Baseball Hall of Fame: The Future

While the BBWAA did a good job with the Hall of Fame voting yesterday inducting Alomar and Blyleven, I still feel there are several guys on the ballot who should also be going in. While Edgar Martinez and Fred McGriff unfortunately went down in voting, Barry Larkin, Lee Smith, and Tim Raines had good showings.

So one thing I often wonder who currently playing will be future members of the Hall of Fame. As I sit here watching Big Bang Theory (and soon 30 Rock) I decided I'd go team by team to see who will one day be going to Cooperstown. I decided to break it down by "Future" Hall of Famers, "Too Early to Tell", and "I'd Listen to an Argument About". "Future" implies more or less locks, "Too Early" is for guys who have already done well for some time but don't have nearly enough credentials yet, and "I'd Listen to an Argument" are for those borderline guys.

For "Too Early to Tell", the plays have to have been around and doing well for some time as opposed to a early in his career guy. For example, it is "too early to tell" about Felix Hernandez but I won't even classify David Price into that category for another couple years.

Free agents are listed under last years team.

Yankees
Future Hall of Famers: Jeter, Rivera, A-Rod (yes, I know he juiced)
Too Early to Tell About: Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, (maybe?) Robinson Cano
I'll Listen to an Argument About: Andy Pettitte (yes, juiced), Jorge Posada

Red Socks
Future: None
Too Early: Youkilis, Pedroia, (maybe?) Crawford
Arguments: Ortiz

Rays
Future: None
Too Early: Longoria
Arguments: Non

Orioles
Future: None
Too Early: None
Arguments: Derrek Lee

Blue Jays: No one on the Blue Jays will ever be in the Hall of Fame

Twins
Future: Jim Thome
Too Early: Mauer, Morneau
Arguments: None

White Sox
Future: Omar Vizquel, Manny Ramirez
Too Soon: None
Arguments: Paul Konerko

Tigers
Future: None
Too Early: Justin Verlander
Arguments: Johnny Damon, Magglio Ordonez

Indians: The only person on that team even worth talking about in any context is Shin Soo Choo

Royals: No Royal will even be in the HOF

Rangers
Future: Vlad Guerrero
Too Early: None
Arguments: Michael Young

Angels
Future: None
Too Early: None
Arguments: Bobby Abreu

A's: The A's stink

Mariners
Future: Ichiro
Too Early: Felix Hernandez
Arguments: None

Phillies
Future: Roy Halladay
Too Early: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee
Arguments: Jimmy Rollins, Roy Oswalt

Braves
Future: Chipper Jones
Too Early: Brian McCann
Arguments: Billy Wagner

Marlins: Too early on Hanley, everyone else stinks

Mets
Future: None
Too Early: David Wright, Johan Santan
Arguments: None

Nationals
Future: Ivan Rodriguez
Too Early: None
Arguments: None

Reds
Future: None
Too Early: Joey Votto
Arguments: Scott Rolen

Cardinals
Future: Pujols
Too Early: Matt Holliday
Arguments: None

Brewers
Future: Trevor Hoffman
Too Early: Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun
Arguments: None

Astros: They're horrible

Cubs: Also stink

Pirates: Even worse

Giants
Future: None
Too Early: Lincecum
Arguments: None

Padres-Stink

Rockies
Future: None
Too Early: Troy Tulo
Arguments: Todd Helton

Dodgers: Nada

Diamond Backs: More nothings.

So those the guys I think have a shot at the Hall of Fame. This is obviously subject to change (as I would have said Kevin Brown if this was 2002), but I feel pretty confident with these guys I listed.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 2011

Next Wednesday, the 5th, is the announcement for the 2011 class for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Last year I did some speculation about how I thought the vote would go, and I was pretty far off. My outlook at the Hall has changed pretty greatly since last year, so I wont bother linking my old thoughts. This year I'll once again talk about how I think the vote will go. I'll speculate how I think the writers will vote, and also how I'd handle it if I had a vote. You need 75% of the vote to be inducted.

Returning Players (Last year's vote %)

