in all 5 tools come along about once in a generation (Cobb, Speaker, DiMaggio, Mantle, Mays, Griffey Jr, Trout, maybe a few others). And even then, about half the 5-toolers lose their speed by age 30....

Except for those few, almost all players, even the greatest, are MLB average or worse at one or more of these skills. Collins didn't hit for power, Clemente didn't walk (which is one of the REAL 5 tools), Sisler couldn't walk or throw, Gehrig had legs like tree trunks, Ripken couldn't run if his pants were on fire but at least he fielded his position well, which the greatest hitter of all time (or at least second greatest) couldn't be bothered to do. Etc. etc.

If you limited the HOF to true 5-tool players you would have about 10 guys in there (which is what some people around here seem to want).

Like other sports and fields of achievement, baseball has become more ever specialized as it matures. The DH has been around for almost half a century, and the relief ace/closer even longer. If the rules permit that type of specialist player, then to exclude the best of them from the HOF would make the HOF not a fair representation of the game as it's played.

Example: Edgar Martinez played almost 600 games in the field. He wasn't very good at third base but like a lot of 3B, if the DH hadn't existed he would have been moved to 1B and would have been perfectly adequate, like a hundred other pure hitters who wound up at 1B. To penalize him because the DH does exist in the rules is ridiculous.

Check out retrosheet.org. Their WAR-style stat is called BFW. Edgar has a 45.4 career BFW, which is exactly the same as Griffey Jr and higher than about 3/4 of the players in the HOF. Since 2000 only four non-pitchers with a higher BFW have been elected: Boggs, Thomas, Bagwell, and Henderson.

I hope Edgar will get in next year.