By DjackAnother year for MLB Hall of Fame Voting, another year of the Baseball Writers Association of American failing to put in the right people. Don't get me wrong Jeff Bagwell, Ivan 'Pudge' Rodriguez, and Tim Raines all deserve their place in Cooperstown, and now they got it rightfully so. The thing that many people are upset about is that several legends of the game once again got left out of Cooperstown. All time leaders of major statistical categories, some of the best players to play their respective positions, and they aren't apart of baseball immortality. This makes absolutely no sense to me, it honestly boggles my mind, how can these baseball writers be granted such a high privilege, and then just prove to baseball fans everywhere that these voters are for the most part dumbasses. Bob Costas gets to vote, I think that's all I need to say to prove my previous point. Anyways, isn't it just a horrible optic for baseball to have our all time hits, homerun, and Cy Young award leaders not in the MLB HOF. Really makes baseball look like a joke, and it's all because these players might've not been the greatest of human beings despite being the greatest of baseball players. Bonds and Clemens are linked to steroids along with every other baseball player between 1990 and 2005, they come from an era of baseball remembered as the steroid era, and they get punished for it despite being the greatest of their era. If you look hard enough you can find rumors about nearly every player from that era being linked to steroids, some with more truth and facts behind it than others, but the fact of the matter is that was essentially apart of the game in that time period. If everyone's doing it then it's an even playing ground, that's how I see it, and for the guys who didn't take it and continued to excel, even better for them just proves how legendary they truly are. I refuse to buy into this let's keep some guys out because there's more evidence against them than others bullshit, Jeff Bagwell got in, and he's been linked to rumors by credible sources, so why isn't Bonds and Clemens getting into the hall. These baseball writers aren't detectives so they should stop trying to be, cast your vote based of the players career performance, and end this nonsense before it's too late. Now let's go through who also should be heading to Cooperstown this summer. Barry Bonds, LF: If not the greatest hitter of all time, he's certainly the most feared hitter of all time, Barry Bonds was truly a beast with a baseball bat. Barry Bonds obviously has all the stats and accolades to get into Cooperstown, that was never in doubt when coming to the decision making process of whether or not he was Hall of Fame worthy. The black cloud over his legacy has always been steroids. Honestly, I don't wanna hear it anymore, get the homerun king into the Hall of Fame. If it'll help you sleep at night put an asterisk next to the guys names with steroids, but to not let them in would be an absolute travesty. Roger Clemens SP: Roger Clemens is in the exact same boat as Bonds. If not the greatest pitcher of all time, he's certainly one of them, and if awards set that standard, then his 7 Cy Young awards prove he's the best. To not have a guy like that represented in your league's Hall of Fame, forces your league's Hall of Fame to lose all credibility. Vladimir Guerrero RF: So bummed out that Vladimir Guerrero didn't quite make it to the 75% mark which is needed to receive a plaque in Cooperstown. He received 71% which leaves me to be confident that he'll be selected in 2018. Guerrero has all the stats to get in, more importantly his relentless approach to hitting the baseball made no pitch unhittable for Vlad. The ball could be thrown a foot out of the strike zone and he'll still blast it 400ft. That left people to question his plate discipline, too bad he never struck out 100+ times in a season, so there goes that debate. Vlad Guerrero had legendary power, a military grade rocket launcher for an arm, and from 1998 to 2011 he was one of the best hitters in all of baseball. Should've been in this year, but next year he'll cement his place in baseball history for sure. Well, you never know with the malfunctioning brains of these baseball writers. Trevor Hoffman RP: This one actually shocked me. For a lot of the other guys I can somewhat see the weak cases people are making against them, with Hoffman though, it actually doesn't make sense that he isn't in Cooperstown. He's the only guy besides Mariano Rivera to achieve 600 saves in his career, he leads the NL in saves all time, and he's not a Hall of Famer. This isn't Hoffman's first rodeo on the ballot either, he was also denied last year. Granted he only missed the HOF by 1% this year, which leads me to believe next year he'll most likely make the cut. It's still a shame that it's going to take 3 years to get a guy into the HOF that is top 5 all time at his position. Curt Schilling SP: Besides Sandy Koufax and Madison Bumgarner, Curt Schilling is the best postseason pitcher in history. Yeah, Andy Pettite, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and Roger Clemens all have more postseason wins than him, difference is he has 2 losses compared to them all being in the double digits. His ERA is almost a full point lower than all theirs as well, so when it matters most Schilling was one of the best to ever take the mound. Injuries played a big role in Schilling's underwhelming regular season numbers. 216 wins and 3116 strikeouts is hard to call underwhelming, but his career 3.46 ERA in the regular season might suggest otherwise. Honestly, 200+ wins, 3000+ K's, along with legendary postseason numbers, and two championship rings should earn you a spot in Cooperstown. The writers think otherwise. It could also be in part to Schilling calling the baseball writers " Liberal Pussys", but that's beside the point. Edgar Martinez DH: It's such a shame to see one of the best hitters of a generation get ignored so badly. Martinez was a double machine racking up 504 in his career. He hit 309 homeruns, his career slash line is .312/.418/.515, and for the 8th straight year he received no respect. Every other player with that career slash line is in the HOF or is going to be in the HOF when eligible, so why not Edgar. If it's honestly because he didn't play the field being a career DH in Seattle that might be one of the most ridiculous reasons to snub someone. It's listed as a position and he was one of the best at it, so I really don't see the problem. Edgar Martinez, also never got caught using steroids during the steroid era, and since he thrived against all the cheaters shouldn't that improve his stock that much more. Guess these baseball writers don't really don't have any criteria that they are basing their opinions off of, they're just checking boxes based off of personal beliefs of how it should be judged. It's evident the system needs change.
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AuthorDjack- Chief editor Archives
April 2018
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