2018 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot (With voting!)

Here’s a thought. Instead of (just) penalizing players who were known to have used PED, perhaps there should also be rewards for having been known to have not used PED. Because that makes the accomplishments that much greater.

If you were a pitcher/hitter who did not use PED facing an array of players who were largely users, then whatever statistical and ranking accomplishments you managed to accomplish would have to compare favorably with players of other eras who had similar accomplishments while not facing a rigged opposition.

Great. Who were they? And how do you know?

Well, we only managed to elect Chipper Jones and just barely. :smack:

The Hall of Fame voting results come out Wednesday. From the Vote Tracker it seems a certainty that Thome and Guerrero will be joining Jones. Edgar Martinez and Trevor Hoffman also have a shot. It’s nice to see Mussina moving up too.

That would lend to my theory they’re getting enough guys in, but unless Mussina is elected, the lack of pitchers will continue.

Vlad is actually a relatively so-so candidate.

Guerrero just looked like a Hall of Famer. His candidacy is weaker than Larry Walker, to be fair.

So Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vlad Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman.
I don’t love Hoffman getting in but I like the other 3.

Hoffman is a terrible selection - there are 50 pitchers more deserving who aren’t in - but he was inevitable so I’ve come to grips with that.

Jones, Thome and Guerrero are worthy though they aren’t the three most worthy; there were more deserving players than Thome and Guerrero, and I’m not even getting into the continued snubs of Clemens and Bonds, which is just stupid. Barry Bonds had a greater career before he started taking steroids than Jim Thome’s entire career.

Same here. I rationalize it by saying that for the voters that think he was Hall worthy, at least they can stop wasting votes on him and put Edgar in next year.

I’m glad that I don’t really care about the HoF anymore. Ten or fifteen years ago I would have seriously considered a trip to Cooperstown but there’s no way that’s happening now.

The Hall of Fame is awesome. If you are a baseball fan you owe it to yourself to go.

The Hall of Fame (as in the place where players are enshrined) is a small part of the Hall of Fame (as in the museum.) It’s a wonderful museum for baseball.

Agreed. Cooperstown is also a quaint little place (maybe not on event weekends…) with a nice lake and a great brewery. All round great place to visit.

I really enjoyed my visit and there were enough other things to do in the area to keep my wife happy. I didn’t know about the brewery though.

Ommegang Brewery. I’ve never been to the brewery but I’ve had a few of their beers and they’re quite good.