My ballot

I write this about a half an hour 10 minutes before the Hall of Fame class of 2015 is announced.

I don't have a vote (duh), and I never will.  But if I did, this is my thinking about the ballot.  Pretty soon we'll know how far off I am.

First, let me show two players who I think should be in, but I don't know if I vote for.

Trammell gets lost I think because of the era he played.  His numbers don't look as big, but what a hell of a player.  Interestingly (if only to me), I have a player collection of his double play partner, but not him.

Best hitting catcher of all time, but is that enough?

Now let me show my no doubters.  I believe these guys belong in the Hall, no questions asked.

Come on.  I think his problem is simply a question of being overshadowed.  I think he was quite possibly the second best leadoff hitter of all time.  But played at the exact same time as the greatest, so he looks like a second tier guy.  He wasn't.

Don't keep this guy out just because he played at the same time as all the PED users.  Biggio 3060 hits, 669 doubles, and 414 steals.  Hall of Famer.

Early on, Johnson was a mechanical mess.  100 mph, but he didn't know where it was going, and neither did anybody else.  But he put it together, he was effective well into his 40's and got 303 wins.  He won 293 games after turning 26.

Let the debates begin.  Look, the guy was an asshole.  He was a user.  And a liar.  But he was a Hall of Famer before he used.  He was the best pitcher in the game in the late 80's into the 90's.  If he doesn't use, he gets in the Hall and for me, that's the criteria  I have to use.  He was a great of the game.

And let the howling begin.  Same comments as Clemens.  Maybe a bigger asshole.  Maybe a bigger user.  Bigger liar.  But he was probably the best player in the game, before he used.  Hell, if you cut all the "PED years" off his career, the remaining years have a Hall of Fame debate.  I can't ignore that.

If you want to put Pedro Martinez, Mike Mussina, or Curt Schilling in, I don't think they lower the standards of the Hall.  But I wouldn't lose any sleep over them being left out.
But that's just my thinking.