Welcome to the first edition of The MVP Blog’s MLB Hall of Fame voting. We have 3 very prestigious voters who will cast their votes today. Before we get into how our Hall of Fame voting will work, we must first meet the voters. The first voter is The MVP Blog’s own Ryan Macdonald. The next two voters are guests to The MVP Blog. The second voter is Jake Ojalvo. Jake is currently a senior at Penn State University and is majoring in Finance. The third voter is Daniel Martin. Daniel is a senior at Rutgers University studying journalism and media studies. Jake and Daniel are both huge New York Yankees fans and have promised to put their Yankees bias aside for this vote. I, on the other hand, will not be unbiased. Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau, and Joe Nathan will all be included on my ballot. Go Twins! Just kidding. But seriously, go Twins!

Ben Pawlak will not be casting a Hall of Fame ballot. His baseball knowledge is limited, which makes him about as qualified as the actual MLB Hall of Fame voters.

Before we begin, some of you may be asking why we have decided to cast our own votes for the 2022’s MLB Hall of Fame Class. The reason for this is simple. Basically, the MLB Hall of Fame voting is an absolute joke. This is historically evident given the fact that Barry Bonds and Pete Rose, possibly the two greatest hitters in MLB history, are not enshrined in Cooperstown. I could write a long blog post about how Pete Rose should not be banned from baseball and must be enshrined in Cooperstown. But that’s for another day. It’s our absolute pleasure to announce The MVP Blog MLB Hall of Fame! Here’s how it will work:

• We have 3 voters. If a player receives all 3 votes, he is elected into the inaugural MVP Blog MLB Hall of Fame Class of 2022. If a player receives 1 or 2 votes, they’ll remain on the ballot in 2023. If a player receives 0 votes, they’ll be shut out of our Hall of Fame.
• As we have already implied, this will become an annual blog. The MVP’s MLB Hall of Fame will be different from the actual MLB Hall of Fame. Our ballot will be different every year from the actual MLB Hall of Fame ballot. 
• Each voter can vote for up to 10 players. A player must be retired for 5 seasons before they are eligible to be on the ballot. If a player is not voted in after 10 tries (on our ballot, this is year 1 for everyone), they are removed from the ballot. 
• We are essentially creating our very own MLB Hall of Fame. I promise you that it will be better than the one in Cooperstown. I mean, how can it not be? The real Hall of Fame doesn’t include the greatest hitter of all time.

With all that out of the way, let’s get started.

Ryan’s Ballot

Barry Bonds – Let’s start with the obvious one. Barry Bonds absolutely has to be a Hall of Famer. He is arguably the greatest hitter in baseball history. Yes, I know, Barry Bonds took steroids. But he played during the steroid era of baseball, and former MLB players who played during this era have estimated that upwards of 50% of the MLB were using PEDs. The MLB banned PEDs in 1991, but they didn’t begin testing for PEDs until 2003. My point? Steroid users are already in the Hall of Fame.

Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in professional sports. A 90 MPH fastball takes just 0.4 seconds to reach home plate from the time it leaves the pitcher’s hand. 0.4 seconds. In that time span, the hitter has to determine if it’s a ball or a strike, if the ball is breaking, and whether to swing or not. If you succeed 3 out of 10 times, you are considered an elite hitter. Steroids most definitely make you stronger, but they do not help you in squaring up a baseball. Even with steroids, squaring up a baseball is the most difficult thing to do in professional sports. Barry Bonds squared up more baseballs than anyone ever has. Barry Bonds is the home run king. Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter in MLB history. Barry Bonds is the most feared hitter in MLB history. Barry Bonds deserves to be enshrined in Cooperstown. 

Barry Bonds routinely led the league in OBP and OPS. This makes sense. Bonds got walked A LOT, simply because teams were afraid to pitch to him. Nothing illustrates this better than one night in 1998 which is forever engraved into MLB history. The Diamondbacks were clinging onto an 8-6 lead over the Giants in the bottom of the 9th. The Giants had the bases loaded. Who was coming up to the plate? Barry Bonds. Diamondbacks’ manager Buck Showalter made the call to intentionally walk Bonds WITH THE BASES LOADED. The score was now 8-7 and the tying run was 90 feet away. The move worked out in the end, as the Diamondbacks got the next hitter to win the game, but if that doesn’t illustrate the massive threat Barry Bonds posed every time he stepped into the box, nothing will.

