Hall of Fame ballot ugly up top, but key White Sox will get long looks

Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum released this year’s ballot this week, and while the debates over Cooperstown consideration will never regain their innocence, the conversation gets comparatively lighter after this year’s voting period. Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa will fall off the ballot one way or another after this year due to their expiring eligibility, with only Alex Rodriguez causing a comparable amount of controversy (although David Ortiz will have his share of detractors due to his rumored inclusion on a 2003 survey of failed tests).

Even including the warts of the new guys, it’s hard to surpass the ignominy at the top of the list of holdovers ranked by last year’s ballot support. Four of the top five vote-getters may have peaked due to off-field troubles (former White Sox in bold).

  • Curt Schilling, 71.1 percent (10th)
  • Barry Bonds, 61.8 (10th)
  • Roger Clemens, 61.6 (10th)
  • Scott Rolen, 52.9 (5th)
  • Omar Vizquel, 39.1 (5th)
  • Billy Wagner, 46.4 (7th)
  • Todd Helton, 44.9 (4th)
  • Gary Sheffield, 40.6 (5th)
  • Andruw Jones, 33.9 (5th)
  • Jeff Kent, 32.4 (9th)
  • Manny Ramirez, 28.2 (6th)
  • Sammy Sosa, 17.0 (10th)
  • Andy Pettitte, 13.7 (4th)
  • Mark Buehrle, 11.0 (2nd)
  • Torii Hunter, 9.5 (2nd)
  • Bobby Abreu 8.7 (3rd)
  • Tim Hudson, 5.2 (2nd)

Schilling’s degeneration into an extremist troll has exhausted the patience of plenty of voters who didn’t mind looking the other way for years. Bonds and Clemens are the poster boys for the PED era, and Vizquel’s rising candidacy should get derailed by the domestic abuse and sexual harassment allegations he faces. Rolen would rather not have you judge him by the company he keeps, and hopes he can get an even bigger surge in support than the 17.6 percent hike that shot him over 50 percent before reaching the halfway point of his eligibility.

Rodriguez faces the same obstacles as Bonds and Clemens. Ortiz should theoretically encounter the headwinds as Sosa, but Rob Manfred has urged voters to be lenient about the reported failed test, which is the kind of grace others could’ve used. Beyond them, the list of first-timers is pretty stacked with very good players who took home a lot of awards among them.

  • Alex Rodriguez
  • David Ortiz
  • Mark Teixeira
  • Jimmy Rollins
  • Carl Crawford
  • Jake Peavy
  • Justin Morneau
  • Prince Fielder
  • Joe Nathan
  • Tim Lincecum
  • Jonathan Papelbon
  • A.J. Pierzynski
  • Ryan Howard

None of the guys listed below Ortiz merit serious consideration, but one of the pleasant things about even unpleasant Hall of Fame ballots is how it generates at least one more widespread discussion of an excellent career. I’m especially looking forward to the summaries of Pierzynski’s wild ride, because he’s one of only 10 catchers with more than 2,000 hits in his career, and with Ted Simmons finally getting his ceremony last year, seven of those players are Hall of Famers. The others are Yadier Molina, Jason Kendall and Pierzynski. I’d bet on Molina getting in, barring an off-the-field complication. Kendall appeared on the 2016 ballot and received only two votes, and I’m guessing Pierzynski’s path will more closely resemble that one.

Looking at those results, Larry Walker finished 15th with 15.5 percent of the vote in his sixth year of eligibility, yet found his way to 75 percent in his time remaining. That’s not positive news for Pierzynski, but it’s more of a role model for Mark Buehrle, whose 11 percent in his first year on the ballot was a decent start.

Then again, Walker was on a ballot that included nine other eventual Hall of Famers. Buehrle doesn’t quite have that excuse, so the next two years will be big for his bid. The only newcomer worth serious discussion in 2023 is Carlos Beltran, whose borderline career is probably hampered by the Astros scandal. Depending on the reception received by Ortiz, it’s possible that the voters could pitch three consecutive shutouts before Adrian Beltre makes everything easy on everybody in 2024. Basically, this would be a good time for Buehrle to get a boost, and with no American League pitcher throwing 200 innings this season, perhaps people will be more impressed by Buehrle doing it 14 years in a row (and falling four outs short of a 15th).

PERTINENT: Mark Buehrle’s Hall of Fame plaque could tell one helluva story

It would also be a great time for the Golden Days Era committee to hone in on a couple of favored candidates. Minnie Miñoso isn’t the only one who merits a long look — Dick Allen and Ken Boyer should be next in line — but with the reclassification of the Negro Leagues as a major league changing some key numbers of his career, there’s one distinct reason to use this particular year to right that wrong.

