Members of the BBWAA have until today to send in their annual HOF ballots
(via fax or snail mail only.) The results will be announced in two
days, so I decided to post my fictional ballot. A couple of notes:
With those things in mind, my 2015 HOF ballot would have been:
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
Mike Mussina
Jeff Bagwell
Curt Schilling
- I explain this more in depth here, but I believe that entry to the Hall of Fame should be restricted to the very few select players. It is ok to have displays on Jack Morris' game 7, as a great game in baseball and a great appearance, but it is not ok to induct the player, just for this. The same with Mark McGwire and Samy Sosa and their HR title contest. Thus, my cut offs are more stringent than others. The Hall has 306 members, some of the players have an under .700 career OPS. This is not right, unless you want it to be the Hall of Very Good.
- I am going with performance and not proven or suspected PED use. This witch hunt has to stop. If someone wants a "clean Hall", Hank Aaron should be kicked out, since he publicly admitted to using "greenies" that are now banned from baseball. A position of not voting for modern PED suspects, but wanting to keep already enshrined PED users, is a hypocritical position. So is, celebrating Tony LaRussa's induction while not voting for Mark McGwire because of steroid use. Unless LaRussa was blind or absent, he at least knew what was going on in the Canseco/McGwire/Giambi clubhouse.
With those things in mind, my 2015 HOF ballot would have been:
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
Mike Mussina
Jeff Bagwell
Curt Schilling
2 comments:
Can't agree on Mussina.
He pitched for the Yankees while they were among the very best and he still has 270 victories.
I don't think it's inappropriate to use comparisons to Bert. Blyleven retired as a guy who was third all time (I believe) in strikeouts, yet it took him 15 years to get into the Hall with his 287 wins.
I know Bert is a jerk, but you can't have a guy like that wait 15 years and then watch Mussina waltz in.
I'm sure he'll get in as a Yankee, but he would never get in if his last 8 years had been spent in Minnesota or Kansas City.
Marv,
I remember Mussina as an Oriole. Really :) If you look at his WAR (and mostly with the Orioles,) it is higher than plenty of Hall of Famers, even higher than Smoltz'...
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