# MLB Off Season/Hot Stove **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** baseball-mlb\ **Created:** [March 11, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799 "2020-03-11T04:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/382 "2020-05-28T10:40:17Z")
I also remember someone leaving for lunch on day 1 and not returning. Speaking of interviews we hired a Chinese woman whose English was pretty bad. After she started working one guy who interviewed her said “Wow her English is bad” and he was the guy who gave her the job offer. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/383 "2020-05-28T12:50:19Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Cheating is not a big rules violation? Ask the Astros, Alex Cora, Beltran, etc. I don’t think the HOF kicks La Russa out if guilty but it would not shock me if they did. HOF can do whatever they want. MLB does not control what they do. A guy kinda remembering a thing that he says LaRussa did even though he didn’t play on the team until after LaRussa was gone 32 years ago is, well, not much of a basis for a major suspension. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/384 "2020-05-29T01:59:47Z")
I’m guessing MLB could talk to guys who played for the White Sox when La Russa was the manager if they want to look into this. But they might be too busy talking to recent cheaters. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/385 "2020-05-29T03:01:05Z")
It’s going to be extremely hard to determine what happened 32 years ago and, yeah, their hands are full. Or should be. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/386 "2020-05-30T05:14:44Z")
he managed the Cards until 2011 so they could look into those teams, plenty of those guys are still playing. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/387 "2020-06-01T07:25:43Z")
45 minutes to this years HOF announcement. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/388 "2020-06-01T08:22:42Z")
Congrats to Larry Walker. Very well deserved. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/389 "2020-06-01T08:28:15Z")
One vote shy for Jeter, really? Look, I hate the guy but he’s a Hall of Famer and you vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/390 "2020-06-01T08:42:57Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > One vote shy for Jeter, really? Look, I hate the guy but he’s a Hall of Famer and you vote for him. Absolutely agree. Im hoping its someone who was experiencing a strong brain fart rather than a non vote cast with malice. LoL at Larry Walker and his SpongeBob Squarepants shirt he’s sporting on the MLB network. It must be a Canadian thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/391 "2020-06-01T08:49:25Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > One vote shy for Jeter, really? Look, I hate the guy but he’s a Hall of Famer and you vote for him. Hell, it’s been a longstanding tradition for some voter(s) to not vote for even the most obvious candidates. Even Babe Ruth only got 95% of the vote, and until Mariano Rivera last year, _no_ player had ever gotten 100% of the BBWAA vote. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/392 "2020-06-01T08:56:18Z")
Yeah, I think it’s stupid if someone did it because of an agenda. But if Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, etc. weren’t unanimous, Jeter will live. 396 out of 397 ain’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/393 "2020-06-01T09:10:52Z")
The only thing that matters is in or out. That is it. Suppose, though, the writer didn’t have an agenda, but just felt there were ten other guys he wanted to vote for and he figured Jeter didn’t need his vote. I mean, the way it works encourages that exact decision. It’s a logical response in game theory terms. Anyway, as a Canadian, I am glad Larry Walker is in. It was going to be close. I would not have been outraged just if he hadn’t made it. Better players aren’t in. I would say Walker is, I dunno, the 100th greatest player of all time? 110th? Somewhere between 90 and 130 I guess. That’s deserving (there are more than 200 players in, and 100 would be far too few IMHO) but he’s not Willie Mays. What I was worried about was that he’d get like 74.8% of the vote. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/394 "2020-06-01T13:22:06Z")
Schilling goes in next year, I think. Pettitte goes in sometime in the next few years as he is being compared with people like Tim Hudson and Mark Buehrle. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/395 "2020-06-01T22:48:19Z")
The guys who improved in the voting but kind of didn’t improve are Bonds and Clemens, who edges up a little bit but only by a couple of points. Both have only two years left before lapsing and having to wait for some committee in the future. Someone voted for JJ Putz. I assume it was a joke. The one that fascnates me is Omar Vizquel, who got more than 50 percent and with seven years left is now, at worst, a coin flip to make it. **No one in the BBWAA thought Vizquel was a Hall of Famer when he was playing;** if they did, explain to me why, in his entire career, he was only mentioned in MVP voting in one season, and finished sixteenth. I have to think that if a guy almost never gets brought up in the conversation “here’s a dude who was one of the ten most valuable players in the league” he is maybe not a top HOF candidate. I bet there isn’t any other serious HOF candidate of whom that can be said. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/396 "2020-06-01T23:46:35Z")
