Opinion

So, the baseball Hall of Fame voting for this year is in, and there will be three new inductees. 

Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven and Pat Gillick are all set to be enshrined later this year. 

I can’t quibble with any of these choices. Alomar really should have been in last year but I presume the infamous spitting incident led some voters to withhold support to keep the honor of first ballot induction from the best second baseman in recent history.  

The Baltimore Orioles have been in the news this week quite a bit.  First it was the startling developments of reliever Alfredo Simon in the alleged shooting on New Year's Eve.  Then some positive personnel developments with the acquisition of first baseman Derrek Lee (pending physical) and closer Kevin Gregg.

The icing on the cake for the O's and their fans was the news today that Roberto Alomar has been elected to the Hall of Fame.

BaseballAmerica.com recently released its top 10 prospect list for the Washington Nationals, and coming in at No. 3, is second baseman Danny Espinosa.

Aaron Fitt of Baseball America recently told masn.com’s Byron Kerr that, "Long Beach State is a shortstop factory with Troy Tulowitzki, Bobby Crosby and Evan Longoria played shortstop for a year when he was there. Espinosa is the next guy in that progression."

Earlier today, three overqualified Hall of Fame caliber first basemen were denied entry into Cooperstown. 

The first two, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, committed their steroid sins and, right or wrong, are serving their time as the first official martyrs of Bud Selig’s “Steroid Era.”

The third player, Jeff Bagwell, committed an egregious crime of his own.  

He had the audacity to be born in 1968.

People didn't expect Edgar Martinez to earn election into the Hall of Fame today. The fact that he didn't wasn't a shock to anyone.

Some eyebrows were raised when his support dropped by a few votes, though.

The arguments for or against his election can be made over and over. We'd be blue in the face and likely see no one from either side sway to the other. We know the numbers, and we know the DH argument.

In sports, when a team looks too far ahead or dwells too much on what has already happened, they often fail in the present.  Sometimes it’s off the field issues, sometimes it's injuries, sometimes it's egos and sometimes it is just plain bad luck.  A trap season is the perfect storm of all these variables and more.  The 2010 Minnesota Vikings defined a trap season better than maybe anybody ever.

If you need to think about whether or not a player is a hall of famer, then he's not.

It really is that simple.

The players elected to the Hall of Fame should be the guys who give you goosebumps. The hitters who, when they stepped into the batter's box, you stopped to watch. The pitchers who, when they took the mound, gave you a chance to see a no hitter or perfect game.

Lou Gherig. Hank Aaron. Willie Mays. Sandy Koufax. Satchel Paige. Those guys.

1B David Cooper (6'0", 210 pounds)

Age: 23

Drafted: 17th overall in 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of the University of California

Bats: Left      Throws: Left

2009-10 Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA)

2010-11 Expected Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

Best-Case Scenario: Poor man's Todd Helton bat without the defence

On Wednesday afternoon, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced the induction of Bert Blyleven (among others) after a 14-year wait.  Blyleven's election comes on the heels of the elections of Jim Rice (class of '09) and Andre "Hawk" Dawson ('10) after comparably long waits.  With these three men all in, we can now turn our sights to other players who have spent many years (five or more for the sake of this article) on the ballot and are still waiting for the all-important call from Cooperstown.  I took each player who will be

The baseball writers made him wait far too long, but Bert Blyleven has finally gotten what he long deserved: He and Roberto Alomar became the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday.