Contemporary Era Ballot

So, the Contemporary Era Ballot was released this week and I have to say, I am not happy about it.  For whatever reason, the powers that be are making things extremely difficult for players to be elected starting this year.  There are eight players on this year's ballot and most of them are players that have been on this ballot year after year after year.

So anyway, let's look at this year's candidates:

BARRY BONDS

I don't know what more there is to say about Bonds.  We all know why he should be in and we all know why he is not.  I think it's time to put him in.  

ROGER CLEMENS

Everything I said about Bonds goes for Clemens as well.  There is the added caveat that Clemens is the only player who played for the Red Sox on the ballot, so he is of course my preference to get in this year.  I will talk more about why the fact that Clemens is the only Red Sox player on this ballot is so aggravating.

CARLOS DELGADO

Delgado is one of those players that is a lot better than he is remembered for being.  Part of that was playing in the relative anonymity of Toronto during a time when they were not as good.  He hit 473 home runs in his career as well as driving in 1,512 runs.  His slash line was an impressive .280/.383/.546 but he was kind of lost in the shuffle of the steroid era.  So, is he a Hall of Famer?  I don't really see it, but he was damn good.  I think he is a bit below the standard for Hall of Fame first-basemen.  An interesting sidenote about Delgado is that he was in the Red Sox system at the very end of his career in 2010.  He appeared in five games for the Pawtucket Red Sox.

JEFF KENT

This is the kind of player I could easily see getting elected.  Kent is the record holder for most home runs by a second-baseman.  He had 377 career home runs and was the NL MVP in 2000.  The issue with that distinction is that he was really a second-baseman in name only.  He was not generally a very good defensive second-baseman.  I could see him getting in and have advocated for him in the past.  He peaked at just 46% of the writers' vote though, so it seems like a longshot for him to get in now.

DON MATTINGLY

How many chances is Mattingly going to get?  He has been on this ballot four times in a row.  He has not been elected yet.  He was on the writers' ballot for 15 years, with a high of 28% of the vote and made it to 50% of the vote the last time he was on this ballot.  He is not really all that close to election.  Meanwhile, there are multiple other players who seem to not get anything close to a decent shot.  Nothing would really surprise me regarding his candidacy, but I don't think he is quite there for the Hall of Fame.  He had four or five great seasons, and was mostly ordinary outside of those seasons.  He is well below the standard for Hall of Fame first-basemen.

DALE MURPHY

Murphy also seems to get endless opportunities at election, but is further away than Mattingly.  I get it, he won back-to-back MVP awards and his peak was definitely longer than Mattingly's.  I could see him getting in first, but he is still below the Hall of Fame standard for his position, mostly because after his peak was done, he was mostly awful.  He was a nice, clean-cut guy, I get it, but a line of .265/.346/.469 and 46.5 WAR out of a center fielder is not getting it done.  His highest vote total on the writers' ballot was 23%.

GARY SHEFFIELD

Sheffield's candidacy is kind of a blend of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent.  He was implicated in the same BALCO scandal as Bonds for using PEDs but was largely unscathed by the controversy as a result of claiming ignorance.  He generally performed well in the writers' voting, making it up to 63% of the vote in his final year on the ballot.  He had 509 home runs and a 140 OPS+, but his surly personality did not endear him to many teams.  He played for eight teams in his career, only once for more than four seasons.  

FERNANDO VALENZUELA 

Probably the biggest surprise on the ballot.  I'm not sure his placement here makes much of any sense.  He certainly had an impressive peak and was the first (and so far only) pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award in the same season (1981).  The problem is that he pitched for Tommy Lasorda who tended to completely ruin his pitchers.  Valenzuela was certainly famous enough, pitching for Los Angeles and being Mexican-born, but he was not a pioneer.  There had been Mexican players before.  Valenzuela's career simply does not match up to being a Hall of Famer, he had a record of 173-153 with a 3.54 ERA (104 ERA+).  He notched 2,074 strikeouts.  He only lasted two years on the ballot.  I just do not see it with him.  

SO WHO IS MISSING?

Taking off my Red Sox fandom for a moment, I think the biggest player that is missing is Lou Whitaker.  I simply do not understand why he cannot seem to even make the ballot.  He absolutely should be in the Hall of Fame.  Shortly behind him is Dwight Evans and Curt Schilling.  Again, both players are well-qualified to be Hall of Famers.  And yes, both of them played for the Red Sox, so I have another reason to want them in, but those three players are easily more qualified than almost everyone on this ballot outside of Bonds, Clemens and maybe Sheffield.  I just do not understand what is happening with these ballots.

PREDICTIONS

Well, like I said early on, my preference would be for Bonds and Clemens to finally make it in, if only so we don't have to worry about those guys showing up on these ballots in the future.  Plus, it's hardly a Hall of Fame without the all-time home run leader and a guy on the short list of greatest pitcher of all time.  But a lot of stupid things have happened with this vote since Harold Baines managed to get elected and the stupidest realistic thing I can think of is for Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy to get in (the stupidest thing would be for Valenzuela to get in, but that doesn't seem likely, of course neither did Baines getting in), so I guess that's my prediction.  The new rule going into effect this year is that anyone who does not get five votes cannot appear on the next ballot for this Committee.  If anyone goes more than once without receiving five votes, they are permanently ineligible, which is just ridiculous and insane.