The class of 2020
How Gow Media's personalities would vote for baseball's Hall of Fame
Jan 20, 2020, 10:46 am
CultureMap.com
The 2020 baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced on Tuesday. Here is how some of Gow Media's personalities would have voted:
Patrick Creighton
Barry Bonds: The closest thing we will ever see to Babe Ruth in our lifetime. 7x MVP, 14x all star, 8x Gold Glove, 12x Silver slugger, 4x 30/30, 40/40 in 1996, single season HR king, all time HR king, single season walks king, all time walks king, all time IBB king. Charter and sole member of the 700/500 club (also the 600/500 club and 500/500 club) The most feared hitter in baseball for nearly 2 decades (led league in walks 12x).
Roger Clemens: The greatest pitcher of the modern era. 7x Cy Young; MVP, 11x All star, 7 ERA titles, 2 pitching triple crowns, and a fastball that will take your head off. 6x 20 game winner. 5x strikeout king, 3rd all time strikeouts. 354 career wins It cant be a hall of fame without the games greatest. Bonds and Clemens are 2 of the all time top 10 greats.
Sammy Sosa: There's only 1 player in baseball history to hit 60+ HR in a single season 3x. Slammin' Sammy. One of only 3 NL players to hit 160 RBI in a season in the modern era (since 1900). 609 career HR. 1998 MVP. 7x top 10 MVP. 7x All star. 6x silver slugger. Helped put baseball back on the map with historic 1998 HR chase with Mark McGwire. 10 straight years 35+ HR, 8 straight years 100+ RBI.
Curt Schilling: 6x all star, 4x top 4 Cy Young (3x 2nd). Won 21+ games 3x. 3x 300+ Strikeouts, 3x World Series Champ, Postseason stud. 11-2 career postseason, 1993 NLCS MVP, 2001 WS MVP, Bloody Sock, broken curse, he is Legend. Schilling also has the highest K/BB ratio of any member of the 3000 Strikeout club.
Jeff Kent: incredibly underrated player. most HR by a 2B all time w/ 377. 2000 MVP. 5x all star 4x silver slugger. managed to become one of the all time best hitting 2B despite manager Dallas Green trying to destroy him while he was with the Mets. 9 straight years of 20+ HR and 90+ RBI (8 of those 9 over 100 RBI) 4x top 10 MVP, 3rd all time RBI as 2B. 5th All time OPS at 2B. 4th all time doubles at 2B.
Larry Walker: one of most feared hitters for a decade. 1997 MVP, 7 Gold gloves, 3 silver sluggers, 5x all star, 3 batting titles. 6x batted over .320, 4x batted .350 or better. Walker batted .313 for his career with 383 HRs and a career OPS of .965, making his career OPS higher than anyone on the ballot this year except Bonds and Manny Ramirez.
New additions to the ballot for this year:
Manny Ramirez: "Manny Being Manny" may have started with his 1st career hit - it came vs Yankees. It was a ground rule double for bouncing over the wall but Manny thought it was a HR and started trotting around the bases. He was halfway to 3rd when umpires finally were able to get his attention. What followed was 14 years of being one of the most feared hitters in MLB history. A 12x All Star, 2x World Series champ, World Series MVP, batting champ, and 9x Silver Slugger. He drove in 100+ 12x, including 145 in 1998 and a league leading 165 in 1999. 12x 30+ HRs, including 45 in 1998, 44 in 1999, and a league leading 43 in 2004. He's a .312 career hitter with 555 career HRs. A HOFer by any metric.
Derek Jeter: In his first year on the ballot, Jeter should be an absolute lock for enshrinement. He is a member of the 3000 hit club with an incredible 3465 hits (6th all time), he's also a career .310 hitter. Jeter was a Rookie of the year, 14x All Star, 5x World Series Champ, World Series MVP, and won 5 Gold Gloves & 5 Silver Sluggers. He has a reputation for being a clutch player with a knack for big hits as well, earning the nicknames "Capt. Clutch" and "Mr. November". Most hits among any SS ever. Yankees all time leader in Hits, Doubles (544), and Stolen Bases (358). 13x 100+ runs scored, 8x 200+ hits, 12x over .300 AVG. He is also the postseason record holder for most career Hits, Singles, Doubles, Triples, Runs and Total Bases.
A.J. Hoffman
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Derek Jeter
I like a few other guys here, namely Gary Sheffield, but Jeter is the only one in the same stratosphere of deserving as the other two guys, And until Bonds and Clemens are in, they need to limit the amount of fringe guys who do get in.
Charlie Pallilo
Derek Jeter: Only first time ballot guy worthy of election. He is both rightfully a legend, and overrated by many.
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens: Two peas in a dubious ethical pod. Hundreds of guys cheated in their era. Barry and Roger are arguably the greatest all-around player and greatest pitcher ever. Unlike Sammy Sosa and Manny Ramirez, Bonds and Clemens were Hall made men before their later "phases."
