Vladimir Guerrero should be in the Hall.

In May of 2003 when Arte Moreno bought the Anaheim Angels from the Disney Corporation everything was going pretty well.  The team had just won their first World Series, attendance was at an all-time high and the Angels had a lot of young talent that seemed poised to be perennial contenders in the American League.

However, by the end of the 2003 season the Angels had finished a disappointing third place with a 77-85 19 games behind Oakland.  So Moreno was determined to make a big splash, so he dug into his wallet (Moreno has been known to do so, although not recently) and pulled out a plum signing All-Star outfielder Vladimir Guerrero away from the Montreal Expos signing him to a 5-year $70 million dollar contract.

Moreno also pulled out a marshmallow when he signed the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters, otherwise known as Bartolo Colon (sorry Bartolo, I couldn’t resist), to a four-year $51 million dollar contract.

For good measure The Angels also signed Kelvim Escobar to a four-year $18.75 million dollar contract and outfielder Jose Guillen to a two-year contract worth six million dollars.

In total Moreno spent 146 million dollars in less than a month.  Escobar had a decent career as Colon.  Guillen was very productive in first season, but his attitude earned him a trip right out of Anaheim in the offseason.

Of all of those signings the one that made the biggest impact was Vladimir Guerrero.  In the 2004 season Guerrero batted .337 with 39 home runs and 126 RBI’s.  He finished with an OPS (on base percentage + slugging) of .989.  For his efforts, Guerrero was named the 2004 AL MVP, becoming only the second player in Angels history.

Overall in six season for the Angels Vladimir Guerrero hit for a .319 batting average with  173 home runs and 616 RBI’s with a .381 OBP and .546 slugging percentage for an OPS of .927.  He also had 42 outfield assists with a .971 fielding percentage.

Guerrero drove in 100 or more runs four of the six years he was with the Angels and batted .300 in five of six seasons.  Guerrero also hit 25 or more home runs five of the six seasons he played in Anaheim.  The only season he missed hitting .300 and hitting 25 home runs was his last season when Guerrero missed 60 plus games with various injuries.

Not only was Guerrero a great player for the Angels, he was genuinely nice guy.  His big smile and infectious  laugh made him a fan favorite both on and off the field.

I had the pleasure of meeting Guerrero on multiple occasions the earliest on was in August of 1995 when he was a member of the Albany Polecats (Single-A Montreal Expos).  He didn’t speak much English then, but was still very polite to autograph seekers, especially children.  An of course he had that smile.

The last time I talked to Vlady was in 2008 during the Angels photo day.  I showed him his baseball card that I had gotten the summer after I saw him play (I knew he would be a star back then) and I told him about talking to him when he was on the Polecats.  His response was “That was a very long time ago”.  My response was “You were much smaller then” and that’s when I got both the big smile and his infectious laugh.

I hope that one day soon the Hall of Fame voters realize how special and well-rounded player Vladimir Guerrero was.  He may not have hit 500 home runs (449 in total), and he didn’t get 3,000 hits either (2,590 hits for his career), both milestones are almost guaranteed hall enshrinement if you achieve them.

However, if you look at Vladimir Guerrero’s career numbers they are still excellent. A career .318 hitter who averaged 34 home runs and 113 RBI’s during 15 year big league career.  Guerrero drove in 100+ runs 10 times and hit 25 or more home runs in 12 of his 15 seasons in the majors (two of those three seasons he didn’t reach 25 HR’s he played in 100 games or less. Guerrero also only hit under .300 twice in his career, once in his injury-plagued 2009 season, and the other time during his final season.

Guerrero was an All-Star nine times and an 8-time Silver Slugger award winner.  He finished in the top five in the MVP race winning the award in 2004.  He had a career OBP of .379 and .553 slugging percentage.  So his numbers are definitely Hall of Fame worthy.

With Vladimir Guerrero deciding to sign a one-day contract with the Angels so he could retire as an Angel.  With that being said,  Guerrero if elected will most likely to go in as an Angel ending the Angels close to 60 year Hall of Fame drought.

I myself hope Vlady will get the nod to join the Hall, he definitely deserves it.