In 2001, Barry Bonds set an MLB record by hitting 73 home runs in a season. 73. A record that will never be touched. In 2004, Barry Bonds set MLB records in both OBP and OPS. HIs OBP that year was .609. If you can reach base 4 out of 10 times, you are considered very good at baseball. He did it 6 out of 10 times. His OPS that year was 1.422. If you have an OPS of 1.000, you are almost certainly in the MVP race. In fact, Barry Bonds even won the batting title in 2004 with a batting average of .362. Yup. That’s right. Barry Bonds wasn’t just a power hitter. He was an all-around fantastic hitter. Barry Bonds is a Hall of Famer. Case closed. Enshrine the man. 

Curt Schilling – If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am adamant that steroid users can still make the Hall of Fame. Curt Schilling is one of the best pitchers to never win a Cy Young, but he did finish in 2nd place on 3 separate occasions. Curt Schilling’s regular season career numbers are great. They are not elite. 216 wins with a career ERA of 3.46. His longevity and postseason numbers are the two key reasons as to why he belongs in Cooperstown. For 20 years, Curt Schilling graced the Major Leagues. In those 20 years, he had a sub-4.00 ERA 16 times. His ERA was below 3 in 5 of those years. But let’s talk about October Curt Schilling. This man made 19 career playoff starts. In those 19 starts, Schilling was 11-2 with an ERA of 2.23, a WHIP of 0.968, and a K/BB ratio of 4.8. Oh yeah, and he won 3 rings along the way. Those numbers are crazy good. A WHIP of under 1.000 for a starting pitcher is absurd. And it’s not like this is a small sample size. 19 starts and 133 innings. Enshrine the man. 

Roger Clemens – Roger Clemens pitched for a ridiculous 24 years. He was still doing his thing at 44 years of age. In those 24 years, he amassed 354 wins, with an ERA of 3.12 and a WHIP of 1.173. Twice he finished a season with a sub-2.00 ERA. On 10 separate occasions, he finished the season with an ERA in the 2s. He recorded the lowest ERA in the MLB in 7 different seasons. 5 times he led the MLB in strikeouts. A pitcher has won MVP 25 times in MLB history. Roger Clemens is 1 of those 25. He won the pitching triple crown (leading the MLB in innings pitched, strikeouts, and ERA) twice. He is a 2-time World Series Champion. And none of those crazy accomplishments are even his most impressive feat. Roger Clemens won 7 (SEVEN!) Cy Young awards, an MLB record. Roger Clemens is one of the most decorated pitchers in MLB history. Enshrine the man. 

Billy Wagner – A closer?! Yes, a closer. I am a huge proponent of relief pitchers being in the Hall of Fame. Seeing Mariano Rivera voted in unanimously was a huge step forward for this initiative. During his 16 year career, Billy Wagner recorded 422 saves, 6th most in MLB history. He had a career ERA of 2.31, a WHIP of 0.998 and a K/9 of 11.9. For reference, Mariano Rivera, who is undoubtedly the greatest closer in MLB history, had a career ERA of 2.21, a WHIP of 1.000, and a K/9 of 8.2. That just goes to show you how dominant Billy Wagner was. He is right there with Rivera in every stat besides total saves. Perhaps his most impressive season came in 1999. That season, Wagner racked up 39 saves, with an ERA of 1.57, a WHIP of 0.777, and a K/9 of 14.9. Those are video game numbers, people. Closers deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Enshrine the man. 

Todd Helton – Yeah, Helton played in Colorado for his entire career. So what? You can’t knock a guy because of where he played. Like I said earlier, squaring up a baseball is the most difficult thing to do in professional sports. Todd Helton was fantastic at doing just that. During the middle of his career, he had a ten-year span where his lowest batting average for a season was .302. His highest batting average during that span was .372. The year he hit .372, he also led the MLB in RBIs with 147. He hit 42 home runs that year, coming up 8 home runs short of the Triple Crown. He was a 5-time all-star, won 3 Gold Gloves and 5 Silver Sluggers. He had an OPS over 1.000 5 times during his illustrious career! His career batting average of .316 is in the top-75 in MLB history. Did you know that he had a career OPS higher than both David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez? Enshrine the man. 

David Ortiz – The sole member of the actual 2022 MLB HOF class. He deserves to be in the HOF. That’s why I am voting for him. But the David Ortiz steroid saga is one of the most bizarre things ever, which is worth mentioning since Ortiz was enshrined to Cooperstown while Bonds, Clemens, and Schilling have been shut out. Ortiz tested positive in 2003, but then he didn’t. It was a false positive? Did the MLB sweep it under the rug? I don’t know if anybody will ever know the full truth, but my gut tells me that he did take steroids. However, I have said over and over and over again, steroid users can and should be enshrined in Cooperstown. David Ortiz is the greatest designated hitter of all-time. And it kills me to say that. My Minnesota Twins let a 26-year-old David Ortiz walk because they didn’t see his long-term potential. Welp. The people that use his position as a knock against him are clueless. He didn’t field. So what? He was the greatest designated hitter in MLB history. He belongs in the Hall of Fame. He’s a 10-time all-star, a 3-time World Series Champion, and has 7 Silver Sluggers to his name. His career OPS of 0.931 is the 38th highest OPS in MLB history. He never won an MVP, but there was a 5-year span where he finished in the top 5 every single year. David Ortiz was at his best on the biggest stage. He played 14 career games in the World Series. In those 14 games in the Fall Classic, he batted .455 with 3 home runs and 14 RBIs. Enshrine the man. 

