David Ortiz ranks #1 in hits and other stats as a designated hitter and he just carried the Red Sox to another World Series title and in my mind he made the case that he should be a hall of famer. I'm not sure about first ballot or not, but at some point he should be in the hall. If Frank Thomas or Edgar Martinez make the hall then Ortiz should be right behind them. Ortiz hasn't been the best with the glove, but he's not exactly a liability with the glove as he proved in St. Louis as he made all the regular plays around the first base bag. Ortiz has been clutch ever since he went to Boston to bat in front of Manny Ramirez and has kept up a pretty solid pace up until a down season in 2009 when he batted .238 on the season, but he still had 28 home runs and 99 runs batted in.
The bigger issue in my opinion for David Ortiz's candidacy for the hall has been the performance enhancing drugs issue that has followed Ortiz ever since his name popped up on a list of players that tested positive for banned substances back in 2003, but the players union backed Ortiz and stated that the list of players released by the New York Times in 2009 was overblown and that not all of them were for PEDs, but nobody wants to hear that. Even to this day people bring up how he's a user, but no one looks at the details and that - more than his position- is going to be the reason he won't make the hall and that's unfortunate because he's doing incredible things with the bat in his hands.
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