Howard Bryant of ESPN sent in a blank ballot as some form of protest against making hard decisions, or easy decisions, or just making up his own mind without some kind of guidance from the Hall. Chris Jenkins said he only votes for baseball legends, but then didn't vote for either Bonds or Clemens. But the logic of some people who did bother to vote might have been worse (my comments at the *** marker).
-----------------------
Mike Nadel didn't vote for any of these guys: http://thebaldesttruth.blogspot.com/2012/12/hall-call-4-get-my-vote-most...
"EDGAR MARTINEZ … Possibly the best DH ever but his career HR (309), RBI (1,261) and slugging (.515) were hardly eye-popping." *** counting stats and slugging to take down a guy who won two batting titles and has an OBP surpassed only by 3 of the inner-circle HOFers? Of course.
"JEFF BAGWELL … Outstanding career numbers but behind Fred McGriff in most categories. His HR total, 449, is not extraordinary for a first baseman. There is steroid talk but no proof, so my decision on this borderline case was tipped by his poor postseason numbers for a Houston team that desperately needed more from its leader to win pennants." *** Borderline case? OPS+ of 149 to McGriff's 134. And his HRs are keeping him out? # of RH hitters in the hall with more HRs: EIGHT. # of 1B with more: FOUR. Ugh...
MIKE PIAZZA … For now, I’m going to hold off. There are enough steroid questions -- combined with a WAR ranked 179th all-time and a five-year fade at the end of his career – to make him less than a first-ballot Hall of Famer in my eyes *** UGH. Um... # of catchers with more WAR than Piazza: THREE. Did he even bother to check? Obviously he didn't check Jack Morris's WAR (whom he DID vote for) since Jack didn't crack 40 WAR, while 45 pitchers in the Hall did.
--------------------------------
Fun Quotes:
Mike Imrem: "The toughest decision came down to separating three great leadoff hitters — Craig Biggio, Kenny Lofton and Tim Raines. I went with Lofton because for a period of time I considered him one of the top five players in baseball."
Barry Rozner: "Following the guidelines of the vote, I've left off the steroids guys." He still voted for Bonds, though, but not Clemens. In fact, he voted for 3 non-Clemens pitchers: Lee Smith, Jack Morris and Curt Schilling.
Jim Ingraham: basically "Kenny Lofton kind of outhit Rickey Henderson in the 90s." Except Rickey was 31 when the 90s started, so is that something to brag about? Still, he voted for Edgar Martinez and Biggio and Piazza. Bonus points there.
Bob Brookover: votes only for Dale Murphy. Reason for not voting for others: "I've been questioned in the past about not voting for Bagwell, who has openly denied ever using steroids and whose name cannot be found anywhere in the 2007 Mitchell report.
I'm just not sure I believe him, and the reason is because I've watched players lie in front of Congress. If they can lie there, they can lie anywhere about anything. Schilling, one of the more outspoken players in his contempt for steroid users, once was asked if he was still dipping smokeless tobacco during his playing days with the Phillies. He assured the questioners he was not. It was a lie that was revealed by his wife, Shonda, just a few days later.
That's questionable integrity and character."
------------------------
This is really the best that can be done?
~G