2016 Baseball Hall of Fame Nominees

No. Pierznski actually has a higher career batting average and on-base percentage.

I'm not implying that he is a bum. I'm saying that he is a very good player who has no business being in a Hall of Fame discussion. The guy had a .280 on-base percentage in 2015. Not a bum due to the pop, but certainly a flawed offensive player.

Perez has no more place in a Hall of Fame discussion right now than Jonathan Lucroy did a year ago, when he was coming off two very strong seasons before injuries ruined much of his 2015.

 

A dozen years of stellar defense and average offense makes him Jason Varitek (whose career 162-game average for standard batting stats is virtually identical to that of Perez. Perez has a higher BA, Varitek has a higher OPS). Jason Varitek won't get enough votes to stay on the ballot more than a year.

 

So what does Molina need to make the Hall of Fame?

 

A salad.

 

is there a really a HOF debate about a guy with a career ops+ of 100 after five seasons in the league?

 

Perez already has as many all-star selections and three times as many gold gloves as Varitek had his entire career.

His average hasn't been great the past two years, but if you look at guys like Carter and Fisk, they'd be up and down their whole careers. .240 one year, .285 the next.

What I don't think people realize how quickly he got to 500 hits. It took him something like 50 fewer games than Pudge Rodriguez to get there. Perez getting 2,000+ hits and 200+ homers wouldn't be a stretch at all at this pace. That puts him on par offensively with every catcher in the Hall of Fame not named Bench or Berra. Then you start to factor in his defense...

 

Have you slept since they won?

 

Not much, but that's unrelated.

 

All Star selections and Gold Gloves are horrible measures for a Hall of Famer. Besides, from an All Star standpoint, you also had Pudge Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Sandy Alomar whose careers overlapped with Varitek's entire career. Perez doesn't have other AL catchers of that quality to compete with.

And you will NEVER get me to argue that Varitek is a Hall of Famer regardless. And neither would Perez be after another dozen years of the same offensive production as Jason Varitek.

 

Have the next three years of his career be better than this best season ever? There's not a lot he can do, besides winning Gold Gloves on reputation

 

I know it is very early, but through the small sample-size of 23 ballots revealed, there are a lot of people gaining votes compared to that person's 2015 ballot.

Edgar has already gained 6
Bagwell has gained 4
Tramell is getting the last ballot bump and has gained 3
Mussina has gained 3
Schilling, Raines, Bonds and Clemens have gained 2 (Schilling is plus two because he has lost a vote from last year)
Piazza has gained 1

And those are just the main guys being plus/minused.

Also of note: Hoffman is on 18 of the 23 (which may surprise some), Wagner has two votes and Edmonds and Anderson are the only other newcomers to get just one vote.

Considering the cut in voters, a lot of percentages will be interesting.
For example, just off this small size, assuming they didn't lose any votes AND the max 475 votes are sent, Bagwell jumps 10 percent to 65 percent (357 would be needed if all 475 ballots are cast. Bagwell needs 47 out of the 452 currently unknown); Edgar is up five percent to 32.

Piazza is almost a lock to get in even without adding support. If he doesn't lose a vote and all 475 are cast, he's at 80.8 percent. He would need to lose 28 votes off the purged ballots and not gain any to fall just shy of induction, and that's only if every ballot is returned.

 

And this is why even when you purge, it doesn't completely help -- Juan Vene's ballot this year is Griffey, Hoffman, Piazza and Smith. He says next year he will vote for Bagwell. And he dropped McGriff from his balllot last year.