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| Bonds and Clemens are the most deserving candidates on this year's ballot (CBS Sports) |
Hall of Fame ballots were due Monday, and while I don't have a vote here is how I would have voted if I did. As has been the case the last few years, there are more qualified candidates than one is allowed to vote for, due to the Hall's arbitrary 10-player maximum. As such, my ballot reflects the 10 players I believe are most worthy of enshrinement, though several more (listed below) also deserve to have their name called in Cooperstown one day.
1. Barry Bonds
3. Ken Griffey, Jr.
4. Jeff Bagwell
5. Mike Piazza
7. Mike Mussina
8. Tim Raines
9. Larry Walker
10. Mark McGwire
11. Sammy Sosa
12. Edgar Martinez
13. Jim Edmonds
14. Alan Trammell
15. Jeff Kent
16. Gary Sheffield
17. Fred McGriff
18. Trevor Hoffman
19. Billy Wagner
20. Lee Smith
Two ballots barely fits all the Hall-worthy candidates on this year's ballot. No wonder there's such a logjam to get into Cooperstown.
Fair list - but what WILL happen is 3,5 and 18. Also, 6 and 13 don't belong.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Hoffman makes it first ballot. He'll probably poll closer to 50-60 percent.
ReplyDeleteIf you think Mussina is a Hall of Famer, then Schilling is too considering he had a higher peak and more postseason success. Same goes for Larry Walker and Jim Edmonds. Take Walker out of Coors, and he has the same career as Edmonds.
Not if you include defensive play. Edmonds was far and away the better defender. He's one of the best and arguably the best defensive centerfielder ever.
ReplyDeleteNot if you include defensive play. Edmonds was far and away the better defender. He's one of the best and arguably the best defensive centerfielder ever.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen anyone take more late jumps or poor routs to flyballs than Edmonds. Regardless, if it was because of unintentional poor reads or intentional poor reads to make a highlight catch, I see this as a mark of an overrated defender. Living in the highlight generation, we often only see the end result of plays (including many of Edmonds catches). Watching many games live and on television, I have difficulty recalling a more flat-footed defender at the point of contact. Did he make highlight reel catches? Yes. Due to intentional or unintentional poor reads? Yes. Fundamentally, he was a sub-par defender and a highlight reel slut.
ReplyDeleteI find that hard to believe seeing as how he won eight Gold Gloves and rates as a plus defender by both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs.
DeleteBonds probably would have been a first ballot HOFer if he hadn't not just used PEDs but almost flaunted his PEDs usage. PEDs made a joke of the game, career stats and destroyed baseball for an entire generation. The only choices are to ban all PEDs users or issue them to all players and have pre-PEDS stats or post PEDS stats. That Bonds used them extensively late in his career is without doubt. He would have NEVER broken the records he did without them. His career was winding down when he started using PEDs. Sosa another PEDs poster boy wouldn't have HAD a career without PEDs. Clemens is another like Bonds. If he'd never touched PEDs he'd been a first ballot inductee. Ironically PEDS usage hurt Clemens. His worst years were the years he was experimenting with them, but he used them and so deserves the ban.
ReplyDeleteIf Bonds makes the hall it will make the Hall a sham. A joke and destroy all integrity the Hall of fame has.