Day 150

Fresh Start_150: Baseball’s Class of 2017

I am so thankful Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons didn’t get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I am overjoyed that the integrity of the game is still intact for another year. I will have the same concerns this time next year about both Bonds and Clemons and I will continue to hope and pray that they don’t get in, but I am not too sure. Bonds got 53.8% of the vote to get in and Clemons got 54.1%. Both of them aren’t far off the 75% marker that you need. I hope that as the years go by, that either of them don’t gain any traction. Next years’ class has 2 no doubt 1^st ballot guys (Chipper Jones and Jim Thome). I also believe Edgar Martinez and Vladimir Guerrero will get in as well. I without a doubt would put both Martinez and Guerrero in over Clemons or Bonds, and hopefully the writers who vote will feel the same way. Trevor Hoffman also fell just 1% shy of being inducted and he will most likely get in. So, if you have 5 players getting into the Hall in a year, it wouldn’t be unusual to have Clemons and Bonds looking in from the outside again.

Getting to the class of 2017, it is interesting. Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, and Ivan Rodriguez were the 3 players who got elected this year. Both Raines and Bagwell were expected to get in, and they would have been some uproar from baseball fans if either of them didn’t get in this year. I am happy for both Raines and Bagwell and am happy to welcome them into the family. The player that I have a problem with getting in this year is Ivan Rodriguez. Pudge isn’t a bad player, in fact I think he should have gotten into the Hall, just not in his first year. Pudge joins Johnny Bench as the only other catcher to get in on his first year on the ballot.

I don’t know why, but this induction just doesn’t sit right with me. Rodriguez is definitely a great player, and was regarded for many years as being the best catcher in the game. Pudge was also a clean player at the start of the steroid era, and continued that throughout the remainder of his career. I just don’t like his numbers compared to Edgar Martinez. Martinez is hands down the best DH in the history of the game, and changed the way baseball looked at the DH position from then on out. Players like David Ortiz are in debt to Martinez for what he did for the game. I think that the same conversations that happened for Bagwell and Raines will pick up steam for Martinez next year.

If you look at Rodriguez’ numbers they don’t jump off the page at you. Pudge never had a season with over 200 hits, he only had 1 season with over 100 RBI’s, and only hit over 30 homers once in his career. He is a lifetime .296 hitter which is extremely impressive, but the numbers for Pudge to me doesn’t justify a 1^st ballot career. Martinez on the other hand had 6 season with over 100 RBI’s, 5 seasons where Martinez hit over 40 doubles (compared to Rodriguez’ 1) and was a career .312 hitter. I just can’t see why Pudge got in over Martinez…

As for the other 2 players who got, well it was well deserved and about time for both. Starting with Tim Raines, who might have been the most overdue candidate in a long time. Raines played for 23-years and all to a high level. Raines is a career .294 hitter, who had 6-consecutive seasons with over 70 stolen bases, and had 9 seasons with over 600 plate appearances. Raines was not a power guy, he was more of a speed guy that hit for average and just played the game “the old-fashion way.” Raines had 8 seasons where he hit over .300 and never had season where he stroke out over 100 times. Jeff Bagwell was an iron man of sorts… Bagwell had 4 season where he didn’t miss a single game and 3 were he missed 3 or fewer, only having one season where he didn’t play over 100 games (his last {37}). Also Bagwell was a run producing machine with the amount of times that he had over 100 walks and over 100 runs scored in a season. Bagwell had 7 seasons where he walked over 100 times and 9 seasons where he scored over 100 runs. On top of all that Bagwell was a career .297 hitter, while having 8 seasons with over 100 RBI’s. I just have no words for a career like that, and sit back in amazement.

This is a part of the reason why I love baseball so much, is because of the prestige of the game and its Hall of Fame. The arguments about who gets in and who doesn’t fascinate me and I could go on for hours talking about it. Days like today remind me why this game is so great, and I go on and on just looking at numbers and comparing classes, while also looking ahead to future classes. Can Pitchers and Catchers start already?

Sources:(mlb.com, baseballreference.com)

Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!