some old guys want to be a jerk and leave a guy off the ballot. Reminds me of this moneyball scene: Beane to old scout: Don’t worry with our new ideas I won’t fire you. Scout: F\*\*k you Beane : Now I am firing you Probably a scene made up for the movie and did not really happen but still a funny scene ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/397 "2020-06-02T05:11:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The one that fascnates me is Omar Vizquel, who got more than 50 percent and with seven years left is now, at worst, a coin flip to make it. **No one in the BBWAA thought Vizquel was a Hall of Famer when he was playing;** if they did, explain to me why, in his entire career, he was only mentioned in MVP voting in one season, and finished sixteenth. I have to think that if a guy almost never gets brought up in the conversation “here’s a dude who was one of the ten most valuable players in the league” he is maybe not a top HOF candidate. > > I bet there isn’t any other serious HOF candidate of whom that can be said. Yeah, I gotta admit, Vizquel is a head scratcher. Should he make it in we might have a new winner of ‘least deserving’. In terms of Jeter? 538 had a pretty good argument today that Jeter’s candidacy was iffier [than people make it out to be.](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/derek-jeters-hall-of-fame-case-was-never-in-doubt-but-larry-walkers-was-until-the-very-end/) He was a great player, but there are serious holes in the argument for his enshrinement among the Ruths, Spahns and Mays. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/398 "2020-06-02T05:32:37Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > In terms of Jeter? 538 had a pretty good argument today that Jeter’s candidacy was iffier [than people make it out to be.](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/derek-jeters-hall-of-fame-case-was-never-in-doubt-but-larry-walkers-was-until-the-very-end/) He was a great player, but there are serious holes in the argument for his enshrinement among the Ruths, Spahns and Mays. Candidacy for the HOF? It doesn’t say anything of the kind. It just says that perhaps he didn’t merit selection unanimously. The worst knocks are that he never won a season MVP (though it’s arguable that he should have won one or more) and had relatively poor defensive stats. But his standings on hits and WAR for shortstops made him a shoo-in despite those drawbacks. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/399 "2020-06-02T05:37:27Z")
No no no. I’m not being clear. He’s clearly a player deserving of the HoF. But being held up as a top ten player of all time - with Spahn, Ruth, Mays et al - is just not indicated. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/400 "2020-06-02T05:52:39Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > No no no. I’m not being clear. He’s clearly a player deserving of the HoF. But being held up as a top ten player of all time - with Spahn, Ruth, Mays et al - is just not indicated. There is no way in hell he is a top 10 player of all time. Who ever claimed that? I am one of the biggest Jeter fans on the board and I know better than that without hesitation. Is this about missing the unanimous by 1 vote? It is not the same. Different voting styles in the past, obviously. There will be another unanimous player in the next 5-10 years I’m sure, but there are still enough old-timer voters left to leave Mariano a special exception for a little bit longer. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799/401 "2020-06-02T06:13:27Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The one that fascnates me is Omar Vizquel, who got more than 50 percent and with seven years left is now, at worst, a coin flip to make it. **No one in the BBWAA thought Vizquel was a Hall of Famer when he was playing;** if they did, explain to me why, in his entire career, he was only mentioned in MVP voting in one season, and finished sixteenth. I have to think that if a guy almost never gets brought up in the conversation “here’s a dude who was one of the ten most valuable players in the league” he is maybe not a top HOF candidate. > > I bet there isn’t any other serious HOF candidate of whom that can be said. Lou Whitaker actually did almost as badly. He was mentioned just once in MVP balloting, like Vizquel. That was 1983, when he hit .320 with 40 doubles and won a gold glove award at second base. Unlike Vizquel, he finished eighth rather than sixteenth, though. So, top ten, if barely. I know Whitaker was not as appreciated in his day as he is in now. Still, I thought this single MVP mention was surprising. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-off-season-hot-stove/842799.md?page=21)