Rum Bunter Staff Mock Hall of Fame Ballot: Noah Wright

Adrian Beltre

Yeah, this is a pretty obvious pick. The only reason he wouldn’t be the first guy I check the box for is because it's so obvious. Adrian Beltre is easily one of the best third basemen of all-time. He was a great hitter and arguably the only third baseman who was better than him with the leather is Brooks Robinson.

Beltre checks many of the boxes for counting or cumulative stats. He has 477 home runs, over 3000 hits, and nearly 100 bWAR at +93.5. He is a career .286/.339/.480 batter with a 116 OPS+ and 115 wRC+. One could argue that he is the best third baseman of all-time. 

Among players who played at least half of their games at the hot corner, no one has more hits than him. He has 5309 total bases, which far outpaces George Brett’s 5044 TBs who has the second most among primary 3Bs. Only Mike Schmidt and Eddie Mathews have more career home runs and more bWAR.

Defensively, he has +27 dWAR and +201 defensive runs saved. DRS didn’t become an officially recognized statistic until 2003, Beltre’s 6th season. Despite that, Beltre is one of only two defenders all-time with at least 200 defensive runs saved. 

There’s not much else to say about Beltre other than he deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame. It’s a shame that he won’t get to 100% because there’s really no argument against him. There’s really nothing you could possibly say to reasonably leave him off a ballot.