Alex Rodriguez – Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez has a place in the Hall of Fame. His list of accolades is incredibly impressive. 3 MVPs, 14 All-Star selections, 2 Gold Gloves, 10 Silver Sluggers, a Batting Title, and a World Series ring. Sure, he did steroids when they were illegal. He tested positive the year the league started testing. He juiced when not everyone was juicing. But so did Ortiz, who the writers just voted in. Therefore, if Ortiz gets in, which I think he has to, then Rodriguez has to get in as well. A career .295 hitter with 696 home runs (4th most in MLB history) with a career OPS of 0.930. An utterly fantastic baseball player. Enshrine the man. 

Mark Buehrle – Mark Buehrle was one of my favorite pitchers to watch live as a kid. The way he threw strikes while working at an incredibly quick pace were things I tried to model on the mound. I remember watching one Twins game with a pitching matchup of Mark Buehrle vs. Phil Hughes. Both pitchers threw nothing but strikes the entire game. Both threw complete games. Both worked at a feverish pace. The White Sox won 1-0 and the game took less than 2 hours. It was unbelievably fun to watch the pure dominance of Buehrle. In his career, Buehrle won 214 games and registered an ERA of 3.81. His best attribute was his control. He walked only 2 batters per 9 innings for his career. Walking 3 batters per 9 innings is considered good, meaning Buehrle had phenomenal control. The best performance of his career came in Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS. The White Sox were down 1-0 in the best of 7 series. To avoid falling behind 0-2, the White Sox turned to Buehrle, and he delivered an absolute gem. A complete game, 1 run effort to help tie up the series. They went on to win the next 3 games to advance to the World Series, a World Series that Buehrle and the White Sox ended up winning. Mark Buehrle had elite control and truly lived on the black for his entire career. He kept hitters off balance by mixing up pitches and speeds. Enshrine the man. 

Torii Hunter – Torii Hunter is probably my second favorite Minnesota Twins player of all time (behind Joe Mauer). Watching Torii Hunter roam around centerfield at the Metrodome and seemingly track down everything hit within a general vicinity of him brought immense joy to little Ryan. Torii Hunter is quite simply one of the greatest fielders I have ever watched live. Look at how effortlessly he robs this home run: 

This isn’t even one of Hunter’s best career catches. I just love how nonchalantly he reaches over and brings that one back. I also love Bonds’ reaction. He made web gems on almost a nightly basis. He has 9 Gold Gloves to his name, but they all came in succession. From 2001-2009, the Centerfield Gold Glove was temporarily renamed the Torii Hunter Award. He also wasn’t too shabby at the plate. A fixture at the top of the Twins lineup for years, Hunter was a career .277 hitter with over 350 home runs. The happiness with which he played the game with was special to watch. He LOVED baseball, and it was evident from the first game of his career to his last.

He came back to Minnesota in 2015 to end his career. The Twins were coming off a 70-win season and had absolutely no expectations for 2015 either. The team was young, restless, and sick of losing. Hunter came in and rejuvenated the club house. He instituted the “we win, we dance” rule. And every time the Twins won, they had a dance party in the clubhouse afterwards. Some of the videos that surfaced on social media were absolutely hysterical. The team was having fun, and their looser attitude brought life and energy to a team that didn’t have any the year before. The Twins finished 83-79, their best record in 5 seasons, and Torii Hunter deserves a lot of credit for that. Hunter retired after that season. The Twins would win 59 games in 2016. Enshrine the man. 

Manny Ramirez – Just another unbelievable hitter that is being punished because the writers who vote for the Hall of Fame refuse to acknowledge the fact that PEDs are all over Cooperstown. What do Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle all have in common? They all have admitted to using PEDs that are now considered banned substances in the MLB. With this in mind, there are two clear options for what needs to happen in Cooperstown: You either kick them all out, or you let them all in. Wait, really? You don’t want to kick Mays, Mantle, and Aaron out of the Hall of Fame? I agree. But that also means that you can’t withhold all these more recent legends from getting in just because they took PEDs. It’s an unfair double standard. 

