Way back in the 13th round of the Circle of Greats voting, Edgar Martinez appeared on only 9.9% of the ballots cast, dropping off the ballot. But shortly thereafter he received the most support in our Redemption Round #2 (one vote more than Kenny Lofton), allowing him to return to the main ballot. Now, 38 rounds on that main ballot later, Martinez becomes our first candidate to be inducted after having earlier fallen off the main ballot, and overall becomes the 60th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Gar and the voting after the jump.

“Rbat” is the component of Baseball-Reference’s Wins Above Replacement calculation that reflects solely the hitting element of a player’s contribution. The Rbat number represents how many runs above average, according to b-ref’s formula, a player produced, purely as a hitter.

Most Rbat By An American League Player in His 30s (i.e., age 30-39 seasons)
1. Babe Ruth 728.9
2. Ted Williams 490.8
3. Lou Gehrig 413.9
4. Edgar Martinez 413.0
5. Ty Cobb 407.7

But we don’t have to limit the inquiry to just age 30 and over to put Edgar in the spotlight:

Most Rbat By An American League Player, Age 27 Season and After
1. Babe Ruth 990.0
2. Ted Williams 773.6
3. Lou Gehrig 669.3
4. Ty Cobb 597.6
5. Tris Speaker 540.6
6. Edgar Martinez 534.2

So extending back the range from age 30 and later to age 27 and later, only Cobb and Speaker move past Edgar, and Speaker just barely so. Martinez still appears among the true all-time greats in this sort of category.

Nor do we really have to limit the focus to the American League for Martinez to remain among the immortals:

Most Rbat By A Major Leaguer, Age 27 Season and After
1. Babe Ruth 992.1
2. Barry Bonds 984.9
3. Ted Williams 773.6
4. Lou Gehrig 669.3
5. Stan Musial 638.6
6. Ty Cobb 597.6
7. Hank Aaron 591.3
8. Willie Mays 587.8
9. Tris Speaker 540.6
10. Edgar Martinez 534.2

Bonds, Musial, Mays and Aaron are the only NL players who rank higher than Gar in this “WAR Runs Batting from age 27 on” category.

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Notes on the 60th voting round:

–Edgar M. is the first to be inducted of the seven players who have thus far returned to our regular balloting via the Redemption Round process. Redemption Round #1 returned Kenny Lofton and Kevin Brown to the ballot. Redemption Round #2 returned Edgar and, for the second time, Lofton. Redemption Round #3 returned Dave Winfield and Rick Reuschel, and Redemption Round #4 returned Eddie Murray and Harmon Killebrew.

–72 ballots were cast this round, a record for COG participation during the baseball season (we’ve had some higher vote totals in the off-season, though not in a very long time)

–Not a single vote was cast for any newcomer to the ballot. Or to say that another way, every vote on every ballot was cast for one of the twelve holdovers.

–One result of that 100% support for the holdovers: Craig Biggio and Ryne Sandberg move off the bubble for the first time in a long time. Also, Lofton, McCovey, Ford and Koufax add to their eligibility stashes (Ford with exactly 25% of the vote). But Doby, Ashburn, Killebrew and Murray remain on the bubble (though Murray missed the 25% level by just one vote). All together we will have just eleven holdovers next round, a smaller than normal number for the COG.

–Sandy Koufax, who fell a single vote short of catching Edgar Martinez on the last day of voting this round, is a unique COG phenomenon. He gets consistently high voting support, always over 25% despite a huge pile of eligibility years already built up, but still not quite enough support for induction. Many long-time holdovers who build a cache of eligibility years have seen a significant loss in support at some point (if they don’t get inducted first), as voters move to other holdovers who are perceived as more in need of the support. But it looks like the nature of Sandy’s support is different than most.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1922 Part 1 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with fuller details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appears on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appears on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also now find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.