Re: Omar Vizquel- HOF worthy?
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Also, in Ozzie's time shortstops were anemic hitters. Shortstops actually hit worse than catchers. He was worth more relative to other SSes in his time than Omar was. It'd reasonable to suggest that Ozzie was among the top shortstops hitting-wise many times during his career... Omar Vizquel? Maybe 1999?
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This is the most important difference IMO. However, it's quite possible that Ozzie's offensive numbers benefit from managers inefficiently using their players. Lately they've started to realize that it's not worth playing your best defensive player at SS if he can't hit worth crap.
However, this makes his defensive numbers even more spectacular. In a time when great defense was all that was needed to play SS in the majors, he still managed to dominate his peers. If Ozzie played during Vizquel's career, his offensive numbers may have been roughly the same - but he would have been even more awesome defensively compared to the average SS. Conversely, Vizquel probably would have been an average defensive SS in the late 70's/early 80's.
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