Hall of Fame Ballot 2004

The complete ballot (x-first time eligible): Bert Blyleven, x-Joe Carter, Dave Concepcion, x-Danny Darwin, Andre Dawson, x-Doug Drabek, x-Dennis Eckersley, x-Jim Eisenreich, x-Cecil Fielder, Steve Garvey, Rich Gossage, Keith Hernandez, Tommy John, x-Jimmy Key, x-Dennis Martinez, Don Mattingly, x-Kevin Mitchell, x-Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, x-Randy Myers, Dave Parker, x-Terry Pendleton, Jim Rice, x-Juan Samuel, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, x-Dave Stieb, Bruce Sutter, x-Bob Tewksbury, Alan Trammell, Fernando Valenzuela.

Of these...

Ryne Sandberg was one of the greatest 2B ever.

Bert Blyleven is somewhat maligned. Check out his postseason record. The guy played for quite a few cruddy teams, which probably knocked his wins down a bunch. Blyleven was also a pain in the ass to sportswriters, which is a reason I think he gets knocked.

Paul Molitor is automatic, but one has to wonder what kind of totals he would have put up if he didn't get hurt every year during the early 80s. Being a DH for a long time definitely lengthened his career.

Rice, Dawson, Garvey, Carter & Parker were some of the best players of their time; none will get into the hall of fame until vets committee. Rice & Dawson didn't get with it in the playoffs. Carter has a MAJOR world series hit and was a great RBI guy, but I don't think he was ever considered a star, mostly because he played most of his career in Cleveland and Toronto.
Parker and Garvey were both quite consistent players and made a bunch of Allstar teams and had big playoffs, but they both had some sleazy off the field action and were just plain out not liked by a lot of people.

It will be interesting to see how the vote goes for Eckersley. I don't think he will get in this year and he may end up waiting for awhile. Don't forget he blew leads in world series games both against the Dodgers and Reds. So as much as I like to defend the closer, he is a hard one to use as an example. (Lee Smith is the same thing vs. SD in 84 and one year with Baltimore.) Gossage on the other hand did well in the playoffs, but he pitched FOREVER and in his case that might lose him votes as people forget how good he was.

Jack Morris is a hard one in a way. He won more games than anyone else during the 80s, came up big in a couple of World Series, but his ERA and other stats are not that impressive. It would be more interesting if he would have gotten to 301 wins. (Same could be said of Tommy John were to have won 300.)

Concepcion was perhaps the best shortstop of the 70s. He will probably never get in the hall of fame, but like alot of players of his ERA are going to look lesser because they played when pitchers and ball parks were much harder to put up such out of whack numbers.

If I was voting, I'd vote for Sandberg, Blyleven and Molitor.