WORCESTER—There is no such thing as a weak Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, but there are unexciting ones.
This year’s falls into that category.
There are 12 new candidates including former Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello. Otherwise the new names consist of fine players with marginal Coooperstown credentials.
“Marginal” and “Cooperstown” are mutually exclusive.
Three players have a Boston connection. Porcello is one. Manny Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia are the others. This will be Ramirez’ 10th and final season of eligibility, Pedroia’s second.
Ramirez is one of the two names checked off on this voter’s 2025 ballot. Alex Rodriguez is the other.
First, the Red Sox connections.
Without the positive tests for PEDs Ramirez would have been enshrined long ago. The only question is whether or not the proven drug use should outweigh the legendary offensive accomplishments, none of which Major League Baseball has ever stricken from the record.
The majority of voters hold the PED use against him and have for the entire time Ramirez has been eligible.
He has consistently been named on about one-quarter to one-third of the ballots, not even close to the 75 percent necessary for induction. With one final election to go, Ramirez would need an unprecedented voting miracle to make it this year.
The view here is that Major League Baseball has decided that its punishment for PED use is sufficient. Ramirez and others who have tested positive have done the time for their crime and are eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Ramirez’ eligibility has also been examined by a Baseball Writers Association of America screening committee comprised of knowledgeable veterans of covering the game. That committee has confirmed Ramirez’ eligibility.
Porcello pitched in Boston for five seasons and has settled in Vermont. That qualifies him as an honorary New Englander—he grew up in New Jersey—but not as a Hall of Famer.
Porcello had an interesting career that included 150 wins. That is a good number by today’s standards, but not by Hall of Fame standards. The “win” has become a secondary statistic for starting pitchers and should be revised, although there is no move afoot to do that.
His candidacy is built around a remarkable 2016 season in which he was 22-4 and won a Cy Young Award. Porcello was 9-15 in 2015, 11-17 in 2017, wrapped around the Cy Young season.
Pedroia received just 12 percent of the votes last year, his first on the ballot. He has nine years of eligibility left and it will be virtually impossible to gain enough support in upcoming elections to get to 75 percent.
In four previous elections Rodriguez’ support level has barely budged. It is not very high, right around 35 percent. It was 37 percent last season and he has five years of eligibility left.
He and Ramirez are almost twins in terms of Cooperstown support. If the PEDs matter you don’t vote for them and that perspective seems to vary only with the age of Hall voters.
Only two players eligible this year have received more than 50 percent of the votes in previous elections. They are Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones. Beltran received 70.3 percent last season and is likely to go over the top this time. Jones got two-third last year and has one year of eligibility left after this.
He will likely make it as well, but maybe not until the next election.
Neither got this vote. They were both great players but did not cross the subjective line to Hall of Fame.
What is that line?
It is David Ortiz rescuing the Red Sox playoff hopes with a grand slam in Game 2 of the 2012 ALCS. It is Derek Jeter diving headfirst into the stands to catch a foul ball, or his flip play in the 2001 ALDS.
The contemporary baseball era committee, which should be called the “After Further Review” committee, elected Jeff Kent. Kent was an excellent player with a long career who never got more than half the votes in any BBWAA election, let alone 75 percent.
For some reason he has gotten a lot better since his career ended in 2008. OK, if the passage of time makes some players look better, it can also make some look worse and there is no mechanism to remove players from Cooperstown.
Nor should there be, so it is a one-way street.
Kent made it. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens did not, obviously for PED reasons. Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy and Fernando Valenzuela—none of them connected to PED—did not make it.
Valenzuela, who was an electrifying performer on the mound and a cultural icon, should have a plaque in Cooperstown and should have been voted in by the BBWAA. Talk about that subjective line a player has to cross to be a Hall of Famer—Valenzuela is a great example.
Put it this way: a lot more fans bought tickets just because Valenzuela is pitching tonight than bought tickets just because Jeff Kent is playing second base tonight.
Maybe a subjective look at Hall of Fame candidates is unfair. If so, turn elections into formulas and have computers spit out the electees every year. That is today’s game, anyway, managers bringing in a reliever in the seventh to replace a starter working on a two-hit shutout.
It might be the way to go, but it is not much fun arguing with an algorithm.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
