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Miguel Cabrera out for the year with a ruptured bicep.

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Austin

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
5,706
41
Dallas, Texas
Miguel Cabrera will have surgery on Thursday to repair a ruptured bicep tendon. Sounds painful. He'll be in recovery for the next six months, so we won't see him again until Spring Training.

He's still only 35, so he should be well enough to hit the big milestones like 3,000 hits and 500 homers.
He'll come back next year with 2,676 hits and 465 homers, so probably 2020 when he hits the milestones.

It's too bad his body has been breaking down the last couple seasons. He was on pace for some monster career numbers just a few years ago.
Still one of the all-time greats and a first-ballot Hall of Famer if he retired today.
 
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bstanwood

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2016
3,666
332
Mystic, CT
Just for fun, knowing how the committee is these days do you think they would vote him in first ballot? In my mind I know I would, one of the best hitters I ever saw, injuries slowed him down a little earlier than I would have thought, shortening his career peak, but I'm wondering that if they compare him to other first baseman on career numbers if they'd make him wait.
I can't stand the politics of the voters, it's absurd and a new system should be introduced...not to stray too far off topic, like I said, to me Miggy is a first ballot shoe in, but I wonder if they would see it that way if his current numbers ended up being his career numbers. I hope we don't have to find out.
 

death2redemptions

New member
Feb 4, 2016
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The Carolina on the Southern side
Even if he doesn't reach those milestone numbers I do believe he'll make it in on the first ballot. Injuries in his mid 30's seasons also kept Chipper Jones from reaching such milestone numbers and he still easily made it in...and he only had 1 MVP award and no Triple Crown either.

Among the 24 first basemen in the HOF (including those who served as DH for some of their career like Frank Thomas) & the other active shoe-in first basemen (Pujols) I'd rank Miggy somewhere in the middle (13-15th) & behind Pujols.
 

banjar

Well-known member
Mar 22, 2015
2,540
883
Lafayette, Colorado
First ballot. At least in my opinion. The voters may make him wait a year or two or three, and I suppose I could see that. Can't play defense, can't run bases. But hitting is where it's at and he was an astonishingly talented hitter. If the worst case scenario plays out and he never plays another game, he's still in.
 

Topnotchsy

Featured Contributor, The best players in history?
Aug 7, 2008
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Even if he doesn't reach those milestone numbers I do believe he'll make it in on the first ballot. Injuries in his mid 30's seasons also kept Chipper Jones from reaching such milestone numbers and he still easily made it in...and he only had 1 MVP award and no Triple Crown either.

Among the 24 first basemen in the HOF (including those who served as DH for some of their career like Frank Thomas) & the other active shoe-in first basemen (Pujols) I'd rank Miggy somewhere in the middle (13-15th) & behind Pujols.

Who do you have him behind? 13-15 seems really low to me. He’s behind Gehrig, Pujols, Foxx, Thomas and possibly Anson and Brouthers (would need to dig deeper on the stats on those) but not sure who else... unless you penalize him significantly for his defense.


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smapdi

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
4,397
221
I don't see how anyone could look at his stats as they stand today and not vote for him. Two more decent seasons place him at 3000/500, but even without round numbers he's got enough in those categories. Two MVPs but also 5 other seasons where he finished in the top 5, and he could have won it in 2010 if Josh Hamilton didn't have his redemption season. I don't see how any liabilities on defense could be so great as to outweigh his offense.

Really sucked for him to miss this year. Injuries suck, and his last AB looked really painful. I hope he takes the next 10 months and really takes care of himself.
 

bstanwood

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2016
3,666
332
Mystic, CT
Out of curiosity I went to baseball reference to see how big a hindrance the statheads see his defense as. Career WAR of 69.3, 104th overall and 73rd among non pitchers. Not too bad, being right around 100 in WAR put you in pretty elite company considering how.many people have played the game. His career offensive WAR is 78.9, good for 39th all time, that's big time territory. So using rough math without any fancy equation so it might not be totally accurate, his defense makes him roughly 10-15% less valuable for his career.
Again, if I had a vote I'd put him in, but my semi-flawed math shows he was a fairly big liability in the field. Doesn't matter though, chicks dig the longball.
 

Randy Shields

Well-known member
Aug 20, 2008
2,224
441
OH-IO
Man this absolutely sucks!! Especially for Miggy, who seems pretty dejected about it, but also for all Tigers fans including myself, and for baseball in general.

Miggy, besides being one of the best right-handed hitters in baseball history, is simply great for the game, always having a smile on his face, having fun, jarring with the other players and his exchanges with kids in the stands has not only been recorded but have resulted in a lot of them receiving bats, batting gloves, jerseys, ect.

First ballot Hall of Famer? For me, to suggest otherwise would be laughable. This guy is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, period. To reach the age old milestones of 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, which I think he'll do anyway, would still be irrelevant if he were to retire today. As Al Kaline put it in 2013, this guy is already qualified for Cooperstown.

Get well Miggy and hurry back, baseball needs you!

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death2redemptions

New member
Feb 4, 2016
12,488
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The Carolina on the Southern side
Who do you have him behind? 13-15 seems really low to me. He’s behind Gehrig, Pujols, Foxx, Thomas and possibly Anson and Brouthers (would need to dig deeper on the stats on those) but not sure who else... unless you penalize him significantly for his defense.


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I actually just took a brief look at all the 1st basemen in the HOF and made a generalized assessment of where he may belong among the greats & thought to myself "somewhere in the middle". I'm sure if I dedicated the time to analyze the stats of each player & then rank them, my answer would likely be different. I'd put Gehrig, Pujols, Foxx, Thomas & Anson ahead of him too. Possibly Thome as well & maybe Murray simply because he's part of the elite 500 HR/3,000 Hits club. Miggy has better overall career stats and if he eventually joins that club too then I'd definitely put him ahead of Murray. I think a more accurate assessment might be 7th-9th (top 33 percentile) but again, didn't take much time to come up with that ranking so it wasn't very thorough. If he reaches 500 HR/3,000 RBI he's a potential top 5 first baseman, or at least close to it.

As for your comment on his defense & base running skills (or lack thereof), honestly while I do think these two aspects of the game are important, I probably wouldn't put much consideration into them when ranking a first baseman, as these are generally the two weaknesses "most" of them possess (one of the reasons they play first base to begin with & why they eventually end up as a DH in the AL).
 

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