In 2018, slugging outfielder Vladimir Guerrero is on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot for the second time. Since he was named on 71.7 percent of ballots last year (and you need at least 75 percent of ballots for election), he's going in this year. Per Per Ryan Thibodaux's public ballot tracker, Guerrero is presently polling at a hefty 94.5 percent, so, yeah, he's going to be a Hall of Famer this year. The big leap in support suggests that a number of voters were withholding support from Guerrero on a "not on the first ballot" basis. In the end, though, the plaques all look the same. 

As for the statistical merits, Guerrero's are obvious ... 

  • .318 batting average, 56th all-time;
  • .553 slugging percentage, 24th all-time;
  • .931 OPS, 34th all-time;
  • 2,590 hits, 85th all-time;
  • 4,506 total bases, 49th all-time;
  • 477 doubles, 85th all-time;
  • 449 home runs, 38th all-time;
  • 972 extra-base hits, 45th all-time;
  • 1,496 RBI, 57th all-time;
  • 140 OPS+, 79th all-time;
  • 3,430 times on base, 115th all-time;
  • 250 intentional walks (sign of respect, that), fifth all-time;
  • Eight-time Silver Slugger;
  • Nine-time All-Star;
  • 2004 AL MVP;
  • Five other top-10 finishes in the MVP balloting.

You could know nothing else about Guerrero, survey the bullet points above, and rightly conclude that he's got a strong case for Cooperstown. Hall debates, though, have never entirely been about the numbers. Look at the ballot instructions provided to voting BBWAA members ... 

Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.

... And you don't see a lot of sanction for such "cultural" considerations, but they're undeniably part of the process. Perhaps that flows from the fact that the institution is named the Hall of Fame and not, say, the Hall of Objective Baseball Excellence. With inductees like Sandy Koufax and Dizzy Dean, voters no doubt pondered what might have been if not for injury. With Jim Rice, the dominating physical presence and "fear factor" were advanced as arguments for his (dubious) election. The pioneering aspect of some candidates have pushed them over the edge. Mythos drives the cases of some others, and so on. 

As noted, Guerrero doesn't require us to import any arguments about aesthetics or baseball folkways in order to muster a compelling case. Still, though, Vlad was a hell of a lot of fun as a ballplayer, and that speaks to the "Fame" aspect of the museum in question. If presented with two players of equal objective merits, we'll choose the one whose manner and style grab us by the lapels more forcefully. 

In Vlad's case, he was in some ways baseball's foundational elements bundled up in one 6-foot-3, 235-pound frame that somehow managed to be gangly and overpowering at the same time. 

Perhaps most notably, Guerrero was a free-swinger to glorious extremes. He never drew more than 52 unintentional walks in a season. Normally, this would not be singled out for praise -- plate discipline is a laudable trait in a hitter. In Guerrero's case, though, he managed to be highly productive (career OPS+ of 140, as noted above) while also going up there seemingly with the sole objective to crash his bat into some cowhide. Walks are good. Walks signify a disciplined hitter. Walks, however, are boring. When you're a Little Leaguer, you're encouraged to take them only when necessary. Don't seek them out, as they can betray an inward timidity in the young hitter. Along the way, though, that very rationally gets trained out of the hitter. You go hunting for what you can handle, and you lay off anything that doesn't tick off all the boxes. Again, that's smart, useful to the team, and to the hitter's credit. The ruthlessly picky, however, do not always make for engaging baseball. 

Praise be, then, the singular hitter who can do this (while, of course, not wearing batting gloves) ... 

There's bad-ball hitting, and there's surveying a 55-foot breaking ball bound headlong for the dirt and deciding to turn it into a base knock. Such are the there-is-no-tomorrow batting skills of a guy who hit .318 with tremendous power all while rarely walking of his own volition and never striking out more than 95 times in a season. Such is the confidence in approach of a hitter who, in the midst of hoarding 27 homers and 45 doubles in his All-Star season of 2007, struck out looking precisely one time. Let that last one breathe for a moment. 

Know, though, that the man who hit 126 home runs and 117 doubles on the first pitch of an at-bat had to fight for his method. As one of nine kids in the Dominican Republic, you don't walk out of the Dodgers' academy as a young amateur because they tried to train your approach out of you. You don't do that unless you have a remarkable level of self-investment. You don't try out for the Expos in mismatched shoes unless you know the talent you've cultivated through work and purpose will come through no matter the optics. You don't ignore the criticisms during your rookie season -- that you can't possibly keep swinging at everything and survive the highest level -- unless you know better. 

It's not just the bat, though ... 

That's the kind of arm that, years prior, earned him a tryout with the Yankees -- as a pitcher. He could hit for contact, hit for power, throw, catch, and run (lest we forget, from 2001-02 Guerrero stole a total of 77 bases). 

In the current era, when too many batter-pitcher encounters end without seeing the ball put in play, it's worth remembering that Vlad put the ball in play or homered more than 7,000 times in his career. Not all of those ended in his favor, of course, but he had our attention.

When we talk about fun ballplayers in the current era, it's usually those who show some exuberance on the field. That's a good thing, of course, and Vlad had plenty of exuberance. Mostly, though, he was fun because he played baseball in a way that called upon the full complement of baseball skills. Some of those tools are on the wane these days, at least in terms of how often we see them displayed for us. In that way, we could use another Vlad right about now. 

As for the original Vlad, he's going to the Hall of Fame, which is as it should be. The numbers say so, as do our eyes.