Hall of Fame 2017
This is
my ballot, should I have one, for this year's Hall of Fame vote. In
order, top down.
A voter
is allowed to vote for as many as ten players, but I struggled to
reach that number. Ans as you read my reasoning, I could lose one
from this list pretty easily.
So,
here you go:
Vladimir Guerrero...was one of
my favorite players to watch. You never knew what he was capable of.
Be it a single to right on a pitch that bounced to the plate, hit a
moon shot to the upper deck, or throw a runner out trying to take
third with a throw from the howitzer of an arm, Vlad was truly a five
tool player.
While being known for his defense (his
arm, mainly, he never did win a Gold Glove Award.
He eclipsed the 300/400/500 plateau
four times.
He was the third player (Willie Mays
and Larry Walker) to collect 33 homers, 33 stolen bases and hit
better than .333 in a season, had four seasons with 200 hits and 30
homers (only Lou Gehrig had more, with seven), was the first
Expo/National to reach 40 homers in a season, and became one of six
players with 200 hits in each league.
He had 91 go ahead home runs as an
Expo, the team record. Second and third place were Andre Dawson (78)
and Gary Carter (68).
He is the first player since Stan
Musial to retire with 400 or more homers, and less than 1,000
strikeouts.
During one training camp early in his
career, he pulled a hamstring running out a double, and according to
legend, homered in his next at-bat so he wouldn't have to run.
He garnered MVP votes in twelve of his
seventeen seasons, winning the award in 2004.
He had the fifth highest hit total,
fourth highest batting average and eighth most homers during the
00's.
Ivan Rodriguez...or just Pudge.
Pudge is regarded as one of the best defensive catchers in history.
He won thirteen gold love awards, and seven silver sluggers as well,
testament to his offensive prowess.
He won one MVP award, and finished with
MVP votes in five other seasons.
He is the all-time leader in games
caught, and also holds the record for the highest caught stealing
percentage, at 45.7%.. He is the youngest Texas Ranger to homer. He
is the first catcher to have more than one season with forty or more
doubles, and holds the single season record for hits, doubles and
home runs by an American League catcher.
He won more gold gloves, and has more
hits than any other catcher.
In 1999, he became the eight catcher
with 100 runs scored and 100 runs batted in during a single season.
Six of the other catcher are already in the Hall. (Darrell Porter was
the other)
Edgar Martinez...It is obvious
that Edgar's position as a designated hitter is being held against
him in the eyes of voters. The DH as much as it is disliked by many
has been a part of the game for more than forty years. Get over it.
In a couple of years, David Ortiz will be on the ballot, and will
garner many votes, which is great for him, but a huge disservice to
Edgar Martinez.
Edgar was one of the best pure right
handed hitters the game had seen in many years. In looking at the
300/400/500 parameter mentioned above, it is worth noting that Edgar
had eight such seasons, including seven of those in a row. Andre
Dawson and Robin Yount never had one. Craig Biggio and Paul Molitor
did it twice.
In fact, looking at Edgar's career
slash line, .312/.418/.515, only seven players have a career slash
line higher than that. Ted Williams, Dan Brouthers, Lou Gehrig,
Rogers Hornsby, Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth and Shoeless Joe Jackson.
He had 2 seasons with 25 homers, 50
doubles and 110 walks. It has only been done two other times.
He is one of twelve players with
830extra base-hits and and on base percentage better than .415. Ten
of those are Hall of Famers, and Barry Bonds is the eleventh.
He had the third best on base
percentage in the nineties, and holds the single season record for
slugging percentage and doubles for a designated hitter.
The Edgar Martinez Award is presented
to the top designated hitter in the American League each season. It
is the only offensive award named for a player who is not enshrined
in Cooperstown.
Jeff Bagwell...for reasons that
escape me, Jeff Bagwell hasn't been elected to the Hall of Fame yet.
Perhaps it is the hint of performance enhancing drugs, which doesn't
seem fair. He was not implicated in any of the major scandals. In
2003, when a hundred plus players names were 'leaked' as failing PED
tests, Bagwell's name was not among them. He claimed and maintained
his innocence , and I have no reason to doubt his claims.
But is he Hall worthy?
Yes, by far.
He was the Rookie of the Year in 1991,
and the NL MVP in 1994. He spent his entire fifteen year career as an
Astro, coming over from the Red Sox in a memorable deal for reliever
Larry Andersen. In ten of those fifteen seasons, he finished the
season with MVP voting recognition (the one win, and five other top
ten finishes).
