2015 Baseball Hall of Fame

As bbwaa.com says, the 2015 Hall of Fame ballot has been mailed to 500+ voters this week and the ballot contains 17 new candidates:

Carlos Delgado (I have no idea why Delgado is not in the right place when sorted by name)
Aaron Boone
Brian Giles
Cliff Floyd
Darin Erstad
Eddie Guardado
Garry Sheffield
Jason Schmidt
Jermaine Dye
John Smoltz
Nomar Garciaparra
Pedro Martinez
Randy Johnson
Rich Aurilia
Tom Gordon
Tony Clark
Troy Percival

and old candidates (and the percentage of their votes last year:)

Craig Biggio (74.8)
Mike Piazza (62.2)
Jeff Bagwell (54.3)
Tim Raines (46.1)
Roger Clemens (35.4)
Barry Bonds (34.7)
Lee Smith (29.9)
Curt Schilling (29.2)
Edgar Martinez (25.2)
Alan Trammell (20.8)
Mike Mussina (20.3)
Jeff Kent (15.2)
Fred McGriff (11.7)
Mark McGwire (11.0)
Larry Walker (10.2)
Don Mattingly (8.2)
Sammy Sosa (7.2)

Voters get to choose up to 10. I'm never going to be a member of the BBWAA, but I decided to pick my 2015 Hall of Famers.


Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson are no brainers. Craig Biggio (3000+ hits) should be in, as well as John Smoltz (200+ wins & 150+ saves, a Cy Young Award winner, 15-4 in the postseason.)

I would then pick "Mr. Almost" Mike Mussina. I know wins does not tell you much, but 270 total wins (.638 winning percentage) while playing entire career in the American League East is pretty impressive. He also has won more than 10 games in 17 consecutive years. He is a 5-time All-Star and a 7-time Gold Glove winner. His Gray Ink is 250 while an average HoFer has about 185.

If Mussina is in, then Curt Schilling should be in as well. Those two are often talked about together. Schilling accumulated 80.7 WAR (while Mussina did 82.7.) His Gray Ink is lower than Mussina's but he has better Blank Ink. He did not have as many wins as Mussina did, partially because he played for weaker teams. but Schilling was the second place in the Cy Young Award voting three times and recorded more than 3000 strikeouts. I'm a big fan of pitchers with high K/BB, and 3116/711 is pretty impressive.

It is surprising that Fred McGriff only got 11.7% of the votes last year. I think Carlos Delgado and McGriff have pretty similar stats and both had little shy of 500 home runs, so I guess it would be difficult for them to be in. Meanwhile, Piazza has a chance, especially his batting skills are pretty unique for a catcher, hitting 427 home runs and a career slash line of .308/.377/.545. He is also a 12-time All-Star and a 10-time Silver Slugger winner.

Now I have chosen 7 (Martinez, Johnson, Biggio, Smoltz, Mussina, Schilling, Piazza.) I took a look at Hall of Fame Monitor Leaders. The baseball-reference has a slightly complicated formula for this, and it says '100 means a good possibility and 130 is a virtual clinch.' I looked for the remaining candidates and sorted.

Barry Bonds (340)
Roger Clemens (332)
Sammy Sosa (202)
Mark McGwire (170)
Garry Sheffield (158)
Jeff Bagwell (150)
Larry Walker (148)
Lee Smith (135)
Don Mattingly (134)
Edgar Martinez (132)
=============== 130+
Jeff Kent (122)
Alan Trammell (118)
Nomar Garciaparra (112)
Carlos Delgado (110)
Fred McGriff (100)
=============== 100+
Troy Percival (96)
Tim Raines (90)
Brian Giles (53)
Eddie Guardado (49)
Jermaine Dye (49)
Tom Gordon (47)
Jason Schmidt (41)
Darin Erstad (35)
Rich Aurilia (31)
Tony Clark (24)
Cliff Floyd (22)
Aaron Boone (4)

Thank you for the great walkoff home run in 2003 ALCS, but it will be very difficult for Aaron Boone to be a Hall of Famer.

There are so many qualified candidates in terms of Hall of Fame Monitor, but many of them have used PED. I haven't really thought about this thoroughly, but I have nothing against for them to going in. If people voted for them, then they are in.

But since I only have limited number of picks, I first would like to vote for Edgar Martinez. Yes, he was a DH, but his .312 career batting average (2 time batting champion) was pretty good. He was also a 7-time All-Star and 5-time Silver Slugger winner. He has been a fan-favorite and I think that helps when voting. I went to the Safeco Field few years ago, and there was a Edgar Martinez Drive sign. I also know that he put up a great number against the all-time greatest closer, recording 10 for 16.

I would also vote for Don Mattingly, although from his declining percentage of votes, he probably can't get in. He was a captain of the Yankees before Derek Jeter and had a great career but didn't get a chance to play in the postseason until the very last season of his career. He was the AL MVP in 1985.

My 10th pick would be Jeff Bagwell. He was the NL MVP in 1994, and had his entire MLB career with the Astros. Career .297 batting average, 449 home runs, and was a 4-time All-Star.