I won’t do too many of these non-card blog entries, but I felt this particular subject made a lot of sense. I’m a voter in the IBWAA and wanted to share what my ballot choices are—
- Bert Blyleven
- Roberto Alomar
- Barry Larkin
- Alan Trammell
- Tim Raines
- Edgar Martinez
- Mark McGwire
- Dale Murphy
- Fred McGriff
- Andre Dawson
Bert Blyleven. Simply one of the greatest pitchers of the 20th century. Also one of the most underrated. There’s a lot of amazing stats when you look into him.
Roberto Alomar. He got on base a lot, stole nearly 500 bases, had more runs created than all but five 2nd baseman since 1901, and played a great 2nd base. I always loved watching him play defense. I can’t think of another 2nd baseman in my lifetime that I enjoyed more.
Barry Larkin. A class act who got on base a lot, has stats comparable to Alomar, won 3 consecutive gold gloves, and helped his team beat the mighty A’s in 1990’s World Series.
Alan Trammell. A great shortstop from the 1980’s low-scoring era who has the most win shares of any player not yet in the Hall of Fame. I loved him when I was growing up…one of my favorite Tigers. He was a tough choice for me, but I finally was swayed…the more I thought about all those win shares.
Tim Raines. Almost 400 win shares, over 1600 runs created, all those IBE’s, no whiff of steroid talk, and all those walks he drew while pitchers and catchers did NOT want him on the basepaths. He was arguably the 2nd greatest leadoff batter ever, 2nd only to Rickey Henderson.
Edgar Martinez. Find me another DH who compiled 1638 runs created. Simply the best DH ever. Do we keep pitchers out of Cooperstown because they can’t hit? no. Then why should we keep the best DH out of the Hall of Fame just because he didn’t play defense a lot? Doesn’t make sense. He had over 8,600 plate appearances and slugged .515 while getting on base over 40% of the time. By the way, everyone (eligible) with a .400+ OBP and 7300 plate appearances is already in the Hall of Fame. Think about that.
Mark McGwire. Aahhh, one of the toughest decisions I made. His near 600 HR’s, being a bash brother, being part of 1998, 342 win shares, and just dominating as a home run threat for over a decade when he was healthy, would normally get anyone in as a first ballot HOFer. Yet, we all know he took something to pump himself up and we’re all not quite sure what to do with him now. Then, back in February, we find out about an old SI article from 1969 where people such as Bob Gibson admits to taking whatever they can to get an edge and play better. This made me realize that I shouldn’t penalize McGwire or anyone else for anything pre-2003. After all, nobody complained 40 years ago. Nobody made up any rules to really stop this or penalize those who’d been doing it. It’s been going on and on. It was allowed. Letting something go on without penalty and then suddenly saying it should be a problem before there’s a set rule against it, is a type of entrapment. So Mark shouldn’t be penalized for whatever he used, or else we should go back and remove Gibson and some others from Cooperstown.
Dale Murphy. All around nice guy who was arguably the best player for half of the 1980’s. I think with the Braves being on TV so much back then in every corner of the country, Murph was a hero to every baseball loving kid in those days and is still remembered very fondly by everyone who was into baseball at the time. He might not have the overall career stats that some others do, but I think he definitely belongs in the Hall for what he did for the game in a low scoring era.
Fred McGriff. Great power hitter, earned 305 win shares, 1550 RBI’s, slugged over .500, is just enough for me. People don’t think too much of him anymore because he didn’t increase his home run rate when the late 90’s power boom happened. I think he’s barely a Hall of Famer.
Andre Dawson. For years I’ve thought of Dawson as a near-HOF but not quite worthy of the Hall of Fame because he barely ever got on base. How can I honestly call that a great player? Then I noticed his win shares, all 340 of them. Then I noticed his IBE (Isolated Bases Earned = TB+SB+BB), all 5690 of them. Then I noticed his OBP when there was a man on 2nd and/or 3rd. That got me thinking about how productive he was even though he barely got on base. When his team really needed him to be great, he was great. Slowly my mind has turned in favor of Dawson. I mean seriously, his overall OBP is .323, which just isn’t Hall of Fame material, but managing to produce those win shares, IBE’s, and great OBP in the right situations, while barely getting on base when bases were empty… that’s pretty amazing. The guy was seriously clutch.