Maddux, Glavine, Thomas elected to Baseball Hall of Fame; Biggio just misses

Of the three, Smoltz is down a level or two obviously. I think he has the numbers, plus the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz thing to where he will be picked.

I find it hard to believe that voters won't view Johnson as a lock. If Glavine got 90-plus percent, how does Johnson not.
There will probably be voters who don't like Pedro's win total but again, I can't see someone not vote for them.


And the thing about Biggio is -- he only needs two votes. 150 voters aren't going to switch their votes when he only needs a few.

 

I still don't get how anybody can think there should have been any debate about Frank Thomas.

Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez should get in easily.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Smoltz not get in on the first try, though I think he should be a lock.

 

I agree with every word OOP just wrote.

In other news, hell froze over today.

 

Smoltz is going to run into trouble with voters who are going with Clemens. By statistical measures, there will be a decent portion who see him behind Clemens, Johnson, Pedro, Mussina and Schilling and the backlash from being seen as the fifth or sixth best pitcher might be enough to keep him out.

In 2016 there's no first-time starting pitcher worth voting for (Mike Hampton is the best newcomer) with Hoffman and Wagner joining the ballot so the wait won't be very long. It would be nice to clean out almost a whole class in one swoop to help the backloggers have a chance.

 

All other things being equal, if Mussina pitches for the Braves and Glavine doesn't, does that change the equation?

 

What exactly changes in his favor? More exposure? If all other things being equal includes statistics, he loses one of the arguments in his favor, which is pitching in the tougher league.

 

There's a big difference between being linked to PEDs and proof of use. There has never been actual proof that Barry Bonds "cheated."
PED suspicion aside, HUGE criteria for the HOF is if a player was ever considered the best at his position. Bonds and Clemens both fit that criteria. Bonds has the most NL MVPs ever and Clemens won most Cy Young awards ever at seven apiece. Both are very deserving of the Hall and should be in. I agreed with Barry Larkin when he said on ESPN that the Hall is a history museum of the game. But disagree with him when he said players who are perceived as cheaters should get in because their memorabilia is already in Cooperstown. The "Steroid Era" is part of the game's history. Players during era deserve to be in. You just can't ignore some of the best players during that time period. There are already plenty of cheaters in the baseball HOF. There's no need for the hypocritical Baseball Writers voters to keep the "Steroid Era" players out.
It's amazing that the same people who were falling all over themselves to heap praise upon Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 for "saving the game" now call those guys lowlifes and cheats and lump anyone else perceived to have used PEDs in with them. It seems like all it takes to keep a guy out of the Hall is being disliked by the media and have an accusation of cheating hurled at them. So it "doesn't matter" to these people that there is no actual evidence that Bonds and Clemens used PEDs because they "just know". I liken it to someone's reputation being tarnished with a rape accusation. Even if a false rape charge is thrown out, the allegation still would follow the accused.
And, Craig Biggio with 74.8% of the Hall of Fame vote. You need 75% to get in. Couldn't they just round up? Look at Biggio's numbers and multiple Gold Glove wins, he was one of the best. I believe there is a 10-person annual limit on baseball Hall of Fame inductees. We've got six - the other four should've been Biggio, Bonds, Clemens and Piazza.

 

The troll is strong with this one.

 

I wonder if they know anything about those two now that perhaps they didn't know about in 1998.

 

Yeah, but Bonds and Clemens are dicks and they deserve to get fucked with. I hope they never used PEDs and their whole career was clean. And they still miss out on the Hall of Fame because they were huge douche bags. Karma says Fuck You.

 

Yeah, and let somebody tell me that douches with axes to grind don't have an effect on voting.

 

they do. Voters are as thin skinned and juvenile as the players they, allegedly, covered