Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

That looks good, though I would drop Dawson, and maybe add Trammel. I can't remember a year when they did so badly (as a unit - not individual voters). As was pointed out, Belle was probably a better player than Dawson - how much offense do the CF / SB years with the Expos make up for, probably not enough.

 

I don't think the writers usually keep guys out because they don't like them. Jim Rice got in. Jack Morris gets more support than he probably should.

Albert Belle, getting 3.5 percent of the vote when he should be a Hall of Famer, is a fucking injustice to end injustices.

 

Point taken, but not quite, Waylon.

The "injustice to end injustices" is the continuing middle finger extended to Marvin Miller. Compared to that, Belle's screwing is pleasurable and mutually beneficial to all parties.

 

Even as a Tiger fan, I'm undecided on Trammell.

Compare him to Ozzie Smith, and Trammell has way better offensive numbers. Obviously, Smith was a lot better defensively, but Trammell wasn't a slouch on defense. But Trammell's numbers are a lot less than Ripken.

Trammell had one monster year and then a lot of real solid numbers in an era where the shortstop wasn't always one of the best on offense.

 

Yes, Game 7 counts for a fucking lot.

 

Sorry, you cheat on the test, you're expelled.

Oh, and he had a shitty outfield arm.

 

I'd love it if anyone had the power to follow through with that sentiment and applied it evenly throughout baseball history.

 

Hard to fathom that Robby Alomar is not a HOFer. From the '70s on, I cannot think of a 2B I would rather have on my team, even with Joe Morgan available.

Alomar was unbelievable, the sweet glove, the sweet swing, the dramatic power, the speed. When he started, 2B was littered with the light-hitting good glove guys, Mark Lemke, Wally Backman, Steve Sax, Lou Whitaker, Damaso Garcia, Frank White types.

Larkin's 9 Silver Sluggers? NL shortstops were even worse, Johnny Lemaster was a stud to us on the West Coast. No one could hit. Sammy Khalifa.

 

Rick, I asked this earlier, but I'll ask again. Why do the stat/sabermetrics people have such a soft spot for the steroid guys? They seem to be unanimously embraced by the BBTF/BP crowd.

 

Steroid guys are throughout the entire history of the game (well, along with other PEDs).

If you mean specifically the guys in the early 90s who happened to find some PEDs that upset the statistical balance, I'd guess it was because those are the guys who were at their best when sabermetrics found its own, and they were generally so disliked by anti-stat guys who didn't want to believe that walks and home runs can be a better way to produce offense than bunts and stolen bases.

 

Bonds and McGwire specifically. A few others from that era. Support for them seems to be unanimous on the comments sections of those sites. I get the argument that guys have always cheated in baseball, but I find it bizarre that this particular subset of fanatics has taken up this cause that seems to be unrelated to their primary cause.