In using the offensive statistical
guideline of 300/400/500 (batting average/on base percentage/slugging
percentage) as a mark of greatness, we find that Bagwell achieved
five of these seasons in his career. Plus, as seems to have been
forgotten, he played more than half of his career with the Astrodome,
a cavernous pitcher friendly facility, as his home field.
In 1994, he became the first player
since Babe Ruth to slug .750 with 15 or more stolen bases in a
season. He and Ruth are the only ones to ever accomplish this feat.
Twice in his career, he totaled 30
stolen bases, 30 doubles, 40 homers and 100 walks. No other player
has done that even once.
He led all major league baseball in
runs produced during his career, from 1991-2005.
In his first fourteen seasons, his home
run tally was 446. Barry Bonds had 432.
In 1999, he reached based a record 331
times, establishing a record for a right handed batter.
He holds the National League record for
runs scored in a season, with 152 in 2000), had the ninth highest
Runs Scored total during the nineties, along with the fourth highest
on base percentage during that same time. He also holds the record
for the most career homer hit by anyone born in Massachusetts.
He would have my vote.
Trevor Hoffman...Relief pitching
is such a tough thing to gauge historically. The game has evolved in
the last ten or so years to rely more heavily on the bullpens
anymore. Saves are the statistic that come to the forefront when
trying to evaluate a reliever's worth, and value to his team.
When talking about legacies that would
make a reliever "Hall of Fame worthy", it seems now, more
than ever, one must look beyond the black and white numbers and rely
on anecdotal evidence to make their decisions.
But I'm not sure that is entirely fair.
The gold standard for relief pitchers
is Mariano Rivera.. He was the anchor of the Yankees bullpen for many
years, and will no doubt be a first ballot Hall of Famer. His 652
saves for relievers are the 763 of Barry Bonds for hitters.
So let's compare Hoffman with Rivera.
Hoffman, the first reliever to 500
saves, then the first to 600, finished with 601. Over his eighteen
year career, he led the league in saves just two times. (Rivera led
three times in nineteen) He eclipsed forty saves in a season nine
times, the same as Rivera. Hoffman averaged 9.4 strikeouts per nine
innings, while Rivera averaged 8.3.
Trevor had the tenth highest saves
total during the nineties, and the second most during the oughts. He
had four consecutive seasons of forty or more saves in a season, but
he is the only pitcher to have done that twice.
Some have argued that a lot of
Hoffman's saves were 'hollow' or 'empty' as in not having much weight
or impact on the overall season. Easy saves that he just 'lucked'
into. I have looked. I have not seen an 'easy save' as a statistical
category. He had 31 saves in his career where he struck out every
batter he faced, which is the record.
As far as a pitcher's saves not having
an impact, one must recognize that 2010 was the last season that a
saves leader was a World Series champion, and that as recently as
2014, neither league leader's teams made the playoffs. Does that
diminish their saves totals? (for the record, it was Craig Kimbrel of
the Braves, and Fernando Rodney of the Mariners)
And surely it's not because Rivera has
more post-season appearances than Hoffman, which he does by a long
shot, because if that were true than how did Ted Williams, who
appeared in as many World Series as Hoffman, ever make it to the
Hall.
This is Hoffman's second year on the
ballot, and I hope he makes it in. I feel he is worthy, and would
have my vote.
Jeff Kent...this one I waffle
on. I got to know Jeff somewhat when he played for the Knoxville Blue
Jays in 1991. his manager, John Stearns told me that Jeff was going
to "make his cake", meaning that he would be in the big
leagues before long. And Stearns was right. The two of them were
pretty close. Let's just say it was not a coincidence that Kent took
Stearns' number 12 when it became available after his trade to the
Mets.
That being said, I do sometimes try to
be objective, and can over compensate and be a harsher critic when it
comes to analyzing his stats. In seventeen seasons, he had seven
times that he received votes for post season awards including his NL
MVP in 2000.
He was an offensive threat at second
base, which is not a usual offensive position. He drove in ninety or
more runs in nine straight seasons, and has the most career home runs
for a second baseman.
His aloofness and fiery competitive
spirit didn't make him many friends among the media. He had a few
clubhouse incidents with teammates during his career, most notably
with equally aloof teammate Barry Bonds in San Francisco which may
also have tarnished him in the eyes of voters.
Of the players on my list, he would be
the last one on my ballot. Personally, I would like to see him in the
Hall, but I may be being selfish on that front.
No comments:
Post a Comment