Omar Vizquel is a Hall of Famer

Before scoffing at me telling you that Omar Vizquel of the San Francisco Giants is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, hear me out. The following numbers will lend credence to this statement that Vizquel belongs in the company of the game's elite. 9,396 at bats, 2,460 base hits, a .262 lifetime batting average, and a .978 fielding percentage with just 281 errors as a shortstop. Those statistics do not belong to Omar Vizquel, but to Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, and Vizquel's are better in each of those categories. As a matter of fact, Omar Vizquel, playing his nineteenth season in baseball, has better numbers across the board, offensively and especially defensively, than the vast majority of shortstops currently enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Vizquel's best years were spent with the Cleveland Indians, but he was a Mariner first, playing for Seattle for five seasons. Never anything remotely resembling a great hitter at the beginning of his career, Omar improved at the plate enough after his first few campaigns to actually hit .333 in 1999, a career best by far. A .274 lifetime hitter at the plate, Vizquel has reached double-digits in homers just once, with 14 in 2002, the same year he posted his highest runs batted in total of 72. Omar is approaching some milestones that are quite impressive, as he will soon pass Ernie Banks for 38th place on the all-time at bats list and only four shortstops have more base hits while playing the position in Major League Baseball history. All four of those are in the Hall of Fame- Luis Aparicio, Rabbit Maranville, Honus Wagner, and Luke Appling.

In this age of home runs and huge RBI totals, Vizquel's batting stats cannot possibly measure up, but they do so just fine to those of the shortstops that have been elected to the Hall. What hurts Omar in the public perception is the emergence of shortstops such as Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Miguel Tejada over the past dozen or so years, as they are all high average hitters with run producing capability. Vizquel is more in the mold of the old National League shortstops that would steal bases and play good defense, and indeed Vizquel's 377 stolen bases would place him fourth all-time amongst modern era Hall of Fame shortstops.

Even though his offensive numbers compare more than favorably with those shortstops already in the Hall of Fame, it is with his glove that Vizquel separates himself from almost all others who have toiled at that position. Only Ozzie's thirteen Gold Gloves are more than Omar's eleven, and Vizquel's .984 fielding percentage for his career is the best of all-time for a shortstop. Smith made 281 miscues in 2,511 major league tilts, while Vizquel has 179 in 2,540 contests. He leads all shortstops in double plays with 1,636, compared to Ozzie's 1,590, and he is the oldest shortstop to win a Gold Glove, winning the last two in the senior circuit at the ages of 38 and 39. Along with Cal Ripken Jr, Vizquel holds the American League record of most errorless games by a shortstop at 95, a standard he set with the Indians.

As proof that offense is held in such a higher regard than defense, Vizquel has been on only three All-Star teams. Baseball Commissioner Bid Selig probably wishes that Omar had been left off the 2002 version, as his eighth inning triple tied the now infamous game at 7-7, leading to the extra inning stalemate that has haunted Selig ever since. Vizquel co-holds the record for most hits in a nine inning game in the American League with a 6 for 7 performance in a 22-0 blasting of the Yankees in 2004. Vizquel is the only non-American player to win the Hutch Award, given out since 1965 to the active player that best exemplifies a fighting spirit and competitive desire to win. Vizquel was born in Caracas, Venezuela and was the captain of that country's team World Baseball Classic squad in 2006.

It is easy to look at the numbers on offense that the other sluggers playing shortstop now have on their resumes and look past Vizquel as a Hall of Famer, but that would be a mistake. The indisputable master of the barehanded pickup and throw, Omar cannot help it if the position has changed in the midst of his time in the sport. The fact that he is among the top two defensive shortstops ever, and statistically the very best, needs to count for something, and I believe that it should one day have a place on his plaque in Cooperstown.