Baseball: Hall of Fame Voting 2009

Hall of Fame voters are instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates; any candidate who receives votes on at least 75% of the ballots will be honored with induction into the Hall of Fame. The 2009 ballot consists of 23 players, the lowest number ever. Any candidate who receives less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future ballots, however, they may be considered by the Veterans Committee.

The 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot List

Harold Baines

Jay Bell

Bert Blyleven

David Cone

Andre Dawson

Ron Gant

Mark Grace

Rickey Henderson

Tommy John

Don Mattingly

Mark McGwire

Jack Morris

Dale Murphy

Jesse Orosco

Dave Parker

Dan Plesac

Tim Raines

Jim Rice

Lee Smith

Alan Trammell

Greg Vaughn

Mo Vaughn

Matt Williams

Lock

Rickey Henderson

All I really have to say is that he is the stolen base king, and that would be enough. However, Rickey also has a career .401 OBP, 297 homeruns, and an OPS+ of 127, all while stealing 1406 base. This is one time that Rickey won't have to put on the jets to get in safely, he will walk in easily. Rickey Henderson is a lock for the Hall of Fame in 2009.

Deserving

Tim Raines

Tim Raines is an extremely deserving candidate for the Hall of Fame in 2009. If Rickey were not on it, Raines would look even better. He is a career .295 career hitter and a seven time all-star, has a career OBP of .385, along with having an OBP of .400+ 6 times in his 23 season career, and has stolen 808 bases. Raines also stole at least 70 bases in each of his first six full seasons. The only reason Raines cannot be considered a "lock" this year is because he is on the same ballot as the king of stealing bases. Raines completely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and it was a mistake not voting him into the hall in 2008. He is also listed as the 40th greatest non-pitcher in major-league history according to Bill James's win shares formula, a formula that calculates the contribution of individual players to their teams' overall performance, above the likes of Johnny Bench, Alex Rodriguez, Reggie Jackson, Jackie Robinson, Sam Crawford, and Tony Gywnn. All of those people are in the hall of fame (A-Rod will be) so how could you not include Raines? Raines might be considered the best leadoff hitter ever, if it were not for Rickey. If all else fails, he deserves to be in just for being the...ROCK.

Bert Blyleven

Bert Blyleven has been on the Hall of Fame ballot since 1998 and will lose his eligibility to be voted into the hall if not elected by 2012. He can be voted in by the veterans committee, but that should never happen because Bert Blyleven deserves to be in the hall of fame. Blyleven won 287 games in his 22 year career, despite being unlucky enough to pitch 15 of those on teams with sub .500 records. Blyleven belongs to the 3000 strikeout club with 3701 total strikeouts for his career, ranking him 5th all time; more than Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, Walter Johnson, and Greg Maddux. The 3000 K club has only 17 members, all eligible ones are in the hall of fame, except Blyleven. Blyleven also has a career 3.31 ERA, the league average ERA for the years he pitched was 3.90, and an ERA+ of 118.

Steroids Era (*)

Mark McGwire should be in the hall of fame. I said it. There is no other logical argument to why he should not be in the hall of fame, other than the notion that he may, at one point, have possibly taken steroids, when they were not illegal to use. McGwire received 128 of the 545 votes cast, 23.5% of the vote. He received the same exact amount of votes both years. For his career, Mark McGwire has amassed 583 homeruns, 8th all time. A .588 slugging percentage, 9th all time. A .982 OPS, 11th all time. A career .394 OBP. For his career, McGwire averaged a home run once every 10.61 at bats, the lowest at bats per home run ratio in history (Babe Ruth is third at 11.76) He also holds the rookie record for homeruns in a season with 49. He is a 12 time All-Star, a three time silver-slugger, and a World Series Champion. Mark McGwire, despite what you may think about him as a person, AS A PLAYER, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Hall of Very Good

The Hall of Fame is reserved for the best of the best.

Why not Andre Dawson?

Dawson is only a .279 career hitter. His OBP is a paltry .323. Even 500+ home runs is no longer a lock for the hall of fame. Dawson only has 438. He's only hit more than 30 HR in a season 3 times, and 35+ only once. And an OPS+ of only 119. Dawson is extremely borderline. McGwire has MUCH better stats across the board, yet he will most likely not be voted in because of his "tarnished image". If McGwire does not get in, Dawson should not get in.

Why not Jim Rice?

I really do not get all the Rice hype. He was good. Not HoF good. Rice only played 16 seasons. He only has 382 HRs. He had 4 very good seasons in a 16 year career of otherwise above-average statistics. He has a career OBP of only .352. He has an OPS+ of only 128. Where is the greatness?

Why not Jack Morris?

Compared to Blyleven, Morris pitched the majority of his games on winning teams, yet still amassed less wins. I realize Wins is normally not a very good statistic, since it is 1/2 based upon what your team does, something a pitcher can't control, but one would expect a pitcher to amass more wins on a playoff quality team, than a sub .500 team. Morris had a career 3.90 ERA compared to league average of 4.08. And his career ERA+ is only 105. An ERA+ of 100 is considered completely average.

Why not Alan Trammell?

Here are Trammell's stats: 2365 career hits. 185 career homeruns. .285 career hitter. .352 career OBP. A career OPS+ of 110. None of these look hall of fame worthy. Trammell had one very good year. The rest were extremely average at best.

The Others

I love Don Mattingly to death but I cannot, in good conscious, put him on the list of hall of fame quality players. Same thing with David Cone. Cone and Mattingly were two of my favorite players to watch but they just do not have the stats to be considered. Lee Smith, in my opinion, probably should get in. However, I think he will have to wait another year. Smith is just a victim of the voters inability to establish a standard for what is or is not a Hall of Fame reliever. The rest are the standard eligible players that get mentions for being good but will never get in because they did not have the greatness and longevity that is needed to be in the hall of fame.

My Ballot would be: Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Bert Blyleven, and Mark McGwire.

The actual results of the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame voting will be announced on Monday, January 12, 2009.

All statistics taken from www.baseball-reference.com