• Bert Blyleven (74.2%)
  Writers vote: Yes
  Personal vote: Yes
• Roberto Alomar (73.7%)
  Writers vote: Yes
  Personal vote: Yes
• Harold Baines (6.1%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No-Baines had very good numbers for his career. However, he is where I draw the line. Basically a player with his numbers isn't quite good enough, but a player who is superior should. That being said, I'd have no issue if he one day did make it.
• Jack Morris (52.3%)
  Writers votes: No
  Personal vote: No
• Barry Larkin (51.6%)
  Writers vote: Not this year, but eventually
  Personal vote: Yes
• Lee Smith (47.3%)
  Writers vote: Not this year, but eventually
  Personal vote: Yes
• Edgar Martinez (36.2%)
  Writers vote: Not this year, but eventually
  Personal vote: Yes-Edgar Martinez is my favorite baseball player of all time. Yes he was mostly a DH, but name one team in either league that wouldn't have wanted him there from the late 80's-04. His numbers would be even more impressive if he was batting 3rd in front of Griffey instead of the other way around.
• Tim Raines (30.4%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: Yes-If i had a ballot of over 10, Raines would be the one bumped. If he didn't spend the last third of his career as a bench player he'd be in easily, but that does hurt him
• Mark McGwire (23.7%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No-Those drugs enhanced him to put up hall of fame numbers, he wouldn't have done it on his own like others I believe would have. Shame, I liked him too.
• Alan Trammell (22.4%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No-Another one who just doesn't quite make it.
• Fred McGriff (21.5%)
  Writers vote: Not this year, possibly in the future
  Personal vote: Yes-Crime Dog has the numbers in an era of suspicion. And he should be in for "not hot dogging it". Google that phrase. Actually don't, just look at the glossary on FireJoeMorgan.com
• Don Mattingly (16.1%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No
• Dave Parker (15.2%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No
• Dale Murphy (11.7%)
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No

Players new to the ballot

• Raphael Palmeiro
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No-Another steroid guy who isn't deserving. 4 players have 500 homers AND 3000 hits. One won't make the Hall of Fame
• Jeff Bagwell
  Writers vote: Not this year but eventually
  Personal vote: No-STEROIDS, STEROIDS, STEROIDS, you have to be blind to not thing that. His career cashed at the end and he didn't put up those numbers without enhancement.
• Larry Walker
  Writers vote: Maybe, but probably not
  Personal vote: No-fantastic numbers in an era when everyone had fantastic numbers.
• John Franco
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No-I could be persuaded otherwise, but I don't think he'll get it.
• Juan Gonzalez
  Writers vote: No
  Personal vote: No-2 MVPs on steroids in a career that crashed and burned quickly.
• The other players on the ballot aren't really worth going into, they don't have much of a chance of even returning to the ballot next year.

So here is my hypothetical ballot:

1. Blyleven
2. Alomar
3. Larkin
4. Smith
5. Martinez
6. Raines
7. McGriff

2010 MLB Awards

The awards so far haven't been too upsetting, but I still need to weigh in on some of the results.

Silver Sluggers are all fine.

AL Gold Gloves
C: Joe Mauer
1b: Mark Teixeira
2b: Robinson Cano
3b: Evan Longoria
SS: Derek Jeter-OK, as a Yankee fan even I know this was stupid. He is awful at defense, but his fielding % was so high cause he doesn't make errors on balls he doesn't get to, and late throws aren't errors. BUT, since it's voted on by the league, not the writers, you can only blame the AL coaches and managers
OF: Carl Crawford
OF: Ichiro Suzuki
OF: Franklin Gutierrez-ok, Brett Gardner should have gotten one, he led the AL in dWarp
P: Mark Buehrle-If he didn't win it last year I'd say this was bull shit, but he did so he didn't just win it from his opening day play

NL Gold Gloves
C: Yadier Molina
1b: Albert Pujols
2b: Brandon Phillips
3b: Scott Rolen-Ok, I guess if Derek Jeter's corpse can win so can Rolen's. But trust me, if he didn't hit out of no where this year he'd not win it
SS: Troy Tylowitzki
OF: Michael Bourn-Yeah, I know he's fast but is he really that good at defense?
OF: Carlos Gonzalez-Offense wins Gold Gloves
OF: Shane Victorino-Ok, offense and past years success
P: Branson Arroyo-Sure, why not

NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay-Yes, he deserved it without question. But NOT ONE anti-Phillies writer voted this year? I mean even one person didn't vote for Mauer last year

NL Rookie of the Year: Buster Posey-Sure, he's a good white catcher.

AL Rookie of the Year: Neftali Feliz-Who wasted votes on Austin Jackson?

NL Manager of the Year: Bud Black-Correct!

AL Manager of the Year: Rob Gardenhire-OK, it's not quite as bad as Mike Scioscia winning last year, but Washington, Francona, and Maddon all had better cases

AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez-While I'd have no objection if CC or Price won, this was the right choice.

Still to come....

NL MVP: This should be Pujols but I have a feeling voters won't want to give it to him 3 years in a row because they're self richous. Votto was very good, but I'll take Pujols over him any day.

AL MVP: There are 3 correct choices for this. But one is a Yankee, one is an alcoholic who is on a non-playoff team, and one is a born-again Christian who kicked his nasty drug and alcohol habits. Guess who will win?

