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l again be one of baseball s best pitchers no matter what uniform he wears later in the year 26 brandon crawford giants when crawford found a bat to match his stellar glove he became one of the best players on one of the game s best teams and could be an mvp contender this year 25 giancarlo stanton marlins i can t think of another player who could hit 499 career home runs and be looked at as an utter disappointment it seems that every year injuries are the only thing keeping stanton from hitting 50 dingers 24 buster posey giants here s the guy that s been the giants best player throughout their remarkable run even with some signs of age he s the league s best catcher by a huge margin 23 robinson cano mariners cano seemed doa when he first got to seattle but proved last year that he s still among the game s best all around second basemen 22 joey votto reds another thirty something who just keeps mashing 21 kyle seager mariners he s already the lesser known seager brother but seager is the best player on a team that should contend in the al west this year 20 madison bumgarner giants it s hard to believe the guy who s won 56 wild card games is still only 27 but here we are 19 corey kluber cleveland he s the best al pitcher who won t have to move to the al east this year which probably makes kluber the cy young favorite 18 freddie freeman braves freeman may have been the nl s best hitter in 2016 if nothing else he s a reason to watch the braves 17 anthony rizzo cubs this is the sixth cub we ve seen on this list excluding one honorable mention and we re not done 16 nolan arenado rockies arenado added some patience to his prodigious power and flashy glove in 2016 short of running the bases well and saving his pitchers arms from the terrors of denver s altitude there s not much he can t do 15 carlos correa astros another young al shortstop and another astros infielder finish ahead of correa on this list but at 22 correa is younger than both and likely has a trophy or two in his future 14 chris sale red sox the best pitcher in the al signs with the red sox we heard that last year before david price found himself with a homerun problem and a sore elbow here s hoping sale can continue his dominance with different sox on 13 paul goldschmidt diamondbacks 2016 was a bit of a down year for the game s best first baseman he ll bounce back in 17 12 jose altuve astros the little man added power in 2016 and might just be the best player in his own infield after all 11 max scherzer nationals he now has a cy young for each eye color is this the year he adds a championship 10 corey seager dodgers as a rookie seager was the second best player in the national league i m guessing we ll see him duel with kris bryant for a few more mvp awards 9 bryce harper nationals harper s fwar the last four years 3 8 1 3 9 5 3 5 your guess as to what comes next is as good as mine but it seems pretty safe that it ll be the second highest number of his young career 8 noah syndergaard mets thor is a giant of a man with a giant of a fastball and a giant city ready to watch him dominate hitters with the best of them 7 francisco lindor cleveland i called andrelton simmons the game s best defensive player earlier and i still believe that but lindor could approximate simmons s defense this year with a much stronger bat 6 mookie betts red sox it s hard to imagine mookie getting any better but if he adds patience in 2017 the way he added power in 2016 the sky s the limit of his production 5 josh donaldson blue jays donaldson s been the second most valuable player in baseball during the mike trout years and showed no signs of slowing down at 30 last year 4 manny machado orioles i don t see the orioles contending this year but i can see machado putting up troutworthy numbers 3 clayton kershaw dodgers if not for last year s injury the game s best pitcher would easily occupy the number two slot 2 kris bryant cubs the defending nl mvp is the best player on the game s best team can play several positions and makes ladies swoon with a bat of his eyelashes life must be pretty good 1 mike trout angels short of making a trump supporter read a book or folding a fitted sheet there s nothing this man can t do posted in uncategorized 1 comment 2017 hall of fame ballot posted on december 3 2016 by bryan the hall of fame ballot backlog built up in recent years has been frustrating to say the least in 2016 some blessed space was opened up when mike piazza was elected and mark mcgwire and alan trammell aged off the ballot newcomer ken griffey jr predictably sailed in on his first try as well does all of this make filling out a 2017 ballot any easier maybe but a voter who sees ten or fewer qualified candidates on this ballot is either a staunch steroid critic or believes the hall should be far smaller than it is at least three worthy candidates join the fray for this go around opening up a net of one spot from last year s morass let s take