My HOF Votes

The MLB Hall of Fame will release their picks for this year’s class. The headliner for the new players in this years class is Ken Griffey Jr., whom some believe might be the first player to receive 100% of the vote. Then there are the known steroid users like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds who have been on the ballot for four years but, have never been close to the 75% of the vote needed to get in.

My votes may not count but, I still think it is interesting to look at and comment on this year’s class. I will be looking for a few things with my votes. To start statistics. This is the bottom line for me. If a player is in the top ten in any category or has substantial overall numbers for his position then they are automatically in consideration. Also I look at their career with the team or teams they played with. If they were the best player of the time on their respective team or they are in the team’s Hall of Fame then they are also in consideration for me. Lastly steroids will have an effect on my ballet to a certain degree. I will comment on each player and say why I believe they deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.

Here are my picks:

Ken Griffey Jr. Mike Piazza Jeff Bagwell Tim Raines Trevor Hoffman Roger Clemens Barry Bonds

Ken Griffey Jr. or also know as “The Kid” is by far the easiest vote in this entire class. While people have their reasons for him not getting 100% of the vote I think that all of them are stupid. Every year there is an automatic candidate and some writer will say because no one else has had 100% of the vote that they had to be the one who didn’t vote for them. Honestly I think that is ridiculous. Especially when you don’t even use all 10 of your votes anyways. Junior deserves to be first ballot and he deserves 100% of the vote. He is number 6 all-time in Homeruns, he saved a struggling franchise (Mariners) and he will be in the Reds and Mariners team Hall of Fame. He was the player of a generation and he did all of it during the steroid era without using steroids. Mike Piazza will be voted on for the 5th time and I think he gets in this time. Many people believe that he had used PED’s because of his power and the fact that he played during the steroid era. While I do consider steroids in my assessment I have looked up whether he used steroids and there are no confirmed reports that he did. So while it may sound bad I will have to vote for him based on what has been confirmed. Enough of that though, lets get to the stats. The man was a hitting machine. He batted .308, with 427 homeruns, 1335 rbi, with a career ops of .922. These numbers are fantastic and make him one of the best hitting catchers of all-time. Also he has gone down as one of the best Mets of all-time. This means a lot considering the history of the franchise. While I hope that he did not use steroids just the numbers and how historic he was with his team I believe he deserves a vote. Jeff Bagwell was one of my favorite players to watch as a kid. I had to see him hit the ball all over the field against the Reds for too many years. His swing was great and he was one of the defining players for a very good Houston Astros team. His numbers are similar to Mike Piazza’s and he has never been connected to steroids for any other reason than the fact that he played during the steroid era. Truthfully it has been a shame that he has not been all that close to getting in but, maybe this will be his year. Before writing this article I honestly did not know much about Tim Raines. I knew he had been on the ballot before and that he had been close a few times. After looking him up and his numbers I think that he absolutely deserves to be in. To start he was one of the best Expos players ever. Yes, if you forgot Montreal had a team called the Expos. He was a fantastic leadoff hitter for them. He was a 7 time all-star and most importantly is 5th all-time in steals with 808. I think being top ten in any major stat is automatically a qualifier for me and hopefully that will swing some votes his way this year. Trevor Hoffman was the man. Besides Mariano Rivera he was my favorite closer to watch when I was a kid. While he threw 95 at the beginning of his career he got injured and that made him have to change the way he pitched. Man could he pitch. His game revolved around one of the filthiest changeups in the game and it helped him become the 2nd best closer of all-time. He had 601 saves in his career and he was a guy who started off in the Reds farm system as a shortstop. With Rivera he was one of the first truly great 9th inning saves guys in the game. This is Hoffman’s first time on the ballot so he may not get in right away but, he will eventually. If you have read this far or just skipped to this part I know why. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are some of the most notorious steroid users ever. I have always thought that I would not want to vote for them because of their usage. This was especially true for Clemens. I loved watching him pitch as a kid and when I found out that he was using steroids and had lied about it before I was very disappointed. I have since looked at it from a more objective view. The man won 354 games and started 707 while striking out 4,672 batters. He won 7 Cy Young awards and 1 MVP award. These numbers are incredible. He is one of the best pitchers ever and while he did use steroids I think he deserves to get in for two reasons. One because of his numbers and two because he was the best pitcher of this era. I doubt he will get in this year or maybe ever but, he was a fantastic pitcher with or without the steroids. Unlike Clemons I was never a huge fan of Barry Bonds. Before the allegations I respected how good he was but once they came out and he denied them I started to question how good he was. Then I looked up his stats and I remembered that with or without steroids the guy was special. He was the most feared batter ever, 2558 walks tells that story and why would people walk him? The man hit 762 homeruns and drove in 1996 runs. He was also the MVP 7 different times. Sadly because of numbers and the fact that he was the best player of this era he gets my vote. I do not see him getting in this year but, I think eventually unless they take away his homeruns that Bonds will be a Hall of Fame player.

These seven players have my vote. I can’t wait to see one of my favorite players ever, Ken Griffey Jr. get in and I think it will be interesting to see if any of the other six do.

Do you agree with my picks or do you hate them? Comment below, tweet at me @roberthaness, or comment on our forum where we can have a lengthy discussion!

Stats courtesy of, baseballreference.com