Manny Ramirez has a career slash line (BA/OBP/SLG/OPS) of .312/.411/.585/.996. All of those are elite marks. His 555 home runs ranks 15th in MLB history. He is a 12-time All-Star, won 9 Silver Sluggers, 2 World Series rings, and a Batting Title. When hitters with this much power can also hit for this high of an average, it makes pitchers quiver every time guys like Manny Ramirez step up to the plate. Enshrine the man.

Jake’s Ballot:

Barry Bonds – Early this morning, sitting in my business capstone class, I found my eyes wandering around the lecture hall honing in on different student’s laptops. Less than 10% of the eavesdropper victims’ screens featured the lecture notes or anything having to do with the actual class. I quickly realized everyone has different mechanisms in order to pass the grueling class time, whether it be endlessly scrolling Twitter or online shopping, prospecting clothes they can’t afford. My favorite hobby to kill the time is navigating random Baseball Reference pages and sifting through comparative stats, absurd nicknames, and annual accolades. Undoubtedly, the most eye popping and impressive Baseball Reference batting stats belong to Barry Bonds, otherwise known as Reggie Stocker to those familiar with MLB the Show. He should have been a unanimous first ballot shoo-in. Barry Bonds belongs in Cooperstown.

The remark I keep hearing about Barry Bonds and the Hall of Fame goes something like, “you can’t tell the history of baseball without Bonds”, a remark I wholeheartedly agree with. The Hall of Fame is a museum and should showcase the greatest players that the game has to offer. It shouldn’t be marketed as the Hall of ethical and honorable people that treat reporters well and also happen to be good at baseball. Following the 1994 MLB players’ strike, the game of baseball had never been less popular in America. Then came the infamous steroid era, and fans were drawn back into their stadium seats to see who could bash the baseball the farthest. Steroids singlehandedly saved the sport of baseball, and it also most likely saved the jobs of the same voters who just shut out Barry Bonds from Cooperstown. Bonds is unfairly left off of their ballots on an annual basis due to the biases that the BBWAA writers use as a twisted form of gatekeeping the history of baseball. At the time, pretty much the entire MLB was taking PEDs, and if you don’t think the majority of the league was bending the rules with different substances, you probably also believe in the tooth fairy.

Back to Baseball Reference. I figured the best way to spell out Bonds’ greatness in a somewhat brief blog post is to highlight my four favorite unique stats and tidbits that he put up in his 22 year career, achievements will most likely never be replicated.

• Barry Bonds is the only member of the 400 HR/400 steals club. He has 762 home runs and 514 career steals.
• In a hypothetical scenario: Player A goes 2 for 5 with a HR in every single game of the season. Their batting average would be .400, slugging percentage of .1000, they’d end the season with 324 hits, 810 total bases and 162 home runs. Player A’s OPS would still be lower than Barry Bonds’ OPS in 2004.
• 49.1% of Barry Bonds’ 2,935 career hits were extra base hits.
• Bonds is the only player to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded, as well as the bases empty. 

I mean, there’s not much else to say. In my humble opinion, poking yourself with a syringe is not the reason these numbers are produced. Shame on those stickler baseball writers, the dinosaurs who refuse to acknowledge the greatness of Barry Bonds due to their perfectionist view of an imperfect era in baseball history.

Todd Helton – Todd Helton played half of his career games at Coors Field with the thin Colorado air. This is the common knock against his case for the Hall of Fame, but he’s the best Colorado Rockie of all time and would have been a HOF caliber player no matter where he played his home games. He’s been slighted and overlooked his entire career for this reason. Take the 2000 season for example. Helton led the NL in hits, doubles, RBI’s, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, total bases and WAR. He somehow finished FIFTH in MVP voting. After all these years, small market stars still go unrecognized, and Todd Helton is a prime example of that.

With a career slash line of .316/.414/.539 and 62 career WAR, I think Helton is absolutely worthy of a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Not to mention his 369 HR and 1,406 career RBI numbers. Statistics tell a great story, but there’s also something to be said about Helton’s defensive skills at first base. All in all, Todd Helton is a Hall of Famer.

Roger Clemens – This guy won the Cy Young Award 7 times. He was the best pitcher in his league for nearly an entire decade. Ryan really does a great job summarizing his impressive career with stats, so I won’t waste your time regurgitating those numbers to you, Roger Clemens is a no doubt selection for the Hall of Fame.

Curt Schilling – Schilling’s impressive postseason performances parlayed with his pinpoint command make him another easy checkmark on my baseball HOF ballot. Schilling retired while boasting a career WAR (wins above replacement) of 80.7, a mark which puts him ahead of numerous Hall of Fame pitchers, including the likes of Tom Glavine and another Baseball Reference legend, Old Hoss Radbourn. 

