Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

[JimH5]

Voting members of the BBWAA have their Hall of Fame ballots. Inductees will be announced on January 21st. Some of the ballots have already been announced publicly, with "Only Jeter" getting some online discussion.

 

Here are the candidates:

 

New to the ballot are:

 

Bobby Abreu

Josh Beckett

Heath Bell

Eric Chávez

Adam Dunn

Chone Figgins

Rafael Furcal

Jason Giambi

Raúl Ibañez

Derek Jeter

Paul Konerko

Cliff Lee

Carlos Peña

Brad Penny

J.J. Putz

Brian Roberts

Alfonso Soriano

José Valverde.

 

And returning candidates are:

 

Curt Schilling

60.9%

8th year

 

Roger Clemens

59.5%

8th year

 

Barry Bonds

59.1%

8th year

 

Larry Walker

54.6%

10th year

 

Omar Vizquel

42.8%

3rd year

 

Manny Ramírez

22.8%

4th year

 

Jeff Kent

18.1%

7th year

 

Scott Rolen

17.2%

3rd year

 

Billy Wagner

16.7%

5th year

 

Todd Helton

16.5%

2nd year

 

Gary Sheffield

13.6%

6th year

 

Andy Pettitte

9.9%

2nd year

 

Sammy Sosa

8.5%

8th year

 

Andruw Jones

7.5%

3rd year

 

Discuss..

[TURBO]

I sincerely hope that Bonds never gets in, but I know it will happen at some point. For me, that will be a sad, sad day in baseball.

[JimH5]

My own hypothetical ballot would be:

 

Jeter, Vizquel and Kent.

 

I'm torn on Schilling, who deserves to be in on merit, but whose post-career life has been full of self-inflicted controversy.

 

Larry Walker was tremendous, but he missed so much time to injury. Rolen is similar.

 

I don't think I'm going to move on the PED guys. There's loads of stuff in the History of Baseball exhibit about those players and their achievements. I just don't think baseball needs to honor them with an induction ceremony.

[pacopete4]

I stopped following this stuff as the process of who gets in and when is just too stupid for me. Leaving the best players to ever play out and putting in guys who see good but not great means the Hall has very little value to me.

[sveumrules]

Larry Walker was tremendous, but he missed so much time to injury. Rolen is similar

 

Walker had 8,030 PAs with a 141 OPS+ which by BRef's calculations works out to 420 batting runs.

 

Dave Winfield had 12,358 PAs, but only managed 416 batting runs. Rod Carew 10,550 PAs/403 batting runs. Tony Gwynn 10,232 PAs/403 batting runs. Eddie Murray 12,817 PAs/392 batting runs.

 

Even with 2,000-4,000+ fewer plate appearances, Larry still managed to provide more value with his bat than a number of first ballot selections. He was also a superior defender & baserunner when compared to the four players above who he also outhit.

 

Outproducing multiple first ballot Hall of Famers in considerably less playing time makes Walker even more deserving in my eyes, but then again I'm not a Baseball Writer of America, so what do I know?

[JosephC]

Schilling and Jeter for sure.

 

Would have to think about Vizquel and Rolen.

 

I think the "modern era" or whatever is largely a sham. But a special mention to Lou Whitaker in that department who should have been inducted by the writers years ago.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Larry Walkers home road splits with the Coors effect is enough for me to believe he’s not a HOFer. His MVP season was tremendous, but pretty much other than that year he wasn’t outstanding outside of Coors.

[MrTPlush]

A few voters have taken players off their ballot from last year because they think Jeter should go in alone. So they are solely voting for Jeter.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

A few voters have taken players off their ballot from last year because they think Jeter should go in alone. So they are solely voting for Jeter.

 

Those people are morons. There’s no better word to describe them that isn’t vulgar.

[pacopete4]

A few voters have taken players off their ballot from last year because they think Jeter should go in alone. So they are solely voting for Jeter.

 

Those people are morons. There’s no better word to describe them that isn’t vulgar.

 

Yep. The whole process is ridiculous.

[Devinep]

Jeter and schilling for sure. I’m still against the roid users, putting up video game numbers with cheat codes isn’t that impressive. But what’s interesting to me is the number of border line guys. I’d have difficulty deciding to vote or not for walker, Kent, Andruw Jones, billy Wagner, and Scott Rolen. Of course all of those players are better than Harold Baines, so maybe they’ll get in eventually anyway

[Ulice Payne]

Jeter, Schilling, Bonds, Clemens.