PERTINENT: Now with 2,110 hits, Minnie Miñoso back on Hall of Fame ballot

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soxfan

It’ll be interesting to see how hall of fame voting will go or what real-time “errors” the veteran’s or other committees feel the need to correct in the future.

Just in my sports fandom, we’ve gone through what I’d consider at least three different “eras” – and it seems like each might need to be evaluated in isolation like the deadball era or before the mound was lowered.

Now that Bonds, Clemens, et al have had their knuckles rapped, we probably need to add a wing for the “steroid era.” Recognize the greatest players of the era, contextualize their accomplishments, and maybe even include a few guys who weren’t the best but may be more highly regarded if they weren’t playing against juiced opponents.

The “Money Ball” era could cover from the end of the steroid era up through the mid-teens. Recognize that there was a shift change in how players and teams were evaluated but also recognize that those evaluation techniques were in flux so folks were proverbially effing around and finding out what was good and what wasn’t. We started to realize the old way of doing things didn’t necessarily result in the best teams, but we were still evolving and individual stats may have suffered or been imbalanced because of that.

Then I’d say the advanced analytics era started with the 2016 season and the Cubs breaking the curse. By that point, there was a more-or-less standardized valuation approach for players, so the market inefficiency of the Money Ball era was gone and it was about the best implementation of the “agreed-to” approach to team building and player development (and spending money, Jerry). HOFers from today are going to have much higher strikeout rates and much lower IP totals than from a generation or two ago, but that’s not a function of their quality so much as the way a team is built and managed.

Jeff

My brother just wrote a book “Baseball Generations” that proposes a Career Value Index (CVI) for evaluating careers of players from different generations. My brother is a statistician among other things. I don’t know if Jim reads comments to his posts. But if he wants to add the book to his recommended list, I’m prepared to contribute $10 to Sox Machine for each copy up to the first 100 he sells. That way I can support my brother and Sox Machine at the same time. I probably can arrange to get Jim a free copy from the publisher.

itaita

I still think Bonds should be in. Every rumor and the stat line itself points to him starting them in the offseason of 99 after that infamous dinner with Griffey. (that im always going to say was real cause the yin and yang of their careers after makes for a great story) But if Bonds decided to retire after the 99 season he would’ve been a no doubt first ballot HoF and considered one of the best all around players ever.

jhomeslice

All of the cheater candidates are an interesting debate. I’m sure when it comes time for Altuve and anybody on the Astros, they will get a lot of scrutiny. For me, I lean toward guys who knowingly chose to do wrong for a substantial amount of time to be kept out. Bonds on roids was the best player of all time, hands down. But that was totally artificial, even if he was damn good to begin with. I won’t be upset if he or Clemens gets in, but don’t have a lot of sympathy for them if they don’t. HOF is a huge honor, and I just think letting guys like Bonds in would dishonor guys like Griffey and Big Frank who did it the right way. But that’s just me.

Red_Hair_White_Sox

I think of the HoF more as a record of the most important and noteworthy ballplayers. Putting Bonds in does more to contextualize baseball history than it does to give him a pass on the roids.

Augusto Barojas

Bonds won 7 MVP awards, 4 after juicing. He received plenty of recognition and will never be forgotten since he is the all time home run leader. Let him keep the MVP awards but if people don’t want him in the HOF, so be it.

rugbysox

because he’s one of only 10 catchers with more than 2,000 hits in his career, and with Ted Simmons finally getting his ceremony last year, seven of those players are Hall of Famers. The others are Yadier Molina, Jason Kendall and Pierzynski.

Joe Mauer?

rugbysox

Yes the end was rarely at catcher but he did clear half of his career games at catcher. Moving forward, will be interesting to see how the hall judges catchers based upon their catching appearances vs 1B/DH. Will any catcher in 2025 clear 120 games?

As Cirensica

There is an argument with Salvador Perez breaking the record form more homers for a catcher in a single season during 2021 because he hit a bunch of homers as a DH. It is all in the grey areas.

Trooper Galactus

Just ask Roger Maris how much one big, record setting home run season helps your HoF case.

Buehrlesque

Much as we all might like to ignore it, shouldn’t Sammy Sosa’s name be in bold on the first list? He spent more time in silver and black than several other names there.

peanutsNcrackerjack

If we are going to entertain exceptions for entrance into the HOF, the discussion should begin with Pete Rose, the greatest ball player in modern history IMO.

Greg Nix

Jimmy Rollins has a better case than Omar Vizquel. Don’t @ me.