ALCS Recap/World Series Preview

Now you're probably thinking, "Gee Brian, the Yankees lose a series and you take your sweet time posting about it? Don't the Rangers deserve some praise? You're just bitter". If you are thinking that, you are correct. I am bitter. I'm miserable. The Yankees we're HORRIBLE that whole series and I didn't want to talk about it. Kudos to the Rangers, enjoy your rings (more on that below). It'll be interesting to see what kind of panic mode the Yankees go into this off season (Phillies too).

So here is my last baseball post of the season. I might chime in about the awards, but this Series is very uninteresting to me (as a baseball fan, not as a bitter Yankee fan) so I'll so my match up and then it'll be back to me talking about TV shows you don't watch.

Catcher: Bengie Molina vs. Buster Posey. Advantage: Giants. They dumped Molina for Posey this season, and Posey is tearing it up so far in October
First Base: Mitch Moreland vs. Aubrey Huff. Advantage: Giants. A better choice for Comeback Player of the Year, Huff hit well all year and has kept it up.
Second Base: Ian Kinsler vs. Freddy Sanchez. Advantage: Rangers. Rangers are just better there.
Third Base: Michael Young vs. Jaun Uribe. Advantage: Rangers. See above.
Short Stop: Elvis Andrus vs. Edgar Renteria. Advantage: Rangers. See above.
Left Field: Nelson Cruz vs. Pat Burrell. Advantage: Rangers. Yep, still better.
Center Field: Josh Hamilton vs. Andres Torres. Advantage: Rangers. Not even close.
Right Field: David Murphy vs. Cody Ross. Advantage: Even. Both are having really good post seasons.
DH: Vlad Guerrero vs. Pablo Sandoval. Advantage: Rangers. Again, not really close.
Starting Pitching: Even. It's pretty close all around, Lee and Lincecum match up, as do Cain/Wilson and Lewis/Sanchez.
Bullpen: Rangers. One bad outing for the Rangers against the Yanks but other than that it went fine.
Closer: Neftali Feliz vs. Douchebag Wilson. Advantage: Rangers. Yeah, I hate Wilson, and I've seen him implode and haven't seen Feliz do it. I'm sold.
Bench: Rangers. Giants use Uribe, Renteria, Fontenot, and Sandoval in platoon roles, while the Rangers guys are solid there and know their role. Might sound weird, but I'll take the bench players over the fill in "starters".

Overall Advantage: Rangers. Even pitching and they can actually hit the ball. Rangers in 5.

ALCS Game Five

No time for this, Yanks did what they need to. That made me happy

ALCS Game Four

This damn team doesn't deserve to win shit. Thank God Cano, Jeter, and Gardner are getting on base at least.

ALCS Game Three

Thank god the image uploading is down on this site because yesterday's game was brutal. I will say Pettitte pitched one of the best games of his career to waste, and I know Lee is good, but yesterday was just pathetic. Here are the "Bucks"

Yankees

Andrew Eugene Pettitte: 4 Bucks. Yes he got the loss so normally I'd give him three, but he was the ONLY bright light for the Yankees yesterday and gave up 2 runs on 2 shit swings. Hamilton was just strong enough to poke it over on a great pitch. As far as I'm concerned he gave up no runs.
Yankees Offense: 0 Bucks. That was just disgraceful
Yankees Bullpen: 0 Bucks. See above

Rangers

Cliff Lee: 4 Bucks. That was pretty impressive to say the least.
Michael Young: 4 Bucks. He's one of my favorites and very underrated, showed why yesterday.
Every hitter who came up in the 9th: 3 Bucks. It'd be 4 but 3 had to make outs along the way.

ALCS Game Two

Crappy game from the Yankee's fan perspective. Lee-Pettitte should be good tomorrow. Here are the Bucks


Yankees


Robinson Cano

At least one Yankee was showing life at the plate.

Yankees Bullpen

Joba, Robertson, Logan, Mitre....5 innings, 2 hits

Phil Hughes

Just the complete opposite of his ALDS outing

Rangers

Rangers Bullpen

3 and a third, one hit, huge improvement

Colby Lewis

First time facing the Yankees since 2003...I think he did alright

David Murphy

Big homer...but pinch hit for?

ALCS Game One

Wow. What a come back. One of the best innings I've seen the Yankees put up since 8th inning, Game 7 2003 ALCS. But that game is done, now it's time to focus on game 2 later today.

New face time awards, going with a Baltimore theme. A manager who turned the Yankees around in the early 90's and the Rangers around in the late 90's.

Yankees

Yankees Bullpen

Joba, Mosley, Wood, Mo....5 scoreless innings.

Brett Gardner


Great hustle to lead off the inning, pressure never went away.

CC Sabathia

Well let's hope his next outing is a bit better.