Curt Schilling: Career of ups and downs, but the ups were way up. Bonafide top tier ace for three different franchises. One of the greatest postseason pitchers ever. Pitched through heart of steroid era, so even better than some of his stats indicate on surface.
Larry Walker: Final year of main ballot eligibility. Offensive numbers inflated by years with the Rockies and not the most durable guy, but a tremendous offensive and defensive player. It was a joke how little support Lance Berkman got last year. Walker was better.
Closest miss, for now, Scott Rolen. Third basemen are underrepresented in the Hall. Rolen was basically Adrian Beltre with 895 fewer games played, yet with 3 more Gold Gloves and three more All Star team selections.Jeff Kent also deserves more consideration than he has gotten.
Todd Farquharson
YES VOTES
Derek Jeter: Baseball Reference lists his most "Similar Batter" over his career as Astros Craig Biggio. Jeter will fly into the HOF on the first ballot and deserves it. But why did Biggio have to wait until his 3rd ballot?
Curt Schilling: It's time. Let Curt get to the podium in July.
Barry Bonds: Barry would already be in the Hall if he hadn't been a steroid guy. He also never would have shattered Hank Aaron's homerun record if he weren't on the juice. As time passes this has become part of the history of this era and the sport, and again, he would be in the HOF if his career ended before he did his first steroids.
Roger Clemens: See Barry Bonds. I'm for putting Roger in the Hall. He's one of the best pitchers of all time.
Billy Wagner: Question for a hitter, "Did you enjoy facing Billy Wagner?" Hitter, "No!" Billy was dominant in his era and one of the tops relievers in the history of the sport. The stats back it up.
Jeff Kent: This is a close one. Most players with 1500 RBI are in the HOF (unless they are roid guys or not yet eligible). He has the most home runs ever for a Second Baseman, 5th most doubles and 5th highest slugging at the position. Also has a MVP award. Rubber stamp it, in.
Scott Rolen: Rolen is 10th in WAR among all time 3rd Baseman, of which all are HOF'ers except for future HOF'er Adrian Beltre. He keeps the right company so put him in.
Andruw Jones: Of all the outfielders that have ever played the game, Jones was one of the best all time at defending his position. Add his 434 homers, 1200+ Runs and RBI and you've got a worthy candidate.
Omar Vizquel: He wouldn't go in for his hitting. Subjectively, he's one of the GOAT fielding shortstops. Objectively, he has the highest fielding percentage for SS ever. Defense matters.
NO VOTES
Larry Walker: His best years by far were in the altitude of Colorado. A career.348 hitter at home, while only .278 on the road. Can't vote for him on my imaginary ballot.
Manny Ramirez: I'm not convinced Manny would have been as prolific a hitter without PEDs.
Todd Helton: Last year I thought Helton and Lance Berkman should have the same fate. Berkman cruelly didn't even get five percent of the vote. And Helton is another guy that benefitted by playing in Coors Field, in his case, his entire career. Home BA .348, Away BA .287. Home runs at Home, 227. Homeruns Away, 142. If you double the away numbers, he's not in the HOF club.
Gary Sheffield: See Manny Ramirez.
Andy Pettitte: Andy is on the bubble. 14 of his 18 years his team made the playoffs which is amazing, but did his W-L record benefit from being on good teams? His career 3.85 ERA is fairly pedestrian and would be the 2nd highest among all HOF pitchers.
Sammy Sosa: Poster child for PEDs elevating a player's performance. Steroids changed the entire trajectory of Sosa's career.
Alfonso Soriano: Good, not great.
Adam Dunn: If the HOF isn't good enough for David "King Kong" Kingman there's no Dunn luck here.
Jason Giambi: Evaluating HOF candidates is part a comparison game. Yet is difficult to compare guys that loaded up on HRs and RBI in the late 90's and 2000's. Especially guys mentioned prominently in the Mitchell Report for PEDs.
Bobby Abreu: A consistent, durable performer that scored and drove in a lot of runs. Not quite a HOF'er though.
J.J. Putz: Certainly not a Hall of Famer, but I give him credit for lasting ten years in the majors and earning over $38 million.
Craig Larson
I've had the distinct honor to attend and cover six inductee classes in Cooperstown as a Media Member. In 2007, I witnessed the late Tony Gwynn, along with the "Mr. Streak" Cal Ripken Jr who arguably saved the game coming out of the 1994 work stoppage. That entire weekend, you had goosebumps. When you see a "Derek Jeter" appear on the ballot, to me, everyone else is a secondary consideration. He's in that iconic realm, much like Ripken & Gwynn were. Jeter is obviously appearing on the ballot for the first time, the only question is will he be unanimous ? I'd like to meet the writer who doesn't vote him in on his first try.
Jeter would be my "lone pick" for the 2020 enshrinement, and he's certain to bring the goosebumps !!!
Fred Faour
To me, it is not a legitimate Hall of Fame until Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds get in. The voters have put in inferior players every year. Other than that, Derek Jeter should be an absolute lock. You can also make a surprisingly good case for Jeff Kent, who was widely disliked and probably has no chance.
That is as deep as I would go on my ballot.
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”