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It amuses/saddens me to see the differing treatment of Frank Thomas and Edgar Martinez by HOF voters. Thomas makes it in on the first ballot with 83.7% of the vote while Edgar - in his 5th year on the ballot - fell to 25.2%. The main argument I've seen against electing Edgar is that he was primarily a DH, having played 1,463 of his 2,055 games as a DH. Well, Thomas played 1,351 if his 2,322 games at DH - not as high of a percentage, but a majority.
And the funny thing is Thomas was such a poor fielder at 1B that the difference in career WAR numbers between the two is pretty small - 73.6 for Thomas vs. 68.3 for Martinez. Martinez wasn't a great fielder either, especially as he aged, but since he was at DH more often, he wasn't a liability in the field as much as Thomas was, and very nearly his equal with the bat.
Oh well - I've long since stopped caring so much about the HOF, and as time passes, more votes are moving from stodgy old-timers with aggressive, active ignorance of better data to newer voters much more receptive to that better data. I don't know if it will be in time for Edgar to get voted in through the normal process, but I have some faith that eventually a committee will give him his rightful inclusion in the Hall.
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