In a crazy twist of events, Omaha GM Justin Niles stated he wasn’t sure he would be voting Emilio Morales into the hall of fame when asked publicly on a discord channel. Niles’s feelings towards longtime Omaha third baseman Emilio Morales and his eventual vote into the Hall Of Fame were obvious, or so we thought.I'm not sure if this belongs as a league feature or not. If not, I can repost in my team forum.
Niles, who is very open about his support on having a “small hall” Hall of Fame, but that still sent some shockwaves when he admitted that he very well might not vote Morales into the hall of fame when his time comes, despite Morales being one of his own. A few years back on a podcast when Niles was debating between potential Hall of Fame candidates and their worthiness, Niles broke down what he believes should be checked to be a Hall of Famer.
“They shouldn’t be below a 125+ OPS or wRC+. If they are, they shouldn’t be far off, and they should be excellent defenders with multiple awards for defense.” Said Niles on the podcast.
Morales currently sits at a 112+ OPS and a 111 wRC+, thanks in part to having those dip below 100 every year since 2042, a far cry from his 8 seasons with both being over 113. Since Morales turned 32, he has been a below average hitter, but has been able to still handle his glove. Morales was voted as the best 3rd baseman defensively in both 2038 and 2044, and has a career 44.2 ZR at 3rd base, along with a 17.7 career at 2B.
Morales has been voted into the all-star game 7 times in his career, and has won the Golden Bat award 6 times at third base. He is a 2 time Geoghegan Round MVP, and his team won it all in 2046. In the post-season, Morales has a 117 OPS+ over 411 plate appearance, where he has homered 30 times and drove in 86 runs.
We haven’t gotten to his spot on the career leaderboards. Let’s skip the “team only” one as he basically owns all Omaha records, and head straight to the BBA with his rankings.
Games: 2,513(28th)
At Bats: 9,651(29th)
Runs: 1,376(64th)
Hits: 2,618(55th)
Total Bases: 5,181(16th)
Home Runs: 716(2nd-4 home runs away from #1)
RBI’s: 1816(9th)
SO %: 8.3%, 859 times.
Some say it would be hard to show the history of the BBA, especially the 2030s without Morales, who hit 363 home runs in the 6 seasons he led the league in a row in that category, averaging 60 per season. Those same seasons he drove in 900 runs, an average of 150 per season.
With Emilio Morale's current career accolades, the run he went on from 2035-2040, and if he were to hit #721 this season, it would be tough to imagine Morales not in the hall of fame, but apparently for Omaha GM Justin Niles, it’s not as hard to imagine as one would think.