Edgar Martinez was one of the best hitters I've seen. However, I have a hard time supporting him since he almost exclusively "played" as DH.
He has 2055 games played, and according to Baseball-Reference, only 564 at 3B and 28 at 1B. Most of which were early in his career.
I tend to cut him some slack because he was very unlucky in the regard that the Mariners didn't make him a regular until his age 27 season. Which is in the range of a player's prime (27 to 29 is generally regarded in stat-circles as a hitter's prime).
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martied01.shtml
If you look at the 10 most comparable players to Martinez, none are or will be in the HOF:
Todd Helton (912)
Will Clark (902)
John Olerud (885)
Moises Alou (879)
Bobby Abreu (874)
Bernie Williams (860)
Bob Johnson (857)
Magglio Ordonez (855)
Paul O'Neill (852)
Ellis Burks (850)
If baseball were ONLY about hitting, I might give a shit. I feel the same way about all guys who hung on the roster solely for their swinging skills (some well after their bats fell silent too).
Frankly, if you played DH for a significant (more than, say, 1/3) portion of your career and you don't have WELL over 550-600 HR's, don't even THINK about getting into Cooperstown.
That means that Jr would be in, but that's about it. Maybe Thome if he gets picked up by someone this year.
That also means that, IMO, the following should NOT make it in, and I challenge anyone here to tell me that anyone I list DOES deserve inclusion into the hall:
Rafael Palmeiro (roids more than anything else)
David Ortiz (numbers and roids)
Fred McGriff
Frank Thomas
anyone else you think should or shouldn't be on this list, please let me know.
JMO.