He’s an 11-time Gold Glove winner, has the highest career fielding percentage for his position and is the all-time leader for double plays as a shortstop. But is current Giants and former Indians and Mariners’ shortstop Omar Vizquel a Hall of Famer?
In one of his recent articles, Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer asks the same question. Pluto writes that had Vizquel played for the Red Sox or Yankees, he would be an unquestioned first ballot inductee.
Smith made it on the first ballot with 91 percent of the vote. A player needs 75 percent to be elected.
Maybe voters with that opinion should ask themselves, “What is the most important thing a shortstop does?”
Let’s hope defense comes to mind.
You can talk 11 Gold Gloves, second only to Smith. Or you can use a more modern, stat-based standard: the Zone Rating. It measures the percentage of balls hit in his area, and how many are caught.
In his past four years, he has ranked first, first, third and fourth. That’s from the ages of 38 to 41, all in San Francisco.
Even when it comes to offense, Vizquel not only has a higher career batting average (.273) than Aparicio (.262) or Smith (.262), but – for those who like the modern stats – he has a higher OPS (.695) compared to Smith (.665) and Aparicio (.654).
What’s sad about the media today and also the present day fan is that we tend to focus purely on what a player is doing offensively. With how popular fantasy sports are these days, defense continues to be brushed aside and that’s what Omar has always done best. He puts on a nightly clinic at short and doesn’t get enough credit because of how easy he makes the game look. He’s truly one of the most gifted defensive players in baseball history and deserves Hall of Fame induction.
