Well since we have our leagues first inductions into the Hall of Fame I figure it's time to take a look at the careers of the players that will be inducted into the hall. I'll probably be doing this as a series of posts by taking a look at each one individually. Let's get it started.
LF/1B Javier Gabriel
Javier Gabriel started his career with the Hartford Berserkers, way back in Season 1. He was traded halfway through that first season to Salt Lake City, where he would play the rest of season 1 and season 2. In season 3 the franchise moved to Portland and he went along for the ride. He stayed with the franchise in season 4 as the team moved to LA and he played there through season 5. Before season 6 the franchise moved to Albuquerque and traded him away to Fargo. He would play there the next 2 seasons. Before season 8 started he was once again traded as he headed to Atlanta. The Atlanta franchise moved to Durham in season 10 and that's where he would play until season 13. In season 14 he left Durham and went on to play in the minors for 1 season in Ottawa to end his career.
Financially, this may be one of the lowest paid Hall of Famers ever. He was locked up for most of his career and never really tested the free agent waters. He made 52.012 million over his career, when many players are signing contracts like that over a few seasons and may never see the hall of fame. He was a bargain for sure.
Gabriel has some awards in his cabinet back at home in Nizao de Bani, DO. He won the NL MVP back in season 4 and then 5 seasons later he won the award in the AL as well. Surprisingly, he only made the all star game 2 times in his career and both came during his MVP seasons. He was a 1B Silver Slugger in season 4, and LF Silver Slugger in season 9. Seasons 4 and 9 where the seasons he racked up his awards, but he was a very good player the rest of his career as well.
Gabriel the player was known for his power and ability to get on base. A career .604 slugger with a career OBP of .399 and .301 batting average. He hit 536 homers in his 13 seasons with his high of 55 coming in seasons 4 and 5. He hit over 50 four times in his career and over 40 seven times. He had 1375 career RBI, with his most coming in seasons 4 and 9 with 136. He had over 100 RBI 8 times. He also added 5 seasons of over 100 runs. While he never had a season with 100 walks he still had 962 for his career while only striking out 757 times. He batted a .301 for his career and hit over .300 seven times. He batted over .290 ten times. At the time of this writing Gabriel is 4th in career homers, 4th in intentional walks with 160, 4th in OBP+Slg at 1.003, and 3rd in slugging.
Javier Gabriel had a very good career and while he didn't rack up the awards every season, the owners in the league saw through that and inducted this very deserving player into the first Hall of Fame class of Pine Tar.
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