With the 2011 Hall of Fame class set to be announced on January 5, the Twitter universe has been full of debate as to who belongs and who doesn’t. To be honest, I think who belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame is the most debated topic in sports. People could go on for hours talking who should be in and who should be out and why.
Since I don’t have an official Hall of Fame vote and since this is such a heated topic, I thought I would fill out my ballot. Here is my Hall of Fame class of 2011.
Bert Blyleven
Year on Ballot: 14th
Percentage Vote: 74.2 percent
The Blyleven debate is perhaps THE most heated HOF debate ever. The whole thing has pretty much taken on a life of its own. And quite frankly, the whole thing is ridiculous.
Blyleven should have been a Hall of Famer 10 years ago. I still can’t believe this guy isn’t in Cooperstown.
How can people vote for a guy like Don Sutton and not Blyleven? Why? Because he didn’t get 13 more wins to get to the magical number of 300? Absurd.
Blyleven will finally get in this year and we can finally end this debate once and for all.
Roberto Alomar
Year on Ballot: 2nd
Percentage Vote: 73.7 percent
The best overall second baseman in my generation (1984 to present), I couldn’t believe that Alomar didn’t get in on the first try last year. I know a lot of people are sour on Alomar because of how he just completely fell off toward the end of his career with the New York Mets, but in his prime, there was none better.
Alomar had the ability to beat a team with his bat, glove, and speed. With 2,724 hits, 474 SB, and a defensive resume that speaks for itself, Alomar gets my vote in 2011.
Tim Raines
Year on Ballot: 4th
Percentage Vote: 30.4 percent
For years, Raines was the National League version of Ricky Henderson. From 1981 to 1995, Raines averaged a .296/.386/.429 slash line with 10 HR, seven triples, 25 doubles, and 51 SB. He would have been a $15 to $20 million player in today’s game.
What I believe hurts Raines in the voting is that toward the end of his career he bounced around an awful lot (played on five teams from 1998 through 2002) and he had a lot of off-field issues. However, here is my logic for voting for Raines.
If Jim Rice is going to get in based on dominating the American League for 10 years, then Raines should get in for dominating the National League for seven. I don’t think three years should make much of a difference.
Edgar Martinez
Year on Ballot: 2nd
Percentage Vote: 36.2 percent
For me, Martinez is the best pure, right-handed hitter that I have ever seen. His swing was as smooth as it gets and his stats are even smoother. All I need to tell you about Martinez is that he had a .933 career OPS. Just amazing.
The negative on Martinez is that he was a DH. Well, my take on that is, if he is the greatest DH to ever play, then how is that a negative?
Whether you like or not, the DH is a position in baseball. And if a guy—in this case Martinez—is the best EVER at it, then he should be in the Hall of Fame.
Those are who got my vote for this year’s Baseball HOF class. Who would you vote for? Did guys like Jack Morris, Larry Walker, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell or Alan Trammell get your vote?
Let me know.
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