a quick look at some of the new names and then try to put together a ten name ballot numbers in parentheses are hall ratings from the indispensable hallofstats com casey blake 37 over a thousand hits and 150 homers in a 13 year career most human beings can t claim those exploits also he was caught stealing more often than he successfully stole bases in his career pat burrell 28 a bona fide slugger burrell hit 292 homers in 6520 plate appearances that s 58 percent of eddie murray s homers in 51 percent of his plate appearances as you can see from his hall rating 100 is a borderline hall of famer burrell didn t add much value beyond his power orlando cabrera 31 i suppose every baseball fan reaches the age where he has to evaluate the hall of fame candidacy of his all time favorite player for me that age is 36 years nine months and a week for many of us it s probably disappointing to see our favorite guy s case look so flaccid before he came to boston in the fateful nomar garciaparra trade i knew cabrera as a dazzling gloveman plying his trade north of the border then he came to boston hit a home run in his first plate appearance made up a personalized high five with every player on the team and hit in ten consecutive playoff games on the way to boston s first world championship in 86 years he left for anaheim so quickly that the words red sox don t appear on his fangraphs page unless you ask for in season splits but he left such a permanent mark in new england that it s hard to picture him in another uniform i met cabrera at hadlock field in portland a few years ago where i was so starstruck that rather than striking up a conversation i awkwardly handed him my son and asked a staffer for a picture years later i look at his baseball resume and see solid numbers more than 2 000 hits very good fielding and baserunning numbers and somehow less value than casey blake life comes at you fast mike cameron 83 another short term red sox and a far better player than cabrera but one for whom i have far less admiration cameron stole almost 300 bases hit almost 300 home runs made countless dazzling catches in center field and has a higher hall rating than hall of famers hack wilson and roy campanella but he s barely worth a paragraph on this still crowded ballot jd drew 87 oh how i d love to cast a hall of fame vote for jd drew a career 278 384 489 hitter 28 percent better than league average drew was a strong baserunner and a decent right fielder with a lethal arm after an mvp caliber season in 2004 with the braves and two disappointing seasons with the dodgers drew came to boston where he replaced trot nixon a player with double the enthusiasm and half the talent red sox fans saw the new left handed hitting right fielder with a seven on his back take pitches and show no emotion after strikeouts and missed trot s hard nosed pluck rarely stopping to notice that drew walked in 14 percent of his plate appearances as a red sox and carried a 370 obp 390 over his first three seasons or that his grand slam in game six of the 2007 alcs might have been the most important moment en route to boston s second title in four years drew was no vlad guerrero or larry walker but he earned one more war than kirby puckett in over 200 fewer games had he been able to extend his prime for two or three more years we might be debating whether he s more worthy of a spot on this year s ballot than sammy sosa or tim raines vladimir guerrero 111 vlad hit 449 home runs the same count as jeff bagwell his 2 590 hits are within 100 of ted williams jimmie foxx nellie fox harry heilmann and ed delahanty he had one of the great outfield arms in baseball history and before olympic stadium messed up his knees once stole 77 bases in two seasons everything about vlad screamed hall of famer let s hope he s eventually one of the ten most worthy players on a ballot carlos guillen 46 a good hitter and a shortstop if not a particularly rangy one for parts of 14 seasons very good career derrek lee 57 in 2005 lee hit 335 418 662 with 46 home runs and 15 stolen bases for the cubs his career fielding and baserunning numbers aren t much to look at but he was an elite hitter and for at least one year played like a hall of famer melvin mora 47 during mora s tenure with the orioles i remember watching a game probably on new england sports network in which the broadcast team decided to have a little fun with mora probably in deference to his defensive versatility when he came to bat a graphic indicated that he was the father of quintuplets a professional boxer and the president of venezuela i can t find any reference to the graphic online today but as it turns out the quintuplets bit was true and he really did consider a run for president he also reached base safely over 2 000 times in his career and played solid defense all over the diamond magglio ordonez 65 like derrek lee ordonez was a solid player who very briefly looked like a legend in 2007 he hit 363 434 595 with 28 homers and 54 doubles