Schilling gets my vote, no matter how controversial and questionable his Twitter account is. He is the poster child for the ‘separate the art from the artist’ cliche. Between the lines, he belongs in the Hall of Fame without any dispute. However, his off the field antics since he’s been retired have been concerning to put it mildly, and I’m not going to acknowledge them here on The MVP Blog.

The same issues I have about these Hall of Fame voters keep coming up over and over again. This should not be a popularity contest, nor just a vote of which players are the most likable according to traditional baseball writers. It should be a museum to teach people about the history of baseball and to flaunt the best players to ever play the game.

Alex Rodriguez – A-Rod was drafted first overall out of high school and made his major league debut at 18 years old. Needless to say, the expectations for Alex were sky high, but Rodriguez not only reached his expectations, but he actually surpassed them by the time he hung up his cleats. Just look at the numbers. I mean, in his first full season in the big leagues, he batted .358, breaking Ty Cobb’s record in 1907 for batting average by a player in his age 20 season (.350). From 1998 to 2003, he totaled 281 home runs, averaging 47 per season. After that 2003 season, he opened the page to a brand new chapter of his career. He joined the New York Yankees, where the expectations and pressure on Rodriguez was somehow amplified to a completely new level. Even so, he was able to finally achieve notable postseason success, recording numbers that make him deserving of Hall of Fame status.

Alex Rodriguez put up 14 different seasons with 30 HR and 100 RBI, more than any other player in the history of baseball. He’s also the only alleged steroid user on this ballot to actually admit to doing it, which should be worthy of praise rather than punishment. Clearly, the BBWAA writers think differently, considering he was voted for in less than 35% of the ballots. But for me, Alex Rodriguez belongs in the Hall of Fame.

David Ortiz – David Ortiz is another unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer… but with a caveat. It’s only right to group him in the the other “steroid guys.” He was on the same accusatory PED report that Alex Rodriguez was on. The fact that Ortiz waltzed right into the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot while guys like Sammy Sosa (who never failed a test) were shut out just isn’t fair. 

Onto his accolades. Yes, he’s the best designated hitter there has ever been in the big leagues. He has 10 All-Star appearances and 7 Silver Sluggers to prove it. When the lights were brightest, you just knew that David Ortiz was coming through with a big hit in the clutch. Like this Grand Slam to tie things up in Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS with the Sox already facing a 1-0 deficit:

He was the main component of his 3 World Series wins with the Red Sox, and his World Series stats alone would be enough to get him into Cooperstown. His likability shouldn’t have factored into him getting in (even though it clearly did), but even as a Yankees fan, it’s impossible to hate Big Papi.

Billy Wagner – Billy Wagner has been on this ballot for a long time, and he has once again been unfairly left off the inauguration list. However, his case is unique, especially since it’s free of any PED-related controversy. Wagner first became eligible in a stacked class of players, and since then he has slipped through the cracks, never quite capturing the attention of ballot voters. He also pitched at a point in time when he was forced to share headlines with two definitive Hall of Fame closers in Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. I obviously don’t think that Wagner was better than Rivera, but I do think that he was better than Hoffman. Among all pitchers totaling at least 800 innings pitched, Wagner’s K rate is the best in MLB history by a large margin. I’m glad that closers have been garnering more Hall of Fame recognition over the past few years, because Billy Wagner deserves a spot in Cooperstown.

Daniel’s Ballot

A note about PEDs: This year’s Hall of Fame ballot is full of the most high profile example of PED users the BBWAA will ever see. It seems to me that most people either think the BBWAA should completely shun all PED users or pretend that PED use never took place to begin with. In my opinion, the correct approach is somewhere in the middle, in the form of a PED tax. When looking at a Hall of Fame candidacy, a player who tested positive for PEDs should be penalized by being held to higher standards on the field. This is an idea I’m lifting from Bailey Freeman (@FoolishBaseball on Twitter). It helps simplify voting process in regard to PED users, since I don’t want to turn a blind eye to PEDs in baseball, but I know that keeping some of the greatest players to ever play professional baseball out of Cooperstown because they used substances which the majority of the MLB took anyway is illogical. For me, a PED user has to justify their spot in the Hall of Fame with a level of greatness on the field that outweighs the athletic enhancement they experienced by using PEDs. So to those who were big PED users but also irrefutable Hall of Fame caliber baseball players, you have my vote. If not, well… sorry Gary Sheffield. 

