I am not a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) and probably never will be. But if I were this would be by Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 2020 which will be announced on January 21st.
1. Derek Jeter
2. Larry Walker
3. Curt Schilling
4. Omar Vizquel
5. Jeff Kent
6. Scott Rolen
7. Billy Wagner
8. Andruw Jones
9. Barry Bonds
10. Roger Clemens
Of these ten, the only shoo-in is Jeter who is in his first year on the ballot. The question is will he get 100% of the vote as his former New York Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera did a year ago. Well, 100% of the living Hall of Fame inductees won't be there. Andre Dawson and Tony Perez announced last summer they would not be in Cooperstown to see Jeter's induction. Jeter unceremoniously dispensed with the services of Dawson and Perez after his ownership group bought the Miami Marlins in 2017. A backlash forced Jeter to offer them their jobs back albeit with a significant salary cut. Both Dawson and Perez declined the offer. Dawson hooked on with the Chicago Cubs while Perez remains out of baseball. All this to say that Jeter might not get 100% of the vote. But he'll get in. To put the matter into perspective, neither Joe DiMaggio nor Yogi Berra received 100% of the vote much less were inducted on the first ballot. Nevertheless, Jeter's credentials are impressive. A career .310 hitter with 3465 hits (6th on MLB's all-time list), 14 AL All-Star Team selections, five Gold Gloves and five World Series rings. Mr. November will be a welcome addition to Cooperstown.
Six of the players on my list were on my list a year ago - Walker, Schilling, Vizquel, Kent, Rolen and Jones. It is Walker's last year on the ballot and Schilling's next to last year on the ballot and I have a feeling time will run out for both of them leaving it to the Veterans Committee. Ditto for Kent who has two years left. Of the remaining three, I think Vizquel has the best chance for enshrinement but I suspect that won't come until 2022.
Including Jeter, there are new names on my list. Billy Wagner, in his fifth year on the ballot, makes my list for the first time. Wagner, who pitched for 16 seasons with the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves, is probably the greatest relief pitcher who never led his league in saves. Yet he accumulated 422 saves while striking out 1196 batters in only 903 innings pitched. His 11.9 K per 9 innings pitched is the highest in MLB history with a minimum of 800 innings pitched. MLB hitters only batted .187 against while accumulating 5.99 hits per 9 innings which are also the best totals in MLB history. Most closers have a short life span. Wagner was a 7 time NL All-Star between 1999 and 2010. Wagner certainly has a place in Cooperstown with contemporaries Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.
Which brings me to Bonds and Clemens. I have kept Bonds and Clemens off my previous ballots because I wanted to give priority to deserving candidates who might end up being overlooked (i.e. Kent, Rolen, Walker, Jones and Vizquel or in years past Alan Trammell, Fred McGriff and Lee Smith). Realistically speaking there is no way Bonds would have hit 73 home runs in 2001 much less eclipsed Hank Aaron for the all time HR record without steroids nor would have Roger Clemens won half of his AL Cy Young Awards, won 300 games or struck out 4,000 batters with the benefit of HGH. With all that said, the things they achieved before they came under the cloud of suspicion were sufficient to warrant inclusion into Cooperstown.
Most significantly, I didn't have any other players I felt strongly enough about championing. I am dubious about the legacy of both Manny Ramirez and Gary Sheffield and did not see fit to cast a ballot for them. I did give some consideration to Todd Helton who is even with Walker is the greatest player to wear a Colorado Rockies uniform. But with no one else on the ballot worthy of consideration left on the ballot, I had two spots left and if I was going to vote for Bonds and Clemens I was going to vote for them together. Of course, if Bonds and Clemens do get in it will improve the chances of Ramirez, Sheffield not to mention Alex Rodriguez. Whether Bonds and Clemens get in this year or next, it will open up a hornet's nest. If they do not I think they will actually have a harder time with the Veterans Committee than with the BBWAA.
Well, that's my ballot. Let me know what you think.
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