WJR's Hall of Fame Ballot - 2015

I love the Hall of Fame debate.  I could do it all day. In fact, I HAVE done it all day. The beauty of the Hall of Fame is there is no exact science for choosing who deserves enshrinement.  If there were, everybody’s ballot would be identical and we’d have nothing but 1st ballot inductees who all collect 100% of the vote. And it goes without saying that 100% of the fun and suspense would vanish as well.

Last January, the Baseball Writers of America Association (BBWAA) sent 3 very deserving retired players (Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas) to Cooperstown.  Several others who had excellent careers in the bigs were left to wait another year.  The clock is ticking for the likes of Alan Trammell, Lee Smith and Don Mattingly.  Time has run out for Jack Morris; only the Veterans Committee can help him now.

Up until recently, I didn’t see a need for another voting body (like the Veterans Committee or the newly formed “Golden Era” Committee) to overturn the will of the writers, but I am starting to understand how real good players get left behind.  First, let’s understand 3 very important rules around the voting process:

1.  Voters can cast for no more than 10 candidates on one ballot.

2.  For enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a candidate must be selected on 75% of the ballots cast.  This is an important point which we’ll get to in a minute.

3.  Candidates may appear on 10 consecutive annual ballots (provided that they are selected on at least 5% of the ballots cast each year).  Any candidate who does not meet the 75% requirement on the 10^th ballot will disappear the following year.

To say there is diversity of thought among those who hold real Hall of Fame ballots is an understatement, but one thing just about all of them have in common is they don’t cast for 10 candidates.  There are a few who have recently begun engaging  in the practice of turning in blank ballots, which accomplishes little more than cancelling out the votes of writers casting votes for a deserving player.  This drives me absolutely nuts, by the way.

Curt Schilling was one of the 6 names on my 2013 mythical ballot, but he fell off in 2014, not because I felt any differently about his body of work a year later, but because I ran out of room on my ballot.  In my opinion, Glavine, Maddux, Mussina and Thomas were 1^st ballot Hall of Famers (turns out I was wrong on Moose).  That’s 4.  I made Craig Biggio wait a year, but added him to my 2014 ballot.  We’re up to 5.  Nobody reached the 75% threshold in 2013, but my 6 guys were all still on the ballot a year later.  6 names to pick from, but room only for 5 names on my ballot.  For me, Schilling was the odd man out.

Of course, I could have kept Schilling on and made somebody else with a “longer runway” wait another year.  Some writers may do that, but my policy is when there are more than 10 guys deserving of enshrinement, vote for the 10 most deserving.  Schilling did not crack my list of 10 in 2014, and he won’t this year either.  Here are the 10 guys I would cast for if they handed me a ballot:

Craig Biggio - Other than Pete Rose and Derek Jeter, there is nobody with more career knocks that Biggio (3,060) NOT in Cooperstown.  And don’t get me started on Rose.  His plaque should be there.

Barry  Bonds - Prior to 1999, when he reported to Spring Training and was fitted for a hat 3 sizes bigger than the previous season, Bonds had collected 8 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Slugger Awards and 3 MVPs. Whatever you think of him personally (and I think he’s an absolute jerk), study his career and you’ll conclude that he had built a Hall of Fame resume before he started with PEDs a few seasons into his years in San Francisco.

Roger Clemens – Most folks agree that he extended his very long career with illegal substances.  With that said, there is no evidence to suggest that Clemens wasn’t clean in a Red Sox uniform, and he was an incredible pitcher in his Boston years:  AL MVP in 1986, 3 Cy Youngs, 3 more top 6 finishes.

Randy Johnson (1^st ballot) – 303 career victories (including a perfect game at age 40 in 2004), 5-time Cy Young Award winner.  I would like to speak personally with any voter who leaves Randy Johnson off their ballot.

Pedro Martinez (1^st ballot) – Shorter career than Johnson, but achieved Koufax-like dominance for a 6-7 year stretch, and like Koufax and Drysdale, a textbook example of a Hall of Fame pitcher with fewer than 300 career wins.

Mike Mussina - 270 career wins over 18 seasons, 8 in Yankee pinstripes.  Never won the Cy Young Award, but finished in the top 6 in balloting 9 times over 17 seasons.   30 wins shy of the hallowed 300 number, but a very good pitcher for a long time.

Mike Piazza - 427 bombs highest among all catchers, higher Wins Above Replacement (WAR) total than Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey. He should have been in on the first ballot. 

Tim Raines - Another guy who’s been overlooked for a few years, but whose fine career looks even better through a sabermetric lens. Only Bonds and Pete Rose are left fielders whose WAR totals are higher than Raines. Stole 980 bags and that number may NEVER be matched again.

John Smoltz (1^st ballot) – Pretty much a coin flip between him and Schilling.  213 victory total is more impressive when you consider the season lost due to injury (2000) and almost 4 seasons as a very good closer of games.  Smoltz gets the edge over Schilling because he’s 1 Cy Young Award ahead of him (1-0).