for the tigers he had four 30 homer seasons before then but never again reached 200 hits or 50 doubles jorge posada 90 posada s hall rating is higher than that of hall of fame catchers campanella rick ferrell and ray schalk it s also lower than that of ted simmons joe torre gene tenace thurman munson and bill freehan none of whom is enshrined while i support the candidacies of simmons torre tenace and munson i draw the line ahead of freehan posada s 103 hits and 11 homers in the postseason are worth some bonus points but i would be more impressed if it didn t take 125 games to compile them he wouldn t be an awful choice but posada certainly doesn t fit with other bbwaa selections manny ramirez 129 i don t like talking about steroids every year when hall of fame debates pick up yes some guys probably had advantages that helped them compile the numbers we use as ammunition for our debates but there s always been so much gray area uncertainty as to who took what and how much it helped complexity in what substances were banned when and how or even whether the bans were enforced etc that i ve always taken a simpler approach of evaluating players candidacies based on their success on the field manny s a different case he might have been the greatest right handed hitter in baseball history his defense was so bad that it canceled over 40 of his offensive value his postseason exploits were legendary and his love of the game was infectious if he d accepted a typical decline after the 2004 season he might be heading to the hall of fame in 2017 but he took peds and he got caught twice there s a difference between sanctimonious writers playing moral arbiter by pretending they know who did and didn t cheat in the juiced up nineties and voters who refuse to elect a player who was twice caught and suspended costing his team important wins manny was a hall of fame baseball player i d vote for him if i had the chance but his candidacy is not going anywhere and this time i won t blame the writers i ll blame the player edgar renteria 52 had a walkoff hit in world series games in two different decades with a whole decade in between also had a famous feud with my favorite player ever the fellow columbian shortstop i wrote about above arthur rhodes 38 struck out almost a batter an inning for 21 years also had an era over 4 though he pitched a lot of years in a high powered american league ivan rodriguez 154 defensive metrics don t always hold up in cross era comparisons but for what it s worth pudge s 317 defensive runs per fangraphs are 37 percent better than any other catcher in baseball history johnny bench fans may argue but rodriguez s reputation backs up the stats he could also hit a bit he didn t walk much but he batted 294 over more than 10 000 pa and added 311 homers and an mvp award a hall of fame without ivan probably shouldn t have any catchers in it freddy sanchez 25 a solid middle infielder who probably didn t need to be on the hall of fame ballot matt stairs 19 a part time slugger who belted the heck out of baseballs and probably didn t need to be on the hall of fame ballot jason varitek 41 a hall of fame plaque for varitek would be easy to write caught four no hitters captained two world champion teams hit almost 200 homers as a strong defensive catcher and an excellent pitch caller catalyzed the 2004 red sox with his role in a tide turning brawl with the hated yankees unfortunately 1 307 hits and 24 3 war even with all the intangibles don t make a hall of fame career javier vazquez 86 vazquez isn t even on the ballot i included him here because if he were on the ballot he d be the fifth or sixth best newcomer win loss record and era don t recommend him but this sampling of the all time strikeout leaderboard does 26 warren spahn 2 583 27 bob feller 2 581 28 tim keefe 2 564 29 jerry koosman 2 556 30 javier vazquez 2 536 31 aj burnett 2 513 32 christy mathewson 2 507 33 don drysdale 2 486 with the exception of burnett everyone on that list threw at least 500 more innings than vazquez with the exceptions of burnett vazquez and koosman everyone on that list is a hall of famer the strikeouts don t make vazquez worthy of a bronze plaque but they make him worthy of a long discussion and perhaps a writer or two casting a vote in his favor tim wakefield 60 this has been a very red sox ballot hasn t it wakefield varitek ramirez and cabrera were on the historic 2004 team posada and vazquez were on the yankee team the red sox vanquished on the way up guerrero and renteria respectively were on the angels and cardinals teams they beat in the alds and world series cameron renteria and drew joined the team a few years later wake pitched 3 226 big league innings over 20 seasons as a starter a long relief man a swingman a middle reliever and briefly a closer he threw a complete game in game three of the 1992 nlcs started game one of the 2004 world series and was still starting playoff games in his forties for the 2007 and 2008 red sox he was ne...