2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

Yeah, I just thought that was a big reason Passan went so hard on that point. I don't think he takes cheap shots. He was going after one of the decisionmakers, which I find fair.

I agree there's no reason to punish or degrade Harold Baines. He was a really, really good player for a long, long time and he does seem like a genuinely nice person.

Part of the backlash is just the shock of realizing Harold Baines is a hall of famer. That will wear off and he'll just be part of the club eventually. And it could be a catalyst to getting some other borderline guys in, which I'm fine with.

 

Where do you draw the line, though?

 

The Baines anger is a perfect storm. Fans have their favorites and their choices. There are a lot of them. And while they can kick up some dust that Dale Murphy or Don Mattingly or Lou Whitaker get snubbed, their rants often fall on deaf ears quickly because the majority of folks can go, “Murphy was good, but he was not as good as the guys getting elected. It’s a shame for him, but those are the facts.”

Then a long comes baines. All of a sudden, all of the tribes for Evans and Allen and Simmons and the like can say their guy is clearly better. It creates a thunderstorm of anti-baines bandwidth. So who is left the carry his banner? The handful of people who voted for him? His family? A group of white Sox fans?

The reality is baines just gets hit from all sides. The writers never gave him more than six percent. The metrics folks can’t get behind him ala Bobby grich. The average fan doesn’t remember that well. So, it has to suck for baines because he is being honored for his career and everyone seems to hate him. However, in a few years, it will be forgotten. Visitors will see his name in the hall and most will move on. His fans will smile. I don’t think anyone will try to rip his plaque off the wall and run out screaming “viva la Dave Parker.”

 

I don't know. That's the problem with us eschewing the historical benchmarks that used to make this an easier discussion. You got 3,000 hits, you hit 500 home runs, you won 300 games.

I love the statistical revolution, but it just opened Pandora's box when it comes to hall of fame arguments because there's 1,000 different ways to make a guy's case now. I'd hope over time we can come up with some baseline advanced metrics that guide judging one player from another.

Or maybe it's better if it's a terribly flawed system and it gets us talking about baseball more. Like the way I weirdly miss college football champions being arbitrarily named by news organizations.

 

I hope for his induction speech he gets up and gives a filibuster.

 

Somebody has to be the worst Hallof Famer post dead ball era, and Baines is a nice enough guy to be that. It’s just insulting and disrespectful to the dozens of players who are at least as very very good as he was, and passed over after receiving more than 6.1% of the regular HOF vote

 

I don't think he's the worst. Everyone ahead of him on the career hits list is either in the Hall of Fame, will be, or isn't because of steroids. That's a pretty compelling argument in itself.

EDIT: Correction, Vizquel is not in. He might be one day, though.

Career Leaders &amp Records for Hits | Baseball-Reference.com

 

Vizquel will most definitely be in somebody. He started at 37 percent and is sixth in that picking order for returners. He's already added four votes in the early tabulating and I bet he gets over 40 percent.

Edgar is off the ballot regardless of if he gets in, which he will, and Rivera is a lock. If Halladay and Mussina both get in, there's a good chance the top returners next year go: Bonds, Clemens, Schilling, Vizquel. Walker has a really good shot to jump him.

Vizquel is a prime 2021 inductee because there are no first-ballot locks

 

I believe I heard you on the radio the other day talking about how seriously you take voting on NHL awards. What's the difference here?

 

The "everyone above him" is an interesting, and true statement. However, now that he is off the list, the honor "everyone above him on the hits list (expect blanks)" falls to Johnny Damon. For RBIs, it goes to Fred McGriff. If that is a defacto standard ( and I know you are not saying that), then when do McGriff and Damon go to the Hall?

Baines put up some nice counting numbers (hits, rbis, total bases) that put him in and around Hall of Famers players. He falls short of the "magic numbers," though. It also puts him around guys who aren't in the Hall. So, the question becomes,what elevates Baines to Hall status? For guys in that group such as Perez, it was being on big-name teams and big games. For other guys in that group, it is some blockbuster seasons.

 

It's not Baines' fault. There's nothing he can do except show up and make a nice speech. It is the fault of the backscratching old farts (who were the young Turks of my dar) who put him in. Richie Allen was my teenage baseball hero. He was about three times the player Baines was, and that's no knock on Baines, who was damn good.Look, I've said before I have no animus for losing my Hall vote because of the no-longer-covering games rule and I don't. It's their museum. But when the select committees pull crap like this, or not voting in Marvin Miller, what happens to them? Nothing. If it's going to be the Insiders' Hall of Fame, blow it up. If fans stopped paying significant dough to visit Cooperstown for just one season, they'd get the vote. Fans are not that organized, bless them, but that if they want the vote, take it by force of dollars.

 

McGriff is going to be elected in 2021, the first time he can be on the Today's Game ballot. It's either him and Lou Piniella or one or the other.