Tag: Andruw

Voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a privilege.

Also a pain.

No Hall of Fame and maybe nothing short of Jordan vs. LeBron talk seems to elicit more debate in sports than baseball Hall of Fame talk. I blame Pete Rose. And steroids.

The exclusion of Rose, for gambling, and debate over those tied to the Steroid Era seem to forever stoke passionate argument. Is the Hall supposed to be a museum of baseball accomplishments or a monument to personal integrity? I’ll leave that to you to discuss. What I can do is this: Provide my ballot (voted for the 10-man maximum again) and my explanations. Oh, and take questions on social media, where everybody has an opinion.

Anyway, here goes. Here’s my slate of votes (in alphabetical order): Carlos Beltrán, Mark Buehrle, Andruw Jones, Ian Kinsler, Dustin Pedroia, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, Chase Utley and Billy Wagner. And, right or wrong, my explanations:

Historic achievements matter: If Rose was the “Hit King,” Suzuki would be the Hit Emperor. Between Japan and MLB, his 4,367 hits are the most in the world. Add in winning both Rookie of the Year and MVP in a dynamic first season in the majors, changing the trajectory for Japanese prospects, 10 Gold Gloves, a full decade of 200-hit seasons in the majors and four — four! — seasons in which he hit .350 or better. He’s as automatic as there is. There may not be any “right” answers on this ballot, but there is only one absolutely wrong one: Leaving Ichiro off.

Penalties matter: The Steroid Era blurred a lot of lines and led a lot of voters to consider their own policies toward those accused of performance-enhancing drug use. Punished steroid users are on the ballot, so perhaps that should be the ultimate decider. But I also know lots of players who weren’t caught — or suspected — whose careers legacies may have come up short when compared with users. As such, I’ve developed a pretty low bar in my mind that gives the benefit of the doubt to anybody not convicted and punished by MLB. But if you were willful and wanton enough to break the PED rules once they went into effect, at the moment, I still see no reason to reward that. Why Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez have not appeared on my ballots.

Awards matter: Know who else won 10 Gold Gloves on this ballot? Jones. He won 10 in a row. In center field, the last of them at the age of 30. Jones’ star may have faded quicker than we expected, but it burned brighter. He was the best defensive center fielder in baseball for a decade.

Unless they don’t: Omar Vizquel won 11 Gold Gloves. Torii Hunter won nine. Neither got my vote this year. History and deeper understanding of defensive metrics have not been kind to Vizquel, whose entire case was built on defensive excellence. Hunter won nine straight Gold Gloves in center field. What’s the difference between the definitive vote for Jones and leaving Hunter off? It’s one I wrestle with each year, but Jones had 80 more homers and a 30-point higher career OPS. Hunter gets a lot of consideration here, but ultimately, Jones was a more complete player. And when you get down to the bottom of your ballot, tough choices end up being made.

Lack of awards matter, too: Bobby Abreu’s OPS and base-running ability were stellar. But at what point was he ever considered one of the best in the game. Won a single Gold Glove, a single Silver Slugger and made two All-Star teams. Never finished in the top 10 in his league in MVP voting. He put together one solid season after another. But if a guy wasn’t ever considered one of the elites among his peers, how can he be considered one among all-time greats? On the other hand, Beltrán, had nine All-Star Game berths, two Silver Sluggers and three Gold Gloves. There was significant difference in how the two were perceived when they played.

Innings matter: Well, to me anyway. In this century, what’s the most valuable thing a starting pitcher can do? Provide innings. We’ve seen thresholds for what constitutes durability drop as far as 150 innings a year now. Get that and you’ve got a reliable starter. Buehrle pitched 15 full seasons in the majors. In each of the first 14, he pitched more than 200 innings. In the 15th: 198⅔. Guess he knew it was time to go. In this century, his 15 seasons with at least 198 innings are the most in the majors; Justin Verlander is three shy. Until something changes in baseball, Buehrle is going to be remembered as the last great durable pitcher. Add in that he and Zack Greinke were also the two best fielding pitchers in this century and it puts him over the top. For me.

It’s harder and harder to properly evaluate starting pitching: The three starters who got my votes — Buerhle, Sabathia and Pettitte — all had over 3,000 career innings and 200 wins and at least five seasons each with 15 wins. According to Baseball Reference, their career WARs ranged from 59-62, essentially identical. Félix Hernández, who would have been 11th on my 10-man ballot, fell short in each of those categories. There was a 10-win difference in Buerhle’s 59 WAR and Hernández’s 49. Do I feel absolute about this? No.

It’s even harder to properly evaluate relievers: It’s also hard to find significant differences between Wagner, who got my vote, and Francisco Rodríguez, who did not. Wagner, in his last year of eligibility, has received my vote for several years. Reality: It’s hard to withdraw a vote for him in his final year of eligibility. But the differences are slight, at best. Both had 400 career saves and impressive numbers across the board. But Wagner had a better ERA, ERA+, WHIP and strikeout-to-walk rate.

Learning from past mistakes matters, too: Over the last 20 years, I take the biggest exception with these omissions: Gary Sheffield and Jeff Kent. Sheffield, who consistently got my vote, was probably punished due to steroid suspicions. In the case of Kent, I think we (and by “we,” I include myself) simply undervalued him. Some of that may be due to playing a position — second base — that gets traditionally undervalued. Guys typically don’t stay at second base long. If they are really good defenders, they move to a more demanding position. If they are awful in the field, well, they get stuck at first or DH.

So, maybe I’m overcompensating for past errors, but Utley was the best offensive second baseman of a generation. In addition, I added two remarkably similar guys who started on the same college team and whose careers paralleled each other in a lot of ways: Pedroia and Kinsler. Pedroia won a Rookie of the Year, an MVP, was considered the emotional leader of a pair of World Series winners and took home four Gold Gloves. Kinsler was Pedroia’s equal as a catalyst and emotional leader and actually finished with a higher career WAR (54-51). I watched most of Kinsler’s career firsthand. Maybe that makes me a bit biased. It’s OK. If all this is, is a tip of the cap to a career well-done, Kinsler, it’s well-deserved.

And if it’s a mistake, hey, it won’t be the first one. Maybe not even on this ballot.

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