By Blaidd Drwg

The announcement of the 2011 Hall of Fame class is less than a month away, and it should be interesting the see who, in addition to Blyleven and Alomar, get elected. I looked at the ballot and thought, “Who would I vote for?” I don’t care about any steroid allegations, failed tests, etc. If a player is accused of steroids but nothing in proven, then there is no credible reason to keep him out and if he did fail a test for a banned substance and served a suspension; that is no different than getting caught with a corked bat or scuffed baseball. You can’t pick and choose who you think was clean or dirty in the last 20 years. Voting for the HOF has become a more emotional event for me as the guys who I grew up watching regularly (and playing on my fantasy baseball teams) are now up for election.

If I had a vote, here is who I would cast my 10 ballots for:

Bert Blyleven – It took me a while to warm up to his candidacy, but see my previous post as to why I don’t think he is any worse a selection than Don Sutton or Phil Niekro.
Roberto Alomar – probably the best all-around 2B of the 1990’s and 2000’s. He could hit and field as well as any player. It is a joke that he did not get elected on last year’s ballot.
Alan Trammell – Overshadowed defensively by Ozzie Smith and offensively by Cal Ripken. He also had the misfortune of coming up on the ballot during the peak of the offensive explosion at SS, so his stats just didn’t compare to Jeter/ARod/Garciaparra/Tejada.
Barry Larkin – See also, Alan Trammell.
Tim Raines – Probably the best player in the game from 1981 – 1988 and one of the two greatest leadoff men in BB history. Probably hurt by playing his prime in Montreal and many people remembering the end of his career as a part time player.
Mark McGwire – Steroids or not, he was the Ralph Kiner of his era. He also wasn’t as one dimensional as people think.
Rafael Palmeiro – He was consistently good over a very long period of time with the bat and glove, and, while he did not deserve his Gold Glove in 1999 (playing only 28 games at 1B), he did deserve the ones he won in 1997 and 1998 (and probably should have won at least 2 more before that). Unfortunately, the failed drug test will probably keep him out of the Hall.

Jeff Bagwell – One of the 5 best 1B in baseball history (which is saying a lot) and will probably not be elected (at least not yet) based on steroid speculation. Injuries caused an early retirement, but he was probably the best hitter in the NL for most of the 1990’s and managed to put up an almost identical OPS (966) at the Astrodome (which was a terrible hitter’s park) as he did at Enron Field (995), which is a terrific hitter’s park. Rob Neyer has an interesting take here.
Fred McGriff – I am now realizing he was probably better than I thought originally. Not ever coming up as a potential steroid user probably will help him in the next few votes.
Kevin Brown – See my previous post, he does compare favorably with Don Drysdale. Hurt by pitching his prime in Texas, SD and Florida.

Two guys who I would love to vote for:
Larry Walker and Lee Smith – I doubt Walker will make it past this ballot, he was an amazing player whose injury issues and playing in Coors field mean he will never be elected. Lee Smith might someday get elected, but he was never as dominating as Gossage or Fingers and compiled a ton of cheap saves late in his career. If I voted for either of these guys, it would be completely sentimental.

Two guys who I won’t vote for:
Jack Morris – he just wasn’t that good and pitched with a lot of good teams. A better argument here.
Edgar Martinez – It has nothing to do with the DH argument. I firmly believe that he was probably the best DH in the AL from 1992 to 2001 and that is not easy to do. Had he not been hurt in 1993 and 1994, he might have a better case, but his late start in the majors probably cost him. If you are going to primarily be a hitter, you need to be top 5 in the league for a pretty extended period of time, and he really just wasn’t that. It probably hurts him that he wasn’t the best hitter on his team for that stretch either. I just haven’t heard a compelling argument on why he should be in the Hall.

The complete list of players eligible can be found here.

By Blaidd Drwg

In the below list of 9 players, can you tell me which ones are in the Baseball Hall of Fame? The list is from baseball-reference.com and is the 162 game average for each of their careers. I will give you a hint – there are 3 guys on this list that are currently in the Hall of Fame. Let’s look at the stats that the majority of the HOF voters would look at.

Did you spot the HOFers? If you guessed C, D, and E (and I am sure you didn’t) then you are right – those are the last 3 starting pitchers elected to the HOF – Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton and Phil Niekro. Not overly impressed? It gets better.

Players A and B are Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris – the two guys whose names come up most often as potential HOFers of the guys who are currently eligible. By this list, they both fit in pretty well with the Ryan/Sutton/Niekro group; heck, Blyleven looks like he might be the best of the bunch of that group. The only real difference between Blyleven/Morris and Ryan/Sutton/Niekro is the wins; neither Blyleven or Morris won 300 games, while the other 3 all did basically by pitching forever. I still think that the only reason Morris is in this discussion is for his pitching in game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

Players F and G are the active equivalents of Blyleven/Morris – Andy Pettitte and Jamie Moyer. Pettitte will probably ultimately make the HOF because he pitched for one of the best teams in the last 15 years (Yankees) and pitched 40+ postseason games (for which his career numbers line up almost exactly with his regular season stats). Jamie Moyer probably won’t make the Hall, and like Morris, has really no business in the HOF discussion other than he was a compiler.

It gets really interesting with Player H – that player is Kevin Brown. Just looking at the list, he is easily better than everyone listed ahead of him. I admit that he doesn’t have the career totals to make the Hall (only managed 211 wins), but was a much more dominating pitcher over his career than Blyleven/Morris/Ryan/Sutton/Niekro/Pettitte/Moyer and probably should have won the 1996 Cy Young Award (he lost to John Smoltz who won 24 games that season, despite an ERA that was a full run lower than Smoltz and an ERA+ of 217). He also pitched his prime in relative obscurity in Texas, Baltimore, Florida and SD before finishing as an overpaid and injured starter for the Dodgers and Yankees. If he pitches for a better team and averages just 2 wins a season over those seasons, he is probably in the Hall of Fame discussion. A fact that you probably didn’t know – Brown still managed to win 59.4% of his decisions over his career.

So who is Player I – I wanted to put in a guy who was easily a first ballot HOFer but not a fire-baller like Clemens and Johnson, just for comparison. Player I is easily be the best player on this list and probably the best pitcher in the NL in the 1990’s – Greg Maddux, who should breeze into Cooperstown with somewhere around 95% of the vote when he is finally eligible in a few years.

By Blaidd Drwg

Because it came up in something that I read, here is an interesting trivia question:

Who was the last starting pitcher* to be voted into the HOF?

*By starting pitcher, I mean a guy who was elected to the Hall on the merits of his pitching as a starter and spent the bulk of his career as a starter.

I will post the answer in the comments.