Choosing Tomorrow’s Baseball Hall of Famers Today
With all of the steroid issues that have plagued baseball over the last two decades, it has become harder than ever to have a simple conversation about which players are worthy of plaques at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. I have been a long time Ken Griffey, Jr. fan and because his statistics fell towards the latter end of his career as fast as his waistline grew, we have all come to the collective decision that he did not do steroids or any performance enhancing drugs and should therefore be an easy first ballot Hall of Famer.
With Junior Griffey’s retirement midway through the 2010 season, we are left with an interesting question: if baseball ended today, who would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame? I’d like to ignore the steroids issue for this conversation and simply try to see which players have had Hall of Fame careers up until today. I realize this is a little pie-in-the-sky because the steroids issue has been the issue in baseball over the past couple of years, but maybe you can humor me for a few minutes.
So when it comes down to it, who has had a Hall of Fame career so far? I don’t mean players who are on there way to Hall of Fame careers, I mean guys who could finish playing baseball today and eventually be inducted in Cooperstown. I checked out a couple of the basic statistics that so many baseball writers use to build the foundation of their votes and I’ve come up with a list of eleven guarantees:
Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro Suzuki, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.
Three other players just missed my list: Andy Pettitte, Chipper Jones and Jamie Moyer.
I think Moyer will miss out because his statistics are simply based on longevity, which hasn’t worked out yet for Bert Blyleven so why should it work for Moyer?
Pettitte is an interesting figure, as his career record is currently 240-137 and no pitcher who is 100-games over .500 in his career is sitting outside of Cooperstown. Pettitte also owns the record for the most career postseason wins and that has to count for something.
Jones could potentially have made the list of 11 a list of 12, but injuries have really hurt the latter years of his career and he is still well short of two major Hall of Fame barometers (he’s currently 510 hits short of 3,000 and 64 home runs shy of 500).
The one thing that surprised me right away is that there were no starting pitchers on the list of 11 and the only relief pitchers are arguably the greatest closers of all time. Again, this is not a list of people I think will make the Hall of Fame when their careers are eventually over; it’s who could make it if their careers ended today. Things are looking good for C.C. Sabathia, Ryan Howard and Joe Mauer. Heck, even Johnny Damon might reach 3,000 hits and begin the conversation of whether he is the worst player ever to reach that milestone. Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright and Tim Lincecum might get their call one day too. But as of right now, we’re left with only ten players who could expect to hear their names called at Cooperstown if baseball ended today.
No Chipper Jones? Maybe you need to be drug tested yourself. Not for PED’s but for idiot-oids. Chipper is simply put, THE best switch hitter of all-time. Check the numbers. Check the pedigree. Never had a losing season…ever. All the way to little league. He’s a winner and you’re…not good at what you do.
I think Mickey Mantle was a better switch hitter.
I’d also like to point out that the Braves had losing seasons in 2006 (79-83) and 2008 (72-90)
The best switch hitter of all time? I think that’s a stretch. But I do think Chipper deserves to get in the Hall, and I think he will.
Pete Rose and Eddie Murray might also take offense.
Jeter? Really? I’m just kidding.
Seriously, I think that it will be difficult to keep Pettite out. He averaged 17 wins a season (winning 20 games twice) and will most likely retire with around 250 wins. Add that to the WS titles, 3 All-Star games, an ALCS MVP, and being the winningest post-season pitcher ever, I can’t see him being left out.
And, yes, I am ignoring the steroid issue for the sake of arguement.
Edgar Martinez will be the first DH to make the HOF
You might as well tie a cinder block to anyone who tested positive for roids or served any type of suspension or confessed. this is typical tabloid east/west-coast bias patronizing the notion that A-rod and Manny and “guarantees”/locks. I am from STL and I am not in this fantasyland about McGwire getting in, look at the voting stat history. numbers this low never creep back up, ever. The writers are blacklisting all of these guys and rightfully so. Manny, never. Petite, never. Will Bonds and A-Rod’s number be too staggering to keep them out? Would society’s good conscience deny Rose if a formal ban wasn’t in place? I think the McGwire precedent carries over to Bonds and A-Rod. You can’t vote such low percentages on Mac and honestly think it will be dif for Bonds and A-Rod, they will get the same 20% each year like Mac.
Longevity is way over-rated. No one EVER went out of their way to buy a ticket to see Vizquel play or Moyer start. You can make whatever comparisons with Vizquel/Ozzie, but Ozzie was an icon and I went to the park 5 times a year just to see Ozzie who had a much more well rounded game. And it would be criminal to put 4th/5th good-team starter like Moyer in and not an insane big gamer like Jack Morris (KC/Min/Tor) or a sick K-guy like Blyleven who was condemned to bad teams and still racked up wins.
Alomar can hang in any argument for the greatest 2B of all time, but I agree with the ultra-selective doubts that restrict a guy from being first ballot. Who cares if the guys had a bad blow-up with an ump, beats his wife and has AIDS? He never juiced and compromised the integrity of the game like Rose/McGwire/Manny/A-Rod.
chipper is a first ballot hofer
I believe each one of the players mentioned deserve to be in the Hall!
And Mickey Mantle was the best switch hitter of all time!!! Chipper is in the top 5 though…
We just had some of the greatest pitchers of all time retire (Clemens, Johnson, Maddux, Pedro, in particular, but Glavine and Smoltz as well), so no shame in the lack of SP being represented.
Take a look at Jim Edmonds. I think he has a very good case, though I’m a relatively big hall guy. Which means I’d probably also vote for Thome.