Rangers

Derek Holland

Only Rangers reliever to shut down the Yanks, came up big when they needed him to.

CJ Wilson

Great start, but went to waste unfortunately for him.

Rangers Bullpen not named Derek Holland

2 relievers, 2 pitches, 3 runs.

ALCS Preview

Yankees-Rangers start tonight, here's my breakdown.

Catcher: Jorge Posada vs. Bengie Molina, Advantage: Yankees. Molina had a good DS series and is valuable, but I'll take Posada's bat in any series.
First Base: Mark Teixeira vs. Mitch Moreland, Advantage: Yankees. Not really too close.
Second Base: Robinson Cano vs. Ian Kinsler, Advantage: Yankees. Probably one of the closer match ups but Cano might be the MVP (but probably not) and Kinsler is inconsistant.
Third Base: Alex Rodriguez vs. Michael Young, Advantage: Yankees. Just like in the DS, Young is very good but doesn't quite match up with the likes of Longoria and A-Rod
Short Stop: Derek Jeter vs. Elvis Andrus, Advantage: Yankees. Maybe next year this would go the other way but Jeter walks more so the OBP at the top of the order will help.
Left Field: Brett Gardner vs. Nelson Cruz, Advantage: Rangers. Cruz hits for very good power, and a high average.
Center Field: Curtis Granderson vs. Josh Hamilton, Advantage: Rangers. Hamilton WILL be the MVP.
Right Field: Nick Swisher vs. Jeff Franceour, Advantage: Yankees. Swish had a great DS after a great season.
Designated Hitter: Lance Berkman/Marcus Thames vs. Vald Guerrero, Advantage: Rangers. Guerrero is much better than either of the Yanks options.
Starting Pitching, Advantage: Rangers. Wilson, Lee, Lewis...one of the better rotations in baseball.
Bullpen, Advantage: Even. Yankees didn't really get a chance to use their pen too much while the Rangers did. The pen's will be very important in the best of 7 series.
Closer: Mariano Rivera vs. Neftali Feliz, Advantage: Yankees. It's Mo.
Bench, Advantage: Rangers. Rangers have some guys on their bench who are possible starters (Cantu, Murphy), Yankees bench doesn't get much use.

I don't like to do predictions with the Yankees. While the Yanks might seem to have more in their favor, where the Rangers excel they are very, very good.

NLCS Preview

Championship Series are set, I'll do my best to talk about the NLCS here between the San Francisco Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies

Catcher: Buster Posey vs. Carlos Ruiz, Advantage: Even. Both aren't bad, I like the spark from Posey and the experience from Ruiz. Call it even.
First Base: Aubrey Huff vs. Ryan Howard, Advantage: Phillies. Huff is the lone star in SF's line up, Howard is better.
Second Base: Freddy Sanchez vs. Chase Utley, Advantage: Phillies. Utley is better, nothing else to it.
Third Base: Pablo Sandoval vs. Placido Polanco, Advantage: Phillies. Kung Fu Panda is struggling, and that'll bring him down more than Polanco's injuries.
Short Stop: Juan Uribe vs. Jimmy Rollins, Advantage: Phillies. J-Roll can hit for power just as well as Uribe, but Rollins is a much better base runner.
Left Field: Pat Burrell vs. Raul Ibanez, Advantage: Phillies. Close, but Ibanez is pretty good at coming up big in October (at least he was last year)
Center Field: Andres Torres vs. Shane Victorino, Advantage: Phillies. Victorino is just much better...not much to it.
Right Field: Cody Ross vs. Jason Werth, Advantage: Phillies. Ross had a great first series...but Werth is better...yet again.

Starting Pitching, Adantage: Phillies. Giants pitched GREAT in the DS, Halladay gave up no hits in 9 innings. When Roy Oswalt makes your bad start you're in pretty good shape
Bullpen: Even. I'd say that the Giants have a better pen, but it wasn't amazing in the series and the Phillies didn't use theirs really.
Closer: Brian Wilson vs. Brad Lidge, Advantage: Giants. I gotta give the Giants at least something on this. That being said, it is pretty close to even.

Series Prediction: Phillies in 5. The match ups say it all.

ALDS Game Three

I've been super busy the past couple days so I haven't had the time to do this recap. Pretty busy now, so it'll stay short. Nice to see a relaxing series win, hoping the Yanks get to have the same thing happen next series. Here are the last Roy's:

Twins

Orland Hudson

At least someone on the Twins was able to drive in a run

Denard Span

Two hits, deserves some mention

Brian Duensing

See you next year

Yankees

Marcus Thames

Another DH coming up with a big homer

Nick Swisher

Couple hits including a homer, nice way to end the series

Phil Hughes

7 Innings, 4 hits, one walk, 6k's...pretty good I guess