It’s January Seventh 2017, the first day this website is active. It is also eleven days until the results of voting for the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame class are announced. Its been a turbulent voting season, the induction of former commissioner Bud Selig into last year’s class opened up a new chapter in the Steroid era debate, perhaps the most controversial issue in league history. Putting a man that many believe enabled the use of steroids into the hall removes one of the key barriers of those implicated in their use such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens. After all how can you continue to prevent anyone connected to the steroid controversy from entering while pushing the individual, perhaps most responsible, in at the first opportunity?

We’ve seen this have an immediate impact as there’s been uptick in support for the leading PED users. Among the public ballots Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons have gained the 3rd and 4th most of any player, gaining a net 20, and 21 respectively (Edgar Martinez (28), Tim Raines (23)). Before those who’d like to see these players in the hall get excited, there are a few disclaimers that must be mentioned: First, this is based solely on ballots made public, at time of writing this only includes 166 of 435 or 38.2% of cast ballots. It’s difficult to tell how much a sample size this small can actually say about the results as a whole, but unfortunately it’s all we have to go on. Secondly, though those are significant gains, both players are starting from a significant hole. In order to reach the compulsory 75% of votes Bonds would need an additional 114 votes, Clemons would need 109. By no means does this uptick mean either will be getting into the hall anytime soon, it is simply an indication that the opinions of voters is starting to shift.

As said this debate is possibly the most divisive in recent league history. There is no easy answer as to what to do with cheaters when cheating is so widespread. This wasn’t one or two guys, nor the names we associate with the era, before 2006 the use of PEDs was hardly regulated at all .What’s often lost however, is consideration for the individual players career. We often think steroid users and picture Barry Bonds alongside Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire, they were after all famously locked in that great home run race. This is a grotesque disservice to Bonds.

By the statistic known as fWAR (wins above replacement) Sammy Sosa checks in at 60.1 an impressive total that ranks him as 120th among all time batters. There are three players who also finished at 60.1 Max Carey, Jack Glasscock, and Frank Baker. Baker and Carey are in the Hall, Glasscock is not, perhaps because he played in the 1800’s and has a very silly name. McGwire ranks higher at 66.3, or the 82nd highest rated hitter in MLB history. No other player ever finished at that exact tally but Harmon Kilibrew one spot below at 66.1 is in. Interestingly the guy one spot above McGwire is Tim Raines at 66.4. Raines is on the ballot this year for the 10th and final time, he is likely to get in but has been one of the more hotly debated non PED users on the ballot. You get the idea, if not for steroids their resume’s would rank them as solid, if a little boring, candidates for the Hall. Unfortunately they did do steroids and that calls into question their entire candidacy.

Barry Bonds is different, by the same metric Bonds is recorded at 164.4 Wins Above Replacement, just 4 shy of Babe Ruth’s record 168.8. Third place is Willie Mays at 149.9, no player from a similar era to Bonds shows up until Alex Rodriguez at 13 with 113.0. There are certainly criticisms to be made about WAR and exactly how accurate it is, but not even the harshest critic can ignore a gap that wide with a straight face. By wRC+, a stat that tracks a player’s offensive production weighted against the average for all player’s in his era, Bonds’s 173 is tied for 3rd with Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby, behind only Ted Williams and Babe Ruth. In 2002 he walked 32.4% of the time and struck out just 7.7%, a pair of figures that should be impossible. Taken without the context of steroids Bonds’s achievements make him one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

The point of this post isn’t necessarily that Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame (though that is the author’s opinion). Despite his accomplishments and talents there’s no doubt he broke the rules, so if that to you is a deal breaker you can not be blamed for considering the deal broken. This post is more about making the case that he should be held in a different class to those who’s entire career was built upon steroids. In an era where everyone was dirty he certainly wasn’t clean, but he was, far and away, the best.