Padres in the Hall of Fame? — Votes take place in two weeks

One of the great second basemen ever, Roberto Alomar started his career with the Padres in 1988 before being traded to the Blue Jays in the deal that brought Fred McGriff to San Diego. (AP file photo)

On the outside, looking in.  That’s what I’m feeling right now by knowing that voting is going to take place in two weeks for the 2010 class of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

I can’t vote.  I’m not a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).  Only reporters who have been in the BBWAA for 10 or more consecutive years are eligible to vote.  Even though I’ve been a journalist for nearly 30 years and a fan of the game for even longer, I won’t receive an official ballot.

But I have a column on SDNN.com and that qualifies me to share my opinion as to who the elitist BBWAA members should send to Cooperstown.

First, an explanation of the BBWAA voting rules.  Voters can cast votes for up to 10 candidates.   Any candidate who receives votes on at least 75 percent of the ballots is inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Candidates who receive less than 5 percent of the vote are dropped from the ballot but can be considered years down the road by the Veteran’s Committee.  A candidate receiving more than 5 percent of the vote can stay on the ballot a maximum of 15 years.

Related: More from Salazar | SDNN Padres coverage

With that groundwork set, let’s look at who received more than 5 percent of the vote the last time around: Andre Dawson (67 percent), Bert Blyleven (62.7 percent), Lee Smith (44.5 percent), Jack Morris (44 percent), Tim Raines (22.6 percent), Mark McGwire (21.9 percent), Alan Trammell (17.4 percent), Dave Parker (15 percent), Don Mattingly (11.9 percent), Dale Murphy (11.5 percent) and Harold Baines (5.9 percent).

Now, here are the players who are eligible to be on the ballot by virtue of playing Major League Baseball for 10 years and being retired for the past five seasons:

Paul Abbott, Roberto Alomar, Kevin Appier, Andy Ashby, Danny Bautista, Brian Boehringer, Darren Bragg, Dave Burba, Ellis Burks, Greg Colbrunn, Mike Fetters, Brook Fordyce, Andres Galarraga, Karim Garcia, Tom Goodwin, Ricky Gutierrez, Jimmy Haynes, Pat Hentgen, Sterling Hitchcock, Mike Jackson, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Barry Larkin, Curt Leskanic, Josias Manzanillo, Edgar Martinez,  Brent Mayne, Fred McGriff, Mark McLemore, Shane Reynolds, David Segui, Scott Service, Chris Stynes, Scott Sullivan, Todd Van Poppel, John Vander Wal, Robin Ventura, Fernando Vina, Turk Windell and Todd Zeile.

Again, the names in the paragraph above are eligible but that doesn’t mean every one of them will be on the ballot.  Darn, no chance of seeing former Friars Gutierrez, Boehringer, Hitchcock, Vander Wal, Lankford, or Ashby being inducted.  But a couple of other former Padres will get a serious look, with one looking like a first-ballot inductee.

That would be Robbie Alomar (Padres: 1988-90).  His statistics among all second baseman are outstanding.  He ranks sixth in hits, seventh in runs and 10^th in RBI.  The 12-time All Star also earned 10 Gold Gloves, more than any other person who played his position.

As for Fred McGriff (Padres: 1991-93)?  He will likely receive support on 10-15 percent of the ballots and will probably be on the ballot for the better part of the next decade.  Compared to the 12 first basemen in the Hall of Fame, he would rank fifth in home runs (493), and fourth in runs scored.   I just don’t sense a great deal of support for McGriff and he may be overshadowed in the next few years when Jeff Bagwell and Jim Thome become Hall of Fame eligible.

One new name who will get significant support, but fall short of first ballot induction, is Barry Larkin.  His offensive numbers as a shortstop rank 12^th in hits, ninth in runs and 12^th in RBI.  Those numbers are almost in line with Alan Trammel whose HOF voting total has remained flat over the years.

A returning candidate, whose support has been increasing, is Andre Dawson.  I believe this is the year “The Hawk” finally gets in.

Because of the BBWAA rules, I won’t be able to vote in 2013 either when Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza become eligible.  But I will be able to write about it and when I do: keep young children off the Internet.  Here is why: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa will also be first-time candidates.

Vic Salazar is a veteran San Diego journalist and and SDNN columnist.

Tags: Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin, Baseball Hall of Fame, Fred McGriff, mark mcgwire, Roberto Alomar, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, SDNN, SWRNN, Vic Salazar

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Baseball, Padres, Sports, Sports Opinion . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.