Tuesday proved a rough day for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the all-time greats who have been kept out of Cooperstown due to very strong evidence that they used illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens went up just 2.2 percent in Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting, from 57.3 to 59.5, and Bonds 2.7, from 56.4 to 59.1. With only three years left in their Baseball Hall of Fame candidacies, they’ll need major gains to reach 75 percent. Larry Walker must make quite a push to be the 2020 version of Edgar Martinez. The Mariners’ designated hitter, Martinez rose from 70.4 percent last year to 85.4 percent in this, his final year on the writers’ ballot. Walker, the five-tool player on the Expos, Rockies and Cardinals, will take a 54.6 percent showing into his last shot next year. If he gains the same 20.5 percent that he did this time, then he’ll squeak into the Hall. Could Derek Jeter enter unaccompanied next year when he debuts on the ballot? The controversial Curt Schilling did the best among runners-up with 60.9 percent. He’ll have to pick up even more ground than he did this year (9.7 percent) to join Jeter. Fred McGriff completed his 10-year run with his best results, 39.8 percent. He seems a cinch to quickly gain entrance through the Veterans Committee, as he’ll be rewarded for the industry-wide belief that he didn’t use illegal PEDs. Todd Helton (16.5 percent) joined Andy Pettitte (9.9) as first-year players who stuck. All other returnees — Omar Vizquel (42.8), Manny Ramirez (22.8), Jeff Kent (18.1), Scott Rolen (17.2), Billy Wagner (16.7), Gary Sheffield (13.6), Sammy Sosa (8.5) and Andruw Jones (7.5) — cleared the 5 percent hurdle to gain 2020 consideration.<doc-sep>The Baseball Hall of Fame is a polarizing topic when it comes to who should be in and who doesn't deserve it, for whatever reason. Many disagree, but I quite enjoy poring over the case of every player worthy of discussion, even if we spend four weeks every year for a decade talking about someone such as Fred McGriff. It's not like we have much else to do when it comes to baseball from mid-December to late-January. I became a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America during the 2015 winter meetings and I don't get a vote until I've been a member for 10 years, so I'm still seven votes away. That means what follows is a "here's what my ballot would look like" and doesn't actually count. That also means that when someone doesn't like who I would've voted for, he or she gets to act all clever and say something oh-so-original like "thank goodness you don't have a vote! I hope you never get one!" It stings, I tell ya. Seriously, though, until I do get a vote, I'm going to go through the process every year so I'm in practice for my first vote. The first thing that needs to be considered is the PED issue. That's probably the most polarizing area of the Hall discussions these days and the rule I've set for myself is if a player was suspended under the Joint Drug Agreement with Major League Baseball and the Players Association, I will not vote for him. That eliminates one guy from this ballot: Manny Ramirez. Well, actually two including Miguel Tejada but he wouldn't have gotten a vote anyway. If a player was never suspended, I'm not going to try and figure out who did what and who didn't. If MLB didn't care, I don't. Sure, they told players not to take anything, but they didn't enforce it. If there was no such thing as a speed limit, someone going 55 in a 30 won't be punished and therefore it's basically legal and the limit is meaningless. I make zero apologies to the people who will inevitably get angry about this. With that rule in place, the top two spots on my ballot are incredibly easy: Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Just in looking at what they did on the field, they are inner-circle elite. Next up: The single greatest relief pitcher in the history of the game. Mariano Rivera is an easy yes. I've made the case before that an entire generation of pitchers aren't getting their due in the Hall and that remains the case. I think Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling belong (I made Schilling's case here). Roy Halladay in his first try gets a vote as well (his case here). Just like that, we're already more than halfway home. I'm a Big Hall guy -- that's what it already is, by the way, so don't fool yourself -- but I also don't feel like everyone voting for the maximum of 10 players would dilute the Hall. There are always disagreements on players and 75 percent is a big threshold. Still, it's possible that there's a lot of heavy lifting done in the coming years getting the ballot to the