A note about Curt Schilling: Curt Schilling should obviously be enshrined in Cooperstown. He’s one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time and the fact that he seems like a terrible guy doesn’t change that. I would’ve voted for him last year and basically every year before that, but I’m not voting for him now because he asked for his name to be taken off the ballot so he could be voted in by the veterans committee. The Hall of Fame committee refused his request for some reason, but I’m going to grant it. If Curt Schilling doesn’t want to be a part of this, why should I force him to be? Plus, I think if Curt Schilling knew who we were, he’d think of us as more similar to the BBWAA than to the veterans committee. But if Curt Schilling reaches out and says he feels differently, I’ll absolutely vote for him.

With all of that out of the way, here are my votes.

Bobby Abreu – Bobby Abreu is ridiculously underrated. I’d say his prime stretched from his first year with the Phillies to his first year with the Angels, a solid 12 year period, and during that time he hit .301, knocked in 1238 RBIs, stole 365 bases and put up an OPS+ of 133. That’s not just a Cooperstown caliber prime, it’s an absurdly long one. But Bobby Abreu wasn’t just an OBP king, he was also a tremendous base stealer, which is often glossed over. Not only did he steal 400 career bases, but he did so at a 75% success rate. The only other players in MLB history with an OBP as high as Abreu’s .395 and 400 SBs are Barry Bonds and Ricky Henderson. That’s elite company. With the exception of HR’s, Bobby Abreu’s career stats mirror that of Vladamir Guerrero, and Vladdy Sr. waltzed into Cooperstown in his second year of eligibility, garnering 92% of the vote. More elite company for Abreu. In fact, Abreu’s 60.2 WAR is actually higher than Guerrero’s. He might not be the flashiest name on the list, but Bobby Abreu quietly played out a Hall of Fame career.

Barry Bonds – Barry Bonds was such a good hitter, he essentially broke the game of baseball. He hit so many HR’s that teams decided that they just wouldn’t pitch to him. Everybody knows that Barry Bonds is the HR king, regardless of his PED use. However, his athleticism during the early years of his career often goes overlooked. He won eight Gold Gloves in the 80s and 90s and stole over 30 bases in 10 of his first 12 seasons. He’s the only player in MLB history to hit 700 HRs and steal 500 bases. If you want to remove 100 of his home runs for no reason, he’s still the only player in MLB history to hit 600 HRs and steal 500 bases. He hit more HRs than any player in MLB history. He drew more walks and intentional walks than anyone in MLB history. He led the league in OBP, SLG, and OPS for four years in a row. Only a PED absolutist could possibly object to Barry Bonds as a Hall of Famer. His Baseball Reference page is hilarious to look at, full of bold text and staggering numbers like his 14 straight 1.000+ OPS seasons, his 6 seasons with an OPS+ of over 200, and his 12 seasons of leading the MLB in IBBs. Obviously, the PEDs helped him attain these titanic numbers, but there’s also a very strong argument that he would’ve made the Hall of Fame without PEDs anyway, especially if you look his years with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is an easy vote on the ballot. Sure, he used PEDs, was an awful teammate, and is probably a terrible guy, but how can the person who hit the most HRs in baseball history not be in the Hall of Fame? Bonds one of the greatest, and for that he earns my vote.

Roger Clemens – Roger Clemens is the Barry Bonds of pitching and the story of his incredible career can be told through his wild list of accolades. I mean, the man won 7 Cy Youngs, 7 ERA titles, an MVP, the pitching triple crown (twice), and 5 K titles. That’s just scratching the surface, since he has a uniquely massive list of accomplishments. If you take a look at his Baseball Reference page, you can see his 0.969 WHIP in 1986, his three year streak of ERA titles from 1990 to 1992, his 87% W/L% in 2001, and his 1.87 ERA in 2005 at the age of 42. That longevity is what impresses me most about Roger Clemens’ career. He pitched for 24 years and didn’t slow down even one bit. The PEDs will certainly make you internalize all of these ridiculous stats with a grain of salt, but the Rocket easily qualifies for the Hall of Fame, even after the PED tax. And just like Bonds, you can make a very strong argument that he would have made the Hall of Fame without PEDs. Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and for that he gets my vote. 

Todd Helton – Perhaps the worst group of people in the baseball community are the people who hate on Colorado Rockies hitters because they play their home games at Coors Field. Playing at Coors is actually a lose-lose situation for hitters because their home splits need to be ridiculously good to keep this group of people from writing it off as the “Coors effect”, while their road splits look mediocre in comparison because their bodies have acclimated from playing baseball so far above sea level. Rockies hitters shouldn’t be held to different standards as everyone else. Todd Helton had a fantastic career and happened to be on the Rockies for all of it. He’s not only a career .300+ hitter, he’s also a 300/400/500 hitter. If you look at his 14 year prime from 1998-2011, you’ll find that he hit 323 with 317 HRs, 1200 RBIs and posted a 138 OPS+. He also earned 3 Gold Gloves in his career, and in 2000 Helton led the league in 8 offensive categories including BA (.372) and RBIs (147). That year, Helton finished fifth in NL MVP voting. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and the only thing more offensive than that 2000 NL MVP vote was Todd Helton himself.

