Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Winning two straight MVPs doesn't overcome the fact Alomar put up better numbers in a shorter period of time.

Gms: Morgan 2649, Alomar 2379
H: Alomar 2724, Morgan 2517
R: Morgan 1650, Alomar 1508
HR: Morgan 268, Alomar 210
OBP: Morgan .392, Alomar .371
SLG: Alomar .443, Morgan .427
BA: Alomar .300, Morgan .271
SB: Morgan 679, Alomar 474
Gold Gloves: Alomar 9, Morgan 5
All-Star Games: Alomar 12, Morgan 9
Top 6 MVP finishes: Alomar 5, Morgan 4

Even with 58 fewer homers (a margin he wouldn't have made up even if he'd played the two seasons Morgan had on him), Alomar still had the higher SLG pct, which all but negates Morgan's advantage in OBP. The 205 SB deficit doesn't appear as great, either, considering Alomar played in an era in which NOBODY stole 80 bases, while a player reached that mark nine times during Morgan's career.

And even without the two MVPs, Alomar, overall, still finished higher in the balloting more often than Morgan. Alomar also had the two straight World Series crowns.

Lastly, he combined brilliant offense with perhaps the most exquisite defense the position has ever seen. I'm sure there's a formula that can disprove my latter contention (not being snarky at all, just recognizing there's a metric out there I'm not using), but there has not been a more complete 2B in the last 70 years than Roberto Alomar. Not only should he be a first-ballot HOFer, there should be no doubt about it.

 

Alomar is indeed a no-brainer. No argument from me there.

 

Well fine then! I was just explaining why I'd take him over Morgan.

 

McGwire. [/ducking]

 

My Ballot

1. Alomar
2. Larkin
3. Raines
4. McGwire

As for McGwire ... Why not? 2013 is going to kill all hopes of punishing these players anyway. Are you really going to keep Bonds off your ballot?

 

Why not McGwire? Because his career BA is stilll .263, and .257 if you take away his prime 135 HRs and 297 RBI 98-99 juicing years, and don't forget his .201 on '91, he's borderline at best.

 

It's extremely late as I write this post but I hope that you, Mr. Gee, and other voters won't hold Martinez's late start against him just because the Mariners were stupid fucks who kept him in Triple-A despite him hitting the shit out of the ball.

 

My opinion? Loved to watch the guy hit, thought he was extremely valuable to the Mariners' success, don't want to hold the DH against him because it's an accepted part of the game and he was doing the job he was given ... but for a guy who didn't take the field defensively and for whom we can only use his bat to assess his career, man, 2,247 hits and 309 home runs just aren't enough for me.

If your only job is to hit ... you gotta dominate the hitting stats a little more than that to be a Hall of Famer, in my mind.

But in terms of peak performance rather than compiling, he compares very favorably to Molitor, the only other "professional DH" in the Hall, and Baines. So ... I dunno. He's certainly got a case. But my gut tells me no, and unless I'm strongly convinced otherwise, I'll have to stick with it for now.

 

Re: Edgar...

What Buck said.

Alomar is also in, to me. Also Dawson. And McGwire.

Byleven, Raines, Larkin are the guys I need to think about more.

 

With apologies to Zeke ...

60-shutout list: W. Johnson, Alexander, Mathewson, Young, Plank, Spahn, Ryan, Seaver, Blyleven.

3,500-strikeout list: Ryan, R. Johnson, Clemens, Carlton, Blyleven, Seaver, Sutton, G. Perry, W. Johnson.

If he gets even halfway decent run support, he's got 310 wins and we're not having this discussion. (Of course, if Maddux gets halfway decent bullpen and run support, he might have 410 wins.) My point remains.

 

Zeke convinced me to vote for Blyleven last year and I'll stick to it. I honestly don't think of McGwire as a Hall of Famer. If he'd hit, say 40-47 homers each year in his steroid phase of the late 90s, it wouldn't be an argument. I'd like to vote for him, but it would be taking a position on the steroid era rather than casting a considered individual judgment. That's exactly the behavior I can't stand from the guys who vote AGAINST him because of steroids. We're members of a jury of a competition with rules set by others, not the Baseball Morality Police.

 

I hear you on all the Blyleven stats. He's very close. His absence from All- Star teams and Cy Young races is why I don't vote for him. I may change mt mind though. He's been my toughest call each year.