The Baseball Hall Of Fame will announce this years voting results on Monday. Since it's going to be a little while before I obtain my own ballot, I thought I would share with you how I would vote if I did.
Rickey Henderson: Rickey is the greatest leadoff hitter of all time. However, to recognize him only in these terms (i.e. leadoff hitter) minimizes the magnitude of his career as he is one of the greatest even if he had batted third or fourth. Henderson has the most career stolen bases with 1,406 - 468 more than Lou Brock who is second all time. 1,406 is amazing, especially when you consider that if you added together the total stolen bases of the three active leaders (Juan Pierre, Omar Vizquel, and Johnny Damon) they are still 230 behind Henderson. He lead the league in steals 12 times and was in the top ten 21 times. He stole over 100 bases three times, and set the all time mark for steals in a season with 130. He was in top 5 in OBP 12 times and in the top ten 16 times. When he won the MVP in 1990, with the greatest season from a leadoff hitter of all time, he led the league in OBP, was second in slugging, and led the league in OPS. He also led the league with an OPS+ of 188 - as a leadoff hitter that is nothing short of amazing. The likes of David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Ken Griffey Jr. have never had a season with an OPS+ of 188.
Henderson is the all time leader in runs scored with 2,295. He also led the league in runs scored 5 times and was in the top ten 12 times. He is second all time in walks behind Barry Bonds though if you eliminate intentional walks he is the all time leader. He led the league in walks 4 times and was in the top ten 16 times. This isn't like Barry Bonds where pitchers were afraid to face him because he is the all time home run king. Pitchers didn't mind pitching to Henderson because they did not want to give him a free pass to first which would potentially lead to him stealing second and even third. Rickey walked 796 times leading off an inning. That means he walked more times leading off an inning than 55 hall of famers did in their whole careers.
Even though he was a leadoff hitter was in the top 10 in OPS+ 7 times. He also is 21st on the all time hit list with 3,055. He has 81 leadoff home runs which is yet another record. One more random thing about Rickey: from 1979-2001 he stole 1,395 bases, now in that same stretch the entire Red Sox organization stole 1,392. I realize that those Red Sox teams from the 80's and 90's weren't known for their speed, even still it amazes me.
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