Andruw Jones – In my opinion, Andruw Jones is the greatest defensive center fielder of all time. I’ve never seen Willy Mays play live, but Andruw Jones is genuinely (at least according to defensive metrics) the best defensive center fielder of all time. If you don’t trust defensive metrics, just know that Jones collected 10 Gold Gloves in his illustrious career. Andruw Jones also passes the eye test easier than almost any player in the history of the sport. He also hit 434 HR’s. Clearly, he belongs in the Hall of Fame. However, there is a persistent narrative about Jones which claims that his batting ability sharply declined once he turned 30, which is true in some ways, but misleading in others. His batting average definitely fell off later in his career, but after an injury plagued season with the Dodgers, Jones floated around the league having 100+ OPS+ seasons for fun with the White Sox, Rangers and Yankees before calling it quits in 2016. The narrative of Jones’ late career demise has been greatly exaggerated and the narrative of his Cooperstown case has been greatly undersold.

David Ortiz – David Ortiz is one of the best designated hitters of all time.  The amount of time he spent as a DH hurts his WAR a little but he was without a doubt one of the best hitters of his generation. As a Yankee fan who saw him in the box hundreds of times, he was the most fearsome hitter on all three of those title-winning Red Sox teams. He also hit like a madman on each of those World S runs hitting .400 with 5 HRs, 19 RBIs and a 1.278 OPS in 2004, .370 with 3 HRs, 10 RBIs and a 1.204 OPS in 2007, and .353 with 5 HRs, 13 RBIs and a 1.206 OPS in 2013. You could say Boston wouldn’t have won all or even any of those World Series’ without Ortiz. He almost definitely would have won an MVP if he was a decent fielder and came really close anyway four years in a row from 2004 to 2007. He not only had incredible power, hitting 30+ HRs 10 times but hit for remarkably high average especially for a hitter with so much power, hitting over .300 seven times including his incredible .315, 38 HR season at age 40. Ortiz also never dropped off. He finished his career with four 30+ HR seasons and three 35+ HR seasons. His career line of .286 with 541 HRs, 1768 RBIs, and a 141 OPS+ is fit for a first ballot Hall of Famer. The PED links are there but they are tenuous at best and Ortiz does more than enough to earn his spot after the PED tax. It’s unfortunate that the BBWAA has made such a thing of not letting in Bonds and Clemens because it’s led to people rightly pointing out the hypocrisy of deservedly voting in the PED linked Ortiz while those other PED guys were turned away year after year but that shouldn’t taint Ortiz’ remarkable, Hall of Fame career.

Andy Pettitte – This is where a little Yankee bias comes out. His numbers may not be as gaudy as Clemens’ or some of the other players on this list but Andy Pettitte had a great career. He hit 250 wins, 2,000 Ks and had an ERA plus over 100 in each of his 18 seasons apart from 1. His career numbers are virtually identical to Tigers HOF pitcher Jack Morris (it’s really pretty uncanny Pettitte has two more wins, an ERA lower by .05, 30 fewer Ks and a higher WHIP by .055 in 18 fewer games pitched) but what really buoys Pettitte’s case for me is the postseason production. He has the most wins of any pitcher in postseason history. He had 14 starts of 7+ innings with 2 or fewer earned runs. The first of these starts came in 1996 and the last came in 2010 meaning Pettitte pitched at this level for an impressive 14 seasons. Pettitte not only pitched to his career numbers in the postseason but did it over the biggest sample size in MLB playoff history. I don’t think a player should be penalized for poor or limited postseason play, especially in baseball, but when a player does rise to the occasion in the postseason and does it as many times as Pettitte did, it should be recognized.

