2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

The multiple MVPers not in the Hall are Bonds (7) and Maris, Murphy and Juan Gonzalez, all with 2. A-Rod (3) is not eligible yet. Pujols (3) Cabrera (2) and Trout (2) are active.

 

At least with Smith at one time a majority of the writers thought he was a Hall of Famer. In regards to saves, I'll just say this. It is a major pitching category and has been for going on 50 years. Only two guys have surpassed him and outside of K-Rod, who is 40 short, no one has really come close. To get to Smith, you have to save 40 games for 12 straight seasons. Yeah that sounds simple. There is something to a closer being as productive as Smith. Only six guys have gotten to 400 and 11 are at 350. Kimbrel needs at least two years to get there. Take out Fernando Rodney, because he's 41 and needs 75, the highest active guy after that is Jansen at 268. You have to be good to get to where Smith is.

For me, he's a borderline guy. But he had the saves, including leading the league four times, and he was a seven-time All-Star and he won the Rolaids Relief Award three times. He was a Cy Young runner-up and top five two other years. He was eighth in an MVP vote once. He is defensible in several areas

Baines makes next to no sense. On this ballot, he was at best the eighth-best candidate for induction, I'd put Manuel, Carter behind him. If this was 2035 and he got in, maybe. But there's no reason to vote for him almost over this entire ballot.

The crazy thing is that there is no baseline for the upcoming committees when comparing Baines to those ballot hitters. Every year the voters change so it's impossible to gather if they will go by -- if Baines is in, then so and so is in.

It seems pretty obvious out of the Today's Game ballot that the next time Piniella is going to get in. If they put McGriff on it's obvious he will be the latest to get in after spending a full session on the writer's ballot, since this is his last year.

The crazy thing is that I wish these committees had some semblance of the overall induction. They could have easily put in Steinbrenner and Piniella to pair with Edgar and Rivera going in on the writer's ballot to give a double dose for Mariners and Yankees fans to make the trip.

 

Harold Baines was the guy you always hit sixth in your line-up and inexplicably is a Hall of Famer.

That should be the only sentence on his plaque.

 

Alternate headline:

Upstate Tourist Attraction Angers Area Man

 

Harold Baines making the HOF is a travesty.

 

In 22 years he led the league in one category, once. 1984 Slugging percentage.

65th lifetime in HRs
46th in career hits
34th in RBI
1 Silver Sugger
0 MVP
Never even had 200 hits in a season
Tony Perez is not an anomaly, he’s the standard.
Mattingly was a better player

How can you keep Johnny Damon out if Baines is in?

 

50 players over the last 50 years were better players.

 

How is Harold Baines better than Steve Garvey?

Put in Dale Murphy RogerMaris and Elston Howard, NOW

And Little Feat into the RRHOF

 

He's not. He's not better than a whole lotta players. They really fucked this up and lowered the standard. Him and Morris making the Hall just swung the door wide open to the likes of Mattingly, who should have been in way before Baines.

 

Dixie chicken is enough to keep them out. Hate that fucking song

 

Still in shock over Baines. Was there a concerted push to get him in the hall by fans? Writers? Statheads? Am I missing something? At least when the veterans committees of the last put in guys like Ross Youngs, Rube Marquard, and Tommy McCarthy, you could at least cut them slack due to lack of knowledge of records or blatant cronisym. This just make no sense.