HOF 2006
SPORTING GOODS
The 2006 first-time nominees for the baseball hall of fame have been announced, to much fanfare as Pete Rose has now officially fallen off the ballot. Interestingly, it doesn't look like any of these guys will get the nod, but it's still fun to look at the list:Rick Aguilera, Tim Belcher, Albert Belle, Will Clark, Alex Fernandez, Gary Gaetti, Dwight Gooden, Ozzie Guillen, Juan Guzman, Orel Hershiser, Gregg Jefferies, Lance Johnson, Doug Jones, Roberto Kelly, Mickey Morandini, Hal Morris, Jaime Navarro, Luis Polonia, Mike Stanley, Walt Weiss, John Wetteland, Mark Whiten
There are three guys on this list who looked like hall of famers for a several year span: Albert (Joey) Belle, Will Clark, and Dwight Gooden. It will be interesting to see if we ever learn that Belle abused steroids, as the signs are all there. We all know what happened to Gooden, and Clark was a fabulous player for a few years, and actually ranks among the second or third tier of greatest first basemen ever (there is a surprising shortage of truly great first basemen through history).
So with this very weak first-year class, we may see some of last year's holdovers get additional attention. That would include Andre Dawson, Goose Gossage, Jim Rice, Don Mattingly, Alan Trammell, Bruce Sutter, Keith Hernandez, and Dale Murphy.
Last year, I said I'd vote for Jack Morris and Jim Rice, and maybe Gossage. Guess I'd hold to that.
In 2007 we get Ripken, Gwynn, and McGwire up for election. That should be much more interesting.
posted by Darlucky at 11/28/2005 06:13:00 PM
6 Comments:
ripken SHOULD get every vote on the first ballot, but there are always douches who decide that they want to be the one that keeps a guy from being unanimous.
DarLucky -
You know this better than me. Was there a better SS (consistently) in the 80s than Trammell (other than Ripken)? Is he that much different from Ozzie Smith?
Isn't that what the HOF is about? Best during your generation?
P.S. - I'm a sucker for middle infielders.
Probably not, but it's hard to say where the hall of fame line gets drawn.
I mean when you think of "the 80s" which probably extends into the late 70s and early 90s, you think of the following infielders right?
Catcher: Gary Carter
1B: Mattingly, Hernandez
2B: Sandberg, Whittaker
SS: Ripken, Smith, Trammell
3B: Schmidt, Boggs
I think that is right. And at this point, without checking the stats, I think all of them should be HoFers except for maybe Whittaker.
But isn't the HoF about more than Stats. I'm a stat guy and if I'm putting together a team or the GM of the Mets, I'm looking at stats, but isn't the Hall of Fame partially about reputation.
I need to think about this more. But I will say that if Ozzie Smith is in the HoF, then Keith Hernandez should be. Smith gets a lot of credit for his exceptional defense. Hernandez was the best defensive first baseman ever. The only difference is that Hernandez didn't do flips when he came on the field.
For more on this, see this very interesting article:
http://www.baseballtruth.com/fielders_choice/choice_122804.htm
There is a somewhat arbitrary, though interesting cutoff point, that suggests that Trammell should be in, but not Hernandez.
(warning: it does use Win Shares to some degree)
Incidentally, if you ignore the #s you'll see the list of recently retired or active players that should make the Hall by the guy's criteria, in order:
Barry Bonds
Rickey Henderson
Frank Thomas
Craig Biggio
Wade Boggs
Gary Sheffield
Jeff Bagwell
Cal Ripken Jr.
Roberto Alomar
Mark McGwire
Tim Raines
Alex Rodriguez
Ryne Sandberg
Tony Gwynn
Ken Griffey Jr.
Mike Piazza
Rafael Palmeiro
Barry Larkin
Alan Trammell
Don Mattingly
Seems like a pretty good list. I'd say the bottom 4 guys are the longest shots (along with Tim Raines, who is completely under-appreciated).
PS - don't "ignore the numbers" as I deleted them after I wrote that.
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