Alex Rodriguez – A-Rod is one of the most naturally gifted players in MLB history. Over the course of his 22 year MLB career he led the league in 13 seperate offensive categories. That’s absurd. He was one of the best defensive SSs in MLB for almost a decade before being traded to the Yankees and seamlessly switching to 3B. Also absurd. After becoming a full time major leaguer in 1996 at age 20 he never had an OPS+ under 111 until the final year of his career when he was 40. That is two decades of great hitting. A-Rod managed to hit for great power and great average with remarkable consistency, hitting over .300 nine times and hitting over 30 HRs 14 times. He hit over 30 HRs and 100 RBIs every single year from 1998 to 2010. That’s 13 straight years. He finished with a .295 BA, 696 HRs, 2086 RBIs, 3115 hits, and an OPS+ of 140. Like Bonds and Clemens and many of the other PED guys, his baseball reference is full mind blowing bolded numbers. A-Rod’s highlights include leading the league in HRs three years in a row from 2001-2003, somehow coming in 9th in MVP voting in 1998 despite having a 40/40 season AND leading the league in hits, and his tremendous 2009 postseason in which he hit .365 with 6 HRs and 18 RBIs for a 1.308 OPS. It’s also worth remembering that at age 39, the year after he was suspended for the entire season, he hit 33 HRs. Of course the PEDs taint his legacy but even with the PED tax, Rodriguez more than qualifies as an all time great, inner circle Hall of Famer who should be welcome in Cooperstown, although with Bonds and Clemens missing the boat this year, that could be an uphill battle.

Scott Rolen – Scott Rolen is another guy who I think should get a big bump for his defense. You probably think of Scott Rolen as a solid player but not a HOF guy. Well did you know that Scott Rolen won 8 Gold Gloves? Or did you know that he won his last one at age 35? And did you know that Rolen is actually 10th all time in WAR among third basemen. Maybe you didn’t know as much about Scott Rolen as you thought. Or maybe you did know all that. He wasn’t A-Rod at the plate but he was still a very good hitter. His career line of .281 with 316 HRs, 1287 RBIs and a 122 OPS+ is really good but maybe not Hall of Fame worthy until you consider his defense. Scott Rolen was an incredible defensive 3B. According to the advanced defensive metrics he’s the third best defensive 3B of all time and the eye test backs that up because he was incredible to watch. I think Rolen falls into the Bobby Abreu category of not getting as many votes as he should because of his perceived lack of flashiness but the HOF substance is there.

Billy Wagner – In a less publicized example of the BBWAA being dumb, the Hall of Fame voters are consistently reluctant to acknowledge great relief pitchers. Only seven relief pitchers have been inducted and two of them were the recent inductions of Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman who the AL and NL Reliever of the Year Awards are literally named after. Sure relief pitchers don’t pitch as many innings as starters do but they’re asked to get some of the most important and pressure filled outs. Reluctance to induct relievers is like being reluctant to induct safeties into the football Hall of Fame because they don’t play as much man to man defense as cover corners or being reluctant to give out the Best Supporting Actor and Actress Oscars because they don’t don’t get much screen time as the leads. The prime current victim of the BBWAA stupid approach to voting for relievers is Billy Wagner, who should be a slam dunk Hall of Famer. He has a career 2.31 ERA (just .1 higher than Mariano), ERA + of 187, 422 saves and an astounding .998 WHIP. Basically anyone who has a sub 1 career WHIP over 900 innings should be a Hall of Famer. He was remarkably consistent in a role often plagued by inconsistency posting an ERA below 2.85 in 15 of his 16 seasons (and the one outlier came in his injury shortened 2000 season.) Statically he’s better than every HOF relief pitcher besides Mariano. There just haven’t been very many relievers in the history of the game better than Billy Wagner. In fact, it’s possible there’s only been one.

Voting Results

To reiterate, the rules are as follows:

Players who receive 3 votes are hereby elected into The MVP Blog’s MLB Hall of Fame. Players who receive 1 or 2 votes will stay on the ballot next year. Players who receive 0 votes will not appear on our ballot next year.

Let’s do a quick rundown of how the voting unfolded.

0 votes (will not be on the 2023 ballot): Carl Crawford, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Tim Hudson, Jeff Kent, Tim Lincecum, Justin Morneau, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Jake Peavy, A.J. Pierzynski, Jimmy Rollins, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Mark Teixeira, and Omar Vizquel

1 or 2 votes (will remain on the 2023 ballot): Bobby Abreu, Mark Buehrle, Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ramirez, Scott Rolen, and Curt Schilling

The Inaugural MVP Blog MLB Hall of Fame Class of 2022:

Does Barry Bonds belong in Cooperstown? Comment down below!

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Authors: Ryan Macdonald, Daniel Martin, and Jake Ojalvo

Published: 1/27/22 at 6pm EST

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Sources/Works Cited:

“D-Backs Walk Bonds with the Bases Loaded.” YouTube, MLB, 27 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7IPZAcP78. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.

“David Ortiz Ties the Game with Grand Slam in 2013 ALCS Game 2.” YouTube, MLB, 14 Oct. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJyxzaLNlNw. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.

Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com – Major League Statistics and Information. https://www.baseball-reference.com/. 27 January 2022.

“Torii Hunter Robs Barry Bonds of All-Star Game Home Run.” YouTube, MLB, 28 Apr. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcQ5De9ZcZc. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.