2013 MLB Hall of Fame Screechfest

I apologize to everybody else for feeding a troll such as you, TP.

 

sure you do, dude. most people usually tire of your stupidity and move on, which gives you the false sense of winning arguments.

instead, once you started in with your ignorance, i took an oath that i was in it for the duration of the stupid.

so, for the sweet love of the baby jesus, please, please say something stupid. the stage is yours:

 

Really, everybody. I apologize for feeding the troll for this long and I truly hope TP gets the help he so desperately needs.

 

and, once again, i marvel your stupidity. nice work.

 

It depends on how far they take this foolishness and how many voters are determined to use their votes to punish people when they aren't even sure who did what rather than just vote for people who belong in the Hall of Fame.

Thomas should be interesting. I don't think anybody has ever accused him of anything, but this is a huge guy who hit for tremendous power during the steroid era. How do we know he was clean? Maybe he was always big because he started very young?

Personally, I do believe he was clean, but how can we be sure?

 

Thomas is a classic second year inductee.

He will have a PED stain because of the era he played in. He has the career extended by DH that people hate. And he's a first-timer with two 300-game winners, which would hurt him regardless of the backlog.

He'll get around 70 percent his first ballot and then sail in the next year when he's the top holdover hitting candidate after Bonds. That's assuming this year and next Bagwell, Biggio and Piazza get in. Otherwise Thomas is gonna get pushed to 2015

 

If Thomas has to wait, every single hitter from the steroid era has to wait and every year that the voters keep him out, if it comes to that, makes them look like more of a joke.

 

I don't disagree. Thomas is a first-ballot guy But look at the voting track record — in the last 12 elections, they have picked 15 hitters. The only one to have even close to his prime in the mid-90s is Alomar. They have plenty of options, especially this year, and so far a guy with 3,000 hits and the top offensive player at his position are struggling to get to 75 percent on their first try.

Jeff Bagwell is on his third ballot (41.7 to 56.0 to ??). 9,431 PA, 1,517 runs, 2,314 hits, 488 2B, 449 HR, 1,529 RBI, 202 SB, 1,401 BB, a slash line of .297/.408/.540 and an OPS plus of 149. He has an MVP, a runner-up and a third. No World Series ring.

Frank Thomas has these stats. 10,075 PA, 1,494 runs, 2,468 hits, 495 2B, 521 HR, 1,704 RBI, 32 SB, 1,667 walks, a slash of .301/.419/.555 and an OPS+ of 156. He has two MVPs (back-to-back of course), a runner-up, two thirds and a fourth. Has a ring, but was hurt almost the entire season and had no part in it. His "negative" is that he played 58 percent of his games (1,351 of 2,322) — an early season and then the last ELEVEN of his career at DH.

Those numbers are really close, probably a lot closer than people would think. And I think a lot of voters, when they start comparing numbers, are going to look at that and lean towards a no for Thomas initially rather than add Bagwell after seeming him compare that favorably to a guy they think belongs.

I would love to believe that the voters will put Thomas in right away. I had hope they would have put Bagwell in on his first try, on a much weaker ballot, and the second try, which was an even weaker ballot.

 

Fair point. Bagwell should already be in, too, but I think the PED speculation has hurt his case more than it will hurt Thomas.

 

That has definitely shown true in the voting and the comments from voters as to omitting him from the ballot. The problem for Thomas is such an overloaded crop that will ding him. There is a ballot of 10 that doesn't include Raines and Biggio, for example, and countless others already that have no use for Biggio, Bagwell, or Piazza.

There are actual options for voters if they want to err on any side of caution for a year or two. If they had switched spots, Thomas would have gone in with either the Alomar/Blyleven class or Larkin last year. But you will have so many small-ballot guys who will pick only Maddux and Glavine because they are the "safe and known" choices and disregard anyone else. If others get in, it won't be their doing.

And the consensus alone right now is a struggle. I've seen a 10-player ballot that has Raines, Piazza and Bagwell but leaves off Biggio. Then there's the 10-player ballot that has Biggio but not Raines, etc. etc. It's leading to nowhere with this group.

 

And there are some idiots who will lave Maddux, Glavine and Thomas off simply because they refuse to ever vote a guy in on the first ballot.

 

Absolutely true. But the recent slam dunk first-ballot guys have shown that number is a single-digit percentage, less than 40 votes.

Of course three of the last five 300-game winners didn't get in on the first ballot.