These 7 Hall of Fame hitters got off to slow starts

It pays to be patient in baseball.

No matter how bad things look, an at-bat, a game, a season and even a career can change in a blink. So just hang in there. This is good advice for players, fans or anyone prone to seduction by small sample sizes.

With Orioles phenom Jackson Holliday off to a rough start so far, it's a good time to remind ourselves that even consensus can't-miss prospects can take a while to adjust to the big leagues, and even future Hall of Famers can struggle to establish themselves as a formidable presence.

So don't fret, Orioles fans. A few dozen plate appearances, or even a few dozen games, don't define a career.

Want proof? Here's a look at seven Hall of Fame hitters who didn't seem Cooperstown-bound at first.

Adrián Beltré
Debut year: 1998

Beltré's rookie season in 1998 was anything but Hall of Fame-worthy. In 77 games with the Dodgers as a 19-year-old, Beltré hit .215 and carried a wRC+ of just 75, well below the league average of 100. He hit just two home runs in his first 152 plate appearances and had an OPS during that time of just .591. He finished the year with an unremarkable .648 OPS, seven homers and 22 RBIs in 214 plate appearances.

He was much-improved in his second season, clubbing 15 homers and hitting .275 in 614 plate appearances, but still finished with a league-average wRC+ of 100. Despite a strong 2000 season (.835 OPS; 116 wRC+) and clear home run power, Beltre struggled to find consistency at the plate until 2004, when he hit an MLB-leading 48 homers and carried an OPS of 1.017, finishing second in NL MVP voting at age 25.

But even then, the case wasn't settled on Beltré's offensive game. It really wasn't until 2010 that he began a stretch of year-in, year-out consistency that saw him average an .872 OPS through the end of his career in 2018. It was that stretch that allowed him to pass the 3,000-hit mark, as he averaged 189 hits per 162 games played during that time.

Combine that with Beltré's outstanding defense at third base – five Gold Gloves and an average of 2.0 dWAR from 2003-2012 – and it made for a first-ballot path to Cooperstown.

Johnny Bench
Debut year: 1967

Nobody would've projected Bench as arguably the greatest catcher of all time based on his first 45 games in the Majors.

A 26-game debut stint as a 19-year-old late in the 1967 season in which Bench hit just .163 with a .462 OPS wasn't immediately remedied when he began play as the Reds' full-time catcher in 1968.

Through the first 19 games of his rookie year, Bench was still struggling at the plate, with a .171 average and .500 OPS. But with back-to-back three-hit games on May 6 and 7, he saw his average begin to steadily rise and land at .275 by season's end. He found the beginnings of his power stroke, too, clubbing 15 homers for the season and finishing with a 115 wRC+ in his first of 14 All-Star campaigns.

The offense, combined with Bench's already-strong defensive work behind the plate, was worth 5.0 bWAR as he captured the NL Rookie of the Year Award. Over the next four seasons, Bench would win two NL MVP Awards, establishing himself as the new standard for catchers.

George Brett
Debut year: 1973

Brett's reputation as a pure hitter was slow to develop. It took him 42 career games and more than 130 plate appearances from 1973-74 before his lifetime average climbed above .200 for good. Things took a while to develop from there, too.

In 1974, his first full season in the bigs (133 games), Brett's average was just .236 as late as Aug. 4, and his OPS was just .577. But then George Brett arrived.

From Aug. 5 through the end of the season, Brett hit .338 with 12 doubles and five triples to finish with a very modest but surging .676 OPS for the year – good enough to finish second in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Then in 1975 at age 22, Brett really emerged. He hit .308 and led the AL with 195 hits, including a league-leading 13 triples to go along with 35 doubles and 11 homers. The next year, he led the AL with a .333 average, led all of baseball with 215 hits and 14 triples, and made the All-Star team for the first of 13 straight years.

Brett's final career tally: .305 lifetime average, 3,154 hits, three batting titles and an MVP.

