My 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot

The beauty of voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame is the freedom to change.

The game evolves. The world evolves. My views evolve. My ballot evolves.

Here was mine for 2022.

SUBTRACTED

1) Curt Schilling: He said he wanted off the ballot. The Hall said no. The Hall does not care what Schilling wants. Neither do I.

I stopped voting for him because my conscience demands it.

Schilling tweeted his support for the Jan. 6 riot. Or, as he put it, the “confrontation for shit that matters.” This is the same guy who had compared Muslim extremists to Nazis, belittled transgender people and promoted lynching journalists – none of it funny, all offensive. I used to let him slide because he would not be the only offensive Hall of Famer.

No more.

While I respect his right to his beliefs and politics, he continued to make comments that sabotage a Hall candidate today. I see an evolving door to Cooperstown today. His words are part of his resume today.

Schilling was never a slam-dunk Hall pitcher, but his postseason excellence had edged him over that Cooperstown line. His comments pulled him back across it. This part of character is important. This shit matters.  

2) Omar Vizquel: When he first hit the ballot, I did not vote for him because of modern analytics. Then I did, swayed by traditional numbers, my gut and my eyes, rewarding a flashy shortstop who produced just enough offense. For this ballot, accusations (by his wife) of domestic violence and (by a batboy with autism) of sexual harassment marred his resume and pulled Vizquel back behind that Cooperstown line today. I suspended voting for him.

To be fair, allegations are just that. According to a statement Vizquel recently tweeted, the divorce judge dismissed his now-ex-wife’s allegations. The White Sox fired Vizquel as a minor-league manager after the batboy’s allegations, but the sexual-harassment case has not been decided. Let’s see how this all plays out.

ADDED

1) David Ortiz: He is a Hall of Famer.  No question. First ballot.

You want regular-season numbers? He hit 541 home runs. He drove in 1,768 runs. He finished in the top five in MVP voting five times. Plus, he finished sixth in his final season – at age 40.

You want postseason impact? Rewind to the 2004 ALCS and Boston’s historic comeback from three games down to the Yankees, and behold a legend. Ortiz came through with extra-inning, walkoff hits in Game 4 (home run) and Game 5 (single), and his home run started the Game 7 blowout. The Red Sox then swept St. Louis for their first World Series title since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino. Ortiz was part of three Red Sox championships. In 14 World Series games, he had a combined .455 and 1.372 OPS with three homers and 14 RBIs. In 85 career postseason games, he hit 17 home runs with 61 RBIs.

You want defining player? Ortiz was one of the best designated hitters to play the game. The DH has been around for almost 50 years now, so why ignore the players who made the biggest impact?  

You want transcendent player? During a pregame ceremony at Fenway Park, in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, Ortiz addressed the crowd as only he could: “All right, all right, Boston. This jersey that we wear today, it doesn’t say Red Sox. It says Boston. We want to thank you, Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, the whole police department for the great job that they did this past week. This is our fucking city, and nobody's gonna dictate our freedom. Stay strong.”

You want to talk PEDs? I will not penalize Ortiz for reportedly being among the players testing positive in 2003. Back then, nobody was punished, and names were (and still are) supposed to be kept confidential. Commissioner Rob Manfred has gone out of his way to defend Ortiz in particular, saying there were 10-15 potential false positives, without naming names. There is too much doubt here to hold this against anybody. Unless MLB punished somebody for PED use, it does not affect my vote anymore.

RETAINED 

1. Jeff Kent: I always vote for Kent. This is his ninth time on the ballot, but 32.4 percent of the BBWAA vote last year was his highest. He needs a big bump this time to build momentum for the needed 75 percent his final year. Too big, I’m afraid. Say what you want about his defense, a record 351 of his 377 home runs came as a second baseman and make him Hall of Fame material.

2-3) Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens:  The 10th time will probably be the end for two of the defining players of their generation and the Faces of the PED Era. Bonds says he never knowingly took steroids, and Clemens says he never took them. I don’t believe them, but MLB was never able to penalize them. I take all of this as part of the overall picture instead of automatic disqualification. To me, their resumes take big hits because I believe their statistics are inflated. But how much? Who knows? The way I look at it, even two-thirds of Bonds’ home runs and Clemens’ Cy Young Awards would leave them Hall-worthy, so I am voting for them one last time.

4) Sammy Sosa: If I give Ortiz a pass, I give Sosa one, because the only PED blemish for each was the New York Times report. Sosa’s contagious joy during the 1998 chase with Mark McGwire for Roger Maris’ home run record rejuvenated baseball. His 609 career homers still rank ninth. Sure, Sosa’s credibility is bad, the bat corking doesn’t help him, and the Cubs have divorced him. And there is no way he rises from 17 percent of the votes last year to 75 percent in his 10th and final shot. But he will go down with my vote.

5) Scott Rolen: A lot of us have come around on Rolen, who hit almost 53 percent last year and should keep rising. Analytics are big on Rolen. He ranks 10th for third basemen in bWAR and in JAWS, behind eight Hall of Famers and one (Adrian Beltre) likely to join. Rolen won eight Gold Gloves and hit .281 with 316 homers and 1,287 RBIs. He might be the second-best all-around third baseman of his generation, behind Beltre. Only 17 third basemen are in Cooperstown, lowest of any defensive position (and one is Edgar Martinez, primarily a DH). A tough position deserves more love.

6) Todd Helton: I got over the Coors Field Effect with Larry Walker. Helton finished with a .316 batting average (which I still value). Naturally, he fared better at home (1.048 OPS vs. .855 on the road), and he doesn’t have Walker’s overall credentials, but he won three Gold Gloves, and his 61.8 bWAR ranks 17th among first basemen. Of the 16 ahead of him, 11 are Hall of Famers, two lost out in BBWAA voting because of PED ties (Rafael Palmeiro and McGwire), and three are active and Cooperstown candidates (Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Joey Votto). Yeah, Helton belongs in the Hall of Fame.

7) Gary Sheffield: He claims he unknowingly took PEDs, but he did come out in favor of steroid testing and never was punished by MLB for PED use. He might not have been an ideal teammate, and his minus-27.7 defensive WAR is last of 500 right fielders on Baseball Reference, but Sheffield is all about his bat. His 80.8 offensive WAR ranks sixth among right fielders, and everyone else in the top 15 is in the Hall. He hit .292 with 509 homers rand 1,676 RBIs. He was a nine-time All-Star. He finished in the top 10 for MVP voting six times. He is flawed, but he crosses the Cooperstown line for my vote.

8) Billy Wagner: He was a dominant one-inning reliever, and once I valued him for what he was, he earned my vote. Wagner’s 422 saves rank sixth, not quite Cooperstown level, but his 2.31 ERA beats seven of the eight Hall of Fame relievers, trailing only Mariano Rivera (2.21). Among pitchers with 800 or more innings, Wagner owns the highest strikeout rate for batters faced (33.2 percent) and per nine innings (11.9) and the lowest opponent batting average (.187), according to FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe. Wagner is what he is – and impressive.

OPENINGS

1) I voted for just nine players this year, after usually voting for the maximum 10. I did not vote for Alex Rodriguez because Major League Baseball did punish him for PED use. That is why I continue to exclude Manny Ramirez. Will I reconsider in the future? As I said, this is an evolving process.