New poll on the sidebar of the main page, and it's a simple question. Who's the better player, Eddie Murray or Rafael Palmeiro?
Take into account all years and try not to bias toward Eddie's status as one of the ultimate Orioles and a World Series champion with the team. Eddie is certainly more of our player than Palmeiro is.
The question is in my head because the two have great Oriole histories and - unless you've been under a rock you've heard this 127 times the last two weeks - Palmeiro is set to join the 3,000 hits club, and only he, Murray, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron will have achieved both that hit milestone and 500 home runs in their major league careers.
I also think it's an extremely interesting comparison because the two match up very, very similarly. Palmeiro will end with a rather substantial amount more home runs than Murray (who had 504), but will not likely pass him on the hits list (Murray had 3,255).
There is some era adjustment to be done, of course, but I don't think it's a huge deal. Palmeiro did play a lot of his career at Arlington, and that's an advantage. Both won three Gold Gloves, though one of Palmeiro's was grossly undeserved (1999, when he played a whopping 28 games at first base).
I think it's a very close call. Who do you pick?