Justice Served

David Justice announced his retirement today.

Justice had announced during the season that he would retire if the A's won the World Series. After the A's lost in the playoffs, he still spoke as if he were retiring, but then backed off.

Justice had been a free agent this offseason and had wanted to return to the A's. He had received a $1 M offer from the Angels and some overtures from the Red Sox, but evidently found them wanting. His agent had said back in November that Justice was only returning for the right situation. I guess he didn't find that.

Justice was still a valuable player last year at age 36. How will Justice be remembered? With a .279 career average, 305 dingers, 1017 RBI, a .378 OBP, and a .500 slugging percentage, he was a nice ballplayer. He also has an OPS that was 28% better than the adjusted league average, was the rookie of the year, and played in 21 postseason series for 4 different clubs. Ultimately though, he falls comfortably short of being a Hall-of-Famer. He had just two All-Star apperances, broke the top-10 in MVP voting just twice, never lead his league in any major statistical category, and falls short on Bill James Hall measures.

Here are his top-10 most similar batters (thanks to Baseball-Reference.com):

Rudy York (915)
Larry Doby (914) *
Greg Luzinski (912)
Kent Hrbek (911)
Darryl Strawberry (908)
Tim Salmon (908)
Tino Martinez (907)
Roy Sievers (906)
Vic Wertz (900)
Mo Vaughn (900)
* indicates a Hall-of-Famer

That group is full of very good but non-Hall-worthy corner outfielders and first baseman. Dolby is the only misfit: he is a center fielder and the only one ih the Hall. Some would say that his choice was a mistake and others would say that he was aided by being among the first to break through the color line as a player and a manager. Whatever your opinion of Dolby's enshrinement, he doesn't help Justice's case much anyway.