 

I believe that MLB knew exactly what was happening during the steroid era, and let it happen because it was good for the bottom line. The PED guys were playing within the de facto rules in place at the time. It's not fair to hold them to a different standard now.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

We all knew what was going on. We all knew Canseco was taking them when he was playing bumper cars with his wife on the city streets.

[MNBrew]

Jeter, Schilling, Bonds, Clemens.

 

I believe that MLB knew exactly what was happening during the steroid era, and let it happen because it was good for the bottom line. The PED guys were playing within the de facto rules in place at the time. It's not fair to hold them to a different standard now.

Ditto this list. Not that steroids are okay or right. Rather, the HOF is full of guys that took things to help their performance or recovery time -- uppers (including cocaine), greenies, amphetamines, etc. -- or knowingly cheated (G. Perry) or risked harm to other players (LaRussa ordering his pitchers to throw at Braun, which he admitted to 2 months after they won the WS and he retired). Standards players are held to, and public sentiment about them, are to some degree products of their time and, in the long view, at best, not consistent.

 

The steroid thing has been overblown since Day One esp. because the media kept fanning flames because it was a story, and I think they managed to convince much of America it was a sacrilegious scandal when the majority of folks weren't overly compelled by the story in the first place. Had today's media and its nature been present during the cocaine/etc. scandals breaking in the early '80s (K. Hernandez, W. Stargell, etc. at the time, Molitor among others noted after-the-fact), or in any other era, many seemingly sure-fire HOF players wouldn't have had a prayer of making it any more than the "steroid era" poster boys of today.

[DHonks]

I'd vote Bonds, Jeter, Clemens, Schilling, Wagner, Ramirez, Walker, and maybe Sosa. Yes, it would be the cheating class, but this would be a step towards moving past this issue. Some deserve it even despite roids

[owbc]

The “Jeter only” people will get their way this year...whatever. Next year is the fun one when the steroid folks are in their 10th year.

[clancyphile]

My ballot:

Jeter - Clearly a yes on the 3,000 hits.

Schilling - A yes for me based on the career

Kent - He's one of the best 2B of all time

Walker - I think he warrants it, based on HOF Monitor and JAWS

Rolen - A close call, but yes, also on HOF Monitor and JAWS

[Outlander]

I hope that Bonds and Clemens get elected in the next couple of years but beyond that I don't concern my self too much with the ballot anymore. Once Harold Baines got in last year I assume most of these borderline guys like Walker/Vizquel/Helton will be pretty much guaranteed enshrinement at some point.

[StearnsFTW]

My ballot:

Jeter - Clearly a yes on the 3,000 hits.

Schilling - A yes for me based on the career

Kent - He's one of the best 2B of all time

Walker - I think he warrants it, based on HOF Monitor and JAWS

Rolen - A close call, but yes, also on HOF Monitor and JAWS

 

This would be my vote.

[StearnsFTW]

I hope that Bonds and Clemens get elected in the next couple of years but beyond that I don't concern my self too much with the ballot anymore. Once Harold Baines got in last year I assume most of these borderline guys like Walker/Vizquel/Helton will be pretty much guaranteed enshrinement at some point.

 

Pretty much agree, although Walker is an easy yes from me.

[clancyphile]

I hope that Bonds and Clemens get elected in the next couple of years but beyond that I don't concern my self too much with the ballot anymore. Once Harold Baines got in last year I assume most of these borderline guys like Walker/Vizquel/Helton will be pretty much guaranteed enshrinement at some point.

 

Pretty much agree, although Walker is an easy yes from me.

 

I can see a case for Walker and Helton...

 

But Vizquel? I don't see the case there - he played an impressive 24 years in the majors, but it's not HOF-worthy, IMO.

[JimH5]

My argument for Vizquel is that he amassed 2877 hits and played more games at SS than anyone in history.

 

His greatness is measured on a different scale than most other Hall of Famers.

[AKCheesehead]

I've been a proponent of Vizquel for some time. He was a generational talent, defensively. I'd vote for him.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Vizquel was 2.5 WAR per 162 games. Basically 1/2 a win above an average player. He was really good defensively, make no mistake.... but he was a bad hitter in one of the most offensive eras in baseball history. Hard pass for me.

[Devinep]

I’d consider Vizquel to be just an accumulator and never had a stretch of elite play. For the vets committee, I hope Dwight Evans gets in. I’d be OK with Ted Simmons too