Vlad Guerrero: HOF?

Has to be an Expos hat for Vlad, doesn't it? That's when he was just an otherworldly kind of talent.

re: His baserunning and fielding, I kind of thought the rap on him was that he was SUCH a talent that he was often hyper aggressive with both. Like, he always thought he could gun a guy down at a base. It would lead to spectacular plays, and some not-so-spectacular plays. Alou, IIRC, thought it was better to encourage him to take risks and to challenge him, vs. trying to get him to play too conservative. Lotta good Vlad and Expos stories in Jonah Keri's book about the team, Up Up and Away.

 

I guess. Bonds hit .298, bagwell .297. Belle and palmeiro were

 

Watching him on the Angels for six seasons, I got used to him getting homers on pitches that were inches off the ground. He may not have been perfect on the bases, but I never thought of him as a particularly bad base runner; I think the perception may have had a little to do with the team's philosophy of being very aggressive on the basepaths, which resulted in many of the Angels players getting thrown out from time to time, not just him. In the field I just remember that cannon arm of his. Again, I don't remember him being all that bad.

Personally, I think he should get in. I would love for him to go in with an Angels cap, but whether or not that happens, I'll be happy for him.

 

It's weird. When I was double checking the hat rule, two examples of the change were Gary Carter and Andre Dawson, both of whom wanted another hat but ended up with the Expos. If Vlad went in with an Expos hat, it would mean three Expos and no Angels. Raines going in would probably mean four Expos. Not bad for 35 years and not much success.

Plus, Larry Walker.

 

Should have gone in with a Yankees hat. Sheffield over vlad was almost as bad as randy Johnson over Beltran.

 

If elected (which is a very long shot) Larry Walker will be on the DL or day to day during induction weekend.

 

the three holdovers I mentioned were between 71.6 and 67.3 percent, and Hoffman was at 67.3 and was only in his first year of eligibility. All three of those guys have a great shot to get to 75 percent next year. It's not a stretch to say all four will get in

 

Vlad is a no-brainer to me. Guy could mash just about any pitch 400 feet.

Not that it has anything to do with it, but I sat behind his family at a game in Montreal in 2002, IIRC, and his kid was damn near the cutest kid I've ever seen. They were a hoot, with the entire group cheering like the most enthusiastic high school parents you've ever seen. There were about 5,000 people in the stands and everyone could hear the eight or nine of them going nuts for every strike, every hit. Vlad's son got everyone banging the empty seats up and down, which actually got quite loud when the rest of the "crowd" joined in. They were also very accommodating of a few people wanting to take pictures with them (not us).

 

This one just popped into the ol' brain. Angels-Red Sox playoff series. Sox took a big enough lead that the effing announcers spent the previous two innings babbling about how the Sox were going to set up their pitching rotation for the next series, how they matched up with the next opponent, etc. Then the Angels get a couple of hits, a walk, then Vlade hits a grand slam. The announcers were caught in mid-sentence. C'mon guys, talk about this game sense -- you know -- it's not over yet ... and it's tied ...

 

Eastern bias.

 

It's a stretch because Guerrero does not fit the profile of a first-ballot Hall of Famer based on the recent voting patterns and Ivan Rodriguez, for the voters who won't care about the faint PED talk, is the best first-timer on the ballot. Frank Thomas got 83.7 percent of the vote on the first try. Vlad's not going to get that and the margin between that and 75 percent is where he's not going to land on the right side of that line.

Bagwell will get people to switch because he is so close as the top holdover. Raines will get switches with the final year on the ballot bump. Hoffman was 34 votes short and I don't think he's going to get many adds because of his position -- there are voters who hate closers and are probably in the "Rivera and no one camp."

Vlad's year is 2019. 2017 will be Bagwell and Raines. 2018 is Chipper and Pudge. 2019 will be Rivera and Vlad. The best first-time hitter that year is going to be Helton. The only wild card is Thome. I don't think the voters put him in on first ballot in 2018, so he could be 2019 and Vlad goes to 2020 with Jeter (the next best first-time hitter that year is Abreu.)

 

Without looking up their numbers, I'd say Vlad was better than Chipper.