2014-15 Hall of Fame elections

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/hall-of-fame-2016-class-mike-piazza-barry-bonds-roger-clemens-ken-griffey-jr-ken-rosenthal-010615

rosenthal on this year's HOF: even he's bummed about tim raines missing out

Does Delgado really have a better case than Olerud or Clark who were both dropped pretty quick? Cepeda definitely fringe though....

Cepeda was a key part of 3 pennant winners in the '60s; he's 30th among first basemen measured by JAWS (Delgado 35th; only postseason was with the '06 Mets), so his eventual selection might be fringey but not that surprising. Raw hitting numbers look better on the pitchers' era curve.

If anything Olerud should've at least stuck around longer; 20th in JAWS among 1b, consecutive WS wins with the Jays.

all while playing with a skull made of meringue!

Cepeda and Tony Perez have roughly the same numbers.

I didn't bring up Perez (or Rice) because it's generally agreed that they're weak HOF'ers, by that standard, Clark, Delgado, and Olerud would all be easily deserving of induction.

not sure delgado has a real case, but yeah it seems like he should have stuck around a couple years

if we're not gonna countenance steroid users in the hall, then maybe the non-(proven)-users need some extra consideration. after all, delgado wins the 2003 al mvp and finishes second in 2000, not fourth, if we're disregarding juicers

bill madden: even though he never tested positive and didn't appear in the mitchell report, i won't vote for piazza because opposing players told me he was on steroids

cool story bro

those three are all guys who fall short imo, but it's weird clark didn't make it in some ways bc from '87-'91 he seemed like a definite HOFer. he fell off a bit and the offensive explosion of the '90s kinda overshadowed his excellent later years. also he was even more of an asshole than barry bonds.

yeah the guys who are keeping the alleged roiders outta the hall but not supporting the supposedly honorable guys who played the right way is kind of amazing to me, i'd think crime dog would be trucking along with 50% of the vote if those voters were honest about their intent.

olerud, mcgriff, delgado, none of these people is a hall of famer, come on

olerud's batting helmet belongs in the hof, but that's it

i think what he's saying (correct me if i'm wrong) is olerud, mcgriff, and delgado are only HOFers if you measure them by the perez/rice standard

rosenthal's outrage over delgado's falling off the ballot is pretty ridiculous. he's maybe the 20th best candidate on the ballot, are you really complaining that more people didnt vote for him? are YOU gonna vote for him?

at their peaks (which were brief), those guys were maaaybe HOF caliber. but they're like mattingly in that regard. except his peak was higher (albeit even briefer.)

well delgado's peak wasn't brief i guess, but his stats weren't outlandishly great by the standard of his peers except for a couple seasons.

he was only around for 14 full seasons, i think that's what has done him the most disservice.

See above. It’s mind-blowing when people say that votes for players such as Boone or Erstad indicates that the process is broken. No, it simply indicates that one or two voters chose to make a stand on behalf of a player they admired. Those voters almost certainly had empty slots on their ballots. Who exactly is getting hurt?

uh, guys like piazza and raines?

and delgado!!

the fellas

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6w6ivVCIAEIF4U.jpg:large

I don't think Delgado dropping off is cause for outrage--none of this is--I just think his career was worthy of something longer than a one-year stay on the ballot. But I'm aware of the contradiction: he only stays on the ballot if enough people vote for him, and if he's not a Hall of Famer, why vote for him (especially on an over-crowded ballot)? I guess I just want these things to magically work out.

Holy cow, Randy Johnson was tall.

yeah you can't defend players' cases based on the lesser guys in there

Perez's "value" numbers are actually a little better than I expected, as his stathead rep is that he got in solely cuz he's in the BBWAA's fave category (1B or OF with big RBI totals).

ie if Olerud had had more power with proportionally fewer hits and walks he might be in.

Holy cow, Randy Johnson was tall.

What, did you think he was called the Big Unit because he had a giant cock?

perhaps at the ceremony he will just hold Biggio aloft instead of his plaque

before I look it up i'm going to guess how many games Biggio caught in the majors. i'll say 120.

He was a catcher for a lot longer than part of a season, no??

man, 428! I had no memory that he caught for his first 4 seasons.

age 26 when he moved to 2B fulltime.

(Was kidding about Randy...)

tbf the big unit may well have had a giant unit

it would have to be in order to appear proportional. it's tough out there for big guys, i bet

nah

man, 428! I had no memory that he caught for his first 4 seasons.

He was a legit All-Star at catcher too!

Re: Delgado, if you're comparing him to the average HOF first baseman he has a case, but no, I don't think he belongs in the HOF based on that standard. But many writers have pointed out that there are now twice as many teams compared to pre-expansion era baseball and about the same number of HOFers being elected per decade. With more great players to pick from, standards are effectively going up which gives Clark, Delgado, Olerud, etc. a better argument for induction.

I can't blame anyone for not voting for Delgado or hell even Raines because they weren't one of the top ten players on the ballot this year. The ten player maximum is a dumb rule but it's the rule.

Biggio was shifted to 2B by Yogi himself:

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2015/01/06/craig-biggio-notes-yogi-berras-impact-on-legendary-career/

curt schilling is claiming he's losing votes for being a republican, also claiming john smoltz is a democrat, which based on the public record is debatable at best.

curt schilling claims a lot of things.

hmmm – don't see any post about it on twitter, but he is also stumping for Raines at least!

Stopped Clock Theorem.

I imagine Schilling is being marginally punished for being a loudmouth--maybe a handful of votes--but if political leanings have ever entered into HOF or awards voting, I've never read about it. I know there was lots of puzzlement in 1960 when Jackie Robinson supported Nixon, and there was category-unto-himself John Rocker, but I'm sure vocally left-leaning players in the late '60s got far more grief from the Dick Youngs of the media than Schilling would ever get today.

(Especially left-leaning players who didn't look like Mickey Mantle, so to speak.)

yeah, left-leaning players, I barely remember 'em

they read my hof q on BBP podcast today so I got that going for me

i'd guess that the BBWAA votes mostly republican, at least the old guard

most corn fed white boys from bumblefuck arkansas aren't democrats

do they really eat a lotta corn in AR, i thought it was yankees

chitlin circuit then

Mickey Morandini ftw

https://twitter.com/BenLindbergh/status/553576841408020481

my man