Reggie Jackson
Debut year: 1967

Betting on Jackson to adopt the Mr. October persona would've seemed a laughable and losing proposition during his early months as a Major Leaguer. But, again, believe small samples at your own risk – even when they don't seem that small.

It took Jackson, he of 563 career homers, 113 plate appearances to hit his first long ball. But it was the only dinger of his rookie year in 1967, a season in which he hit just .178 and had an OPS of .574 in 135 PAs for the A's. Not to mention that Jackson struck out in 39 percent of his at-bats that season. Hardly the stuff of legends. But a turn was coming.

Though strikeouts continued to be an issue – he led the AL or the Majors in each of his first four full seasons – Jackson became a major offensive contributor in his first full season in 1968. He hit 29 homers and had a wRC+ of 137, while raising his batting average to a respectable .250. That led to a 47-homer All-Star campaign in 1969, a season in which he also led the AL with a .608 slugging percentage and a 1.018 OPS.

From there, Jackson led the league in homers four times over the next 13 seasons, made 13 more All-Star appearances and won five World Series titles with the A's and Yankees, twice capturing World Series MVP honors.

Cal Ripken Jr.
Debut year: 1981

Ripken's late-season call-up to the Orioles in 1981 at age 20 came with a certain spotlight and hype, given that his father, Cal Ripken Sr., was a longtime coach for the team. The early weeks of Ripken's career, however, were anything but special.

In his first 23 MLB games at the end of the '81 season, Ripken hit just .128 with no extra-base hits and a .278 OPS in 40 plate appearances. And 1982 didn't start much better. After going 3-for-5 with a home run on Opening Day as the Orioles' starting shortstop, Ripken hit another cold spell that saw his average drop all the way to .117 on May 1. In fact, his average didn't climb past .200 again until May 13.

In total, Ripken had just a .182 average and .520 OPS through his first 51 career games – giving absolutely no indication of what was to come. From there, though, things began to take shape.

From May 13 through the end of the season, Ripken hit .276 with 25 homers, 82 RBIs and an .823 OPS, good enough to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award. And the next year? AL MVP and World Series champion. And then? Yada, yada, yada, Hall of Fame.

Brooks Robinson
Debut year: 1955

It took Robinson parts of five seasons in the Majors before he began playing at a level associated with his Hall of Fame reputation.

Robinson debuted in 1955 at age 18 and struggled mightily in his three MLB stints through age 20. In his first 60 MLB games from 1955-1957, he hit .178 with a .487 OPS in 161 plate appearances. In fact, he averaged minus-0.3 bWAR during those first three seasons.

His 1959 season, at age 22, showed the first real signs of his potential. Robinson hit .284 and was worth 2.1 bWAR in 88 games, with his defense at third base emerging as a major part of his game. Starting in 1960, he was an All-Star in 15 straight seasons, establishing himself as an all-around threat on the diamond. He was named AL MVP in 1964, when he hit .317 with 28 homers and 118 RBIs, and carried a wRC+ of 144.

Robinson also became a stellar postseason performer, carrying a lifetime .303 postseason average across 39 games and winning the 1970 World Series MVP.

It was a career path nobody would've seen coming from that struggling teenager in 1955.

Robin Yount
Debut year: 1974

Yount was drafted out of high school with the third overall pick in 1973 and less than a year later was the Brewers' Opening Day shortstop at age 18. His early numbers make total sense in that context. He went 1 for his first 15 and hit just .176 over his first 21 games. But even as a teenager, Yount's potential began to show.

By the end of May, he raised his average to .262 and saw it reach a season high of .271 on July 14. But the rookie learning curve continued and he finished the season with a modest .250/.276/.346 slash line. Gradual improvement followed over the next four years before Yount's true breakout in 1980, when he was named an All-Star and hit .293 with 23 homers and an .840 OPS at age 24.

From 1980 through the end of his career in 1993, Yount had a .356 on-base percentage and an .813 OPS. He finished with 3,142 hits, a lifetime .285 average, two MVP awards and 77.4 bWAR – and a first-ballot Hall of Fame election.