***2017 National Baseball Hall of Fame Thread: Congrats to Casey Blake and Pat Burrell (1 Viewer)

[RnR]

How is Vladimir not 1st ballot. And I don't understand these writers making a statement with piazza but not pudge 

Both fair complaints (even if you wouldn't stay long enough to know whether these guys are in the hall or not).

Vlad is a clear Hall of Famer-- a player who passes the eye test as well as the nerd test.

 

[shadyridr]

Also bonds 53% and Manny 23% makes no sense

 

[Limp Ditka]

Also bonds 53% and Manny 23% makes no sense

Makes complete sense considering Manny was dumb enough to get caught twice.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

Bonds clearly (well, seemingly) had a pre-roids peak that was HOF-worthy.  It is probably unclear if and when Manny was not using.

Also, love yahoo sports immediately putting up a story about weighing the 1st-time eligible players for 2018 (Thome and Chipper).  Let Rock Raines have his ####### moment!

 

[Bruce Dickinson]

Bump for tonight's official announcement.

Excited that Raines is expected to be in. (I used to have a Raines "Starting Lineup" figure on my desk at one of my old jobs ... can't find it, but I found the Galarraga  ). And I never was more sure that a player would make it big in the majors than when I watched Bagwell play for the University of Hartford.

Hope to see Hoffman, Wagner, Vlad and maybe even Walker get in eventually, even if it doesn't happen tonight.

Grew up watching all those Astroturf huge outfields during the multi-purpose stadium era.  Glad to see Raines get in.  Even though he was the enemy, still a ton of fun watching him play.  Soooo fast from home-to-first from both sides of the plate.  IIRC, Raines said he was faster from the right side because his body was already squared up to run from that side of the box.  No idea if that got verified.

+1 on those Starting Lineup figures.  I converted my Albert Pujols figure into a Christmas tree ornament.  Just isn't holiday season until Pujols is on the tree driving one into the gap.

So cool you got to see Bagwell play in college.  Do you remember if he was a 1B then?  Or did he play other positions?  

From the voting we saw released, looks like Vlad should keep late July/early August open in 2018.  All for it.  

 

[Tom Servo]

Ballots Cast: 442 Needed for Election: 332

Votes Percentage
0 Casey Blake 0.0%
0 Pat Burrell 0.0%
0 Orlando Cabrera 0.0%
0 Mike Cameron 0.0%
0 J.D. Drew 0.0%
0 Carlos Guillen 0.0%
0 Derrek Lee 0.0%
0 Melvin Mora 0.0%
0 Arthur Rhodes 0.0%
0 Freddy Sanchez 0.0%
0 Matt Stairs 0.0% 

Good to know I received just as many HoF votes based on my Little League career as these guys did.

 

[oso diablo]

story of how the Rangers found Pudge Rodriguez as a 15-year-old in Puerto Rico

 

[PlasmaDogPlasma]

My first thought when I saw the headline saying Raines is getting in was "Tim Raines isn't already in?"

I probably would have literally bet money on him being in

 

[oso diablo]

predicting every HOF class through 2045 (yes, 2045)

 

[Eephus]

predicting every HOF class through 2045 (yes, 2045)

107 year old sportswriter/crank Murray Chass will still be submitting blank ballots.

 

[Dickie Dunn]

So cool you got to see Bagwell play in college.  Do you remember if he was a 1B then?  Or did he play other positions?  

  

Funny, because I only watched him play one time, but you could just tell he had "it". His plate approach was off the charts, and I used to think I'd never see a player with better bat-to-ball ability (until I got to regularly watch Vlad raking curveballs on one hop for HRs and pitches six inches outside for opposite-field gap doubles).

Bagwell was a 3B back then, as he was coming up through the Sox system. One of the reasons they traded him is because they thought he would be blocked by Boggs and Scott Cooper. Of course, he was behind Caminiti at 3B when he got to Houston, but they were smart enough to try him at 1B.

 

[Bruce Dickinson]

story of how the Rangers found Pudge Rodriguez as a 15-year-old in Puerto Rico

Thanks for posting this.  Love reading stuff about how players from places like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela get discovered.

 

[Bruce Dickinson]

Funny, because I only watched him play one time, but you could just tell he had "it". His plate approach was off the charts, and I used to think I'd never see a player with better bat-to-ball ability (until I got to regularly watch Vlad raking curveballs on one hop for HRs and pitches six inches outside for opposite-field gap doubles).

Bagwell was a 3B back then, as he was coming up through the Sox system. One of the reasons they traded him is because they thought he would be blocked by Boggs and Scott Cooper. Of course, he was behind Caminiti at 3B when he got to Houston, but they were smart enough to try him at 1B.

 

The first time I saw Caminiti play was in a spring training game in 1988.  I hadn't heard of him - he got called up for a bit in '87 but started '88 in AAA - and was blown away.  Made a great diving stop down the line and threw the batter out, and hit two HRs, one of which cleared the fence by 40-50 feet.  I claimed to have "discovered" him because of this. Even seeing him in the All-Star Game I would flash back to that meaningless March afternoon in Clearwater.

 

[Frostillicus]

Matt Stairs deserved a few votes.

 

[rodg12]

Curious about the reasoning behind the one person who voted for Clemens but not Bonds

Heyman voted for Bonds but not Clemens taking some crazy mental gymnastics to do so.  That means 2 people voted for Clemens but not Bonds?

 

[rodg12]

I struggle to understand how Edgar Martinez gets so much more love than Gary Sheffield.  Give Sheff a 0 for dWAR and he laps Edgar.  Especially now that the steroids stigma has been rendered mostly moot.