Your Thoughts On The 2015 MLB Hall Of Fame Class (pitchers, Alomar, uniform)
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Status:
"Let's replace the puppet show with actual leadership."
(set 6 days ago)
Location: Suburban Dallas
52,712 posts, read 48,019,066 times
Reputation: 33915
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Today (January 6), Major League Baseball saw four players voted into the MLB Hall of Fame for induction to take place on July 26, 2015, in Cooperstown, N.Y. That's the first time in sixty years that four players got voted in in one single class by the baseball writers. This year's group has Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio elected for induction.
Gone from the ballot for not receiving the requisite 5 percent are Carlos Delgado (3.8), Troy Percival (0.7), Aaron Boone (0.4), Tom Gordon (0.4), Darin Erstad (0.2), along with a group that didn't receive any votes
Really? These guys got votes?
Darin Erstad played leftfield and firstbase, the two least demanding defensive positions, and batted a nothing special .282 /.336 /.407 for his 14 year career. He was a two time All Star, won three gold gloves, had one big year in 2000 but never topped .300 in any other season, He had 124 career home runs, drove in 699. He produced 33.2 career WAR, about the same amount as players like Mickey Rivers, Ron Hunt and Edgar Renteria. By similarity score Erstad matches most closely with Randy Winn, Vic Power and Mark Kotsay. On the Bill James HoF Monitor where 100 = likely Hall of Famer, Erstad scores a 35.
What would cause some sports writer to look at all that and conclude that this was a Hall of Fame career?
If you look at the vote totals, you will see that a mess has been created by the ongoing after effects of the PEDs boys.
It is going to be really tough for guys like Mussina and Bagwell to get elected because the ballot has been, and will remain over crowded for some time to come.
The duo of Bonds and Clemens have now been through three elections and both have remained steady at around 35 % of the vote. They are neither getting cleared from the ballot via election, nor by failure to come up with 5%, and this is likely to continue for duration of their eligibility. They will suck votes from others for years without ever being elected themselves.
Trammel was in his 14th and next to last election and was only able to draw 25 %. He has no chance at all in his final election, so if he is ever to be enshrined it will be far down the road by the Veteran committee.
The first ballot enshrinement of Maddox last year, and Johnson, Martinez and Smoltz this election, along with Biggio's enshrinement, suggests two things. 1) The HoF voters do not harbor the same suspicions about pitchers during the PEDs era as they do hitters. 2) The HoF voters are more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to non slugging players from the PEDs era than they are to the big boppers. Recent inductees have been Barry Larkin, Roberto Alomar and Craig Biggio, but falling short in the voting have been Mike Piazza, Larry Walker and Jeff Bagwell, all guys for whom no evidence of PEDs use was ever found.
Status:
"Let's replace the puppet show with actual leadership."
(set 6 days ago)
Location: Suburban Dallas
52,712 posts, read 48,019,066 times
Reputation: 33915
All four are deserving players:
Biggio: One team, 20 seasons, 3,060 hits. Baseball's most consistently dirty uniform. Propelled the Astros to their first Fall Classic. Johnson: Most strikeouts by a lefty, 303 wins, a most feared pitcher to a lot of players. Martinez: A .687 winning percentage, the Boston years, 1999 Triple Crown winner. He just dominated hitters. Smoltz: Gave Atlanta a great pitching tandem along with Tom Glavine, and successful as both a starter and a reliever.
If Bonds and Clemens are not in there......and Pete Rose is not in there......it completely tarnishes the HOF and turns it into a popularity class, or the hall of "nice guys".
Being great at baseball doesn't get you in, so, if that's true, and we know it is, how can we really trust the process?
If Bonds and Clemens are not in there......and Pete Rose is not in there......it completely tarnishes the HOF and turns it into a popularity class, or the hall of "nice guys".
Being great at baseball doesn't get you in, so, if that's true, and we know it is, how can we really trust the process?
Bonds, Clemens and Rose are responsible for tarnishing their careers, not the Hall of Fame nor the HoF voters. Those three all made really bad choices and have to live with the consequences.
Darin Erstad played leftfield and firstbase, the two least demanding defensive positions, and batted a nothing special .282 /.336 /.407 for his 14 year career. He was a two time All Star, won three gold gloves, had one big year in 2000 but never topped .300 in any other season, He had 124 career home runs, drove in 699. He produced 33.2 career WAR, about the same amount as players like Mickey Rivers, Ron Hunt and Edgar Renteria. By similarity score Erstad matches most closely with Randy Winn, Vic Power and Mark Kotsay. On the Bill James HoF Monitor where 100 = likely Hall of Famer, Erstad scores a 35.
What would cause some sports writer to look at all that and conclude that this was a Hall of Fame career?
Some sportswriters are idiots, most of whom are in the Northeast. They are too unethical to vote responsibly and they never let the truth get in the way of a good story. They are the reason no player will ever get 100%.
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Propelled the Astros to their first Fall Classic.