point where I no longer believe 10 players are worthy of a vote. We'll hit that later. Next up, two players in their 10th and final try: Fred McGriff (his case here)* and Edgar Martinez. On the latter, yes, Martinez was mostly a designated hitter, but there are players who were terrible fielders in the Hall, pitchers in the AL don't hit and closer is a specialty just like DH. Martinez's bat is Hall-worthy and that's all I care about. *You can argue that Todd Helton was better than McGriff, but it's the last chance to vote for McGriff and it's Helton's first year on the ballot. I don't care to compare them because the chance to vote for Helton will remain while this is the last shot at McGriff and I think McGriff has gotten an entirely unfair shake. Just like that, I'm down to my final two spots and it's time for a talk. Players such as Larry Walker and Scott Rolen have been darlings for the advanced metric types while Omar Vizquel appears a favorite of the old guard. I'm a mix of those, but I also can't shake the Hall of Fame and not Hall of WAR aspect. Sometimes the "he was feared" or "he was such a big deal" aspect is applied laughably, but I remember watching both of these guys in their prime and know what a huge deal they were. I'd vote for Sammy Sosa and Gary Sheffield. One of the main reasons is I remember Sosa in the 1998-2004 range and I just can't fathom voting for Walker over him. It's not like Sosa doesn't have the numbers. He hit over 600 home runs, he topped 60 in three different seasons and ranks 30th all-time with 1,667 RBI. Sheffield ranks 29th with 10 more RBI, owns a 140 OPS+ and hit 509 homers. Who among us never mimicked his batting stance with the fearful waggle? I know, I know ... that shouldn't count. But it kind of does a little, you know? And, again, I can't imagine going back in time to their primes and telling myself Rolen was more a Hall of Famer than Sheffield. If it was a binary ballot (just yes or no), I'd have additional yes spots for Walker, Rolen, Helton, Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent and Billy Wagner in that order. I guess I'd consider Vizquel, but he's far enough down my list I don't think he'll ever crack my top 10. The next best would be Andy Pettitte, Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt, but they miss the cut for me. It's worth mention that McGriff and Martinez are definitely coming off the ballot after this year and it looks like Rivera and Halladay will get in (along with Martinez) and only Derek Jeter is worthy among next year's first timers. That is to say, it looks like I'll have three open spots next year and will be adding Walker, Rolen and Helton. It's possible even Mussina gets in to open up a spot for Jones. Then again, Jones and/or Sosa might get five-percented off the ballot, too, meaning I'd be adding Kent and/or Wagner! Maybe I will have to nail down my feelings on Vizquel after all (I'm pretty sure I'm a no). Further, the 2021 first-year class is headlined by Tim Hudson and Mark Buehrle. Walker will have had his 10 years by then, too. It looks like the backlog will have finally been cleared. Until then, though, this would've been my 2019 ballot: Bonds Clemens Rivera Halladay Mussina Schilling Martinez Sosa Sheffield McGriff Feel free to tell me how awesome this ballot would've been on Twitter @MattSnyderCBS.<doc-sep>
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, the three most controversial names on the Hall of Fame ballot, didn’t get stamped into Cooperstown on Tuesday. That’s not a surprise. Nobody was really expecting they would, not given what we know about their candidacies, their previous results and what was on the 55 percent of ballots that were made public. But they did take a step in the right direction. Bonds and Clemens saw their vote totals improve again, while Schilling rebounded after taking a big dip in 2017. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling still aren’t in the Hall of Fame, but their 2019 vote results are encouraging. (Getty Images) • Bonds finished at 59.1 percent after last year’s 56.4 percent. • Clemens earned 59.5 percent after 57.3 percent last year. • Schilling rebounded in a big way, jumping from 51.2 percent in 2018 to 60.9 percent in 2019. This was the seventh year on the ballot for each of them. They’ll have three more years to try to reach the necessary 75 percent to get into Cooperstown. Here’s a look at their vote totals over the years: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling made progress in the Hall of Fame voting. (Yahoo Sports) With their current counts, they’re not quite on the doorstep waiting to get in next season, but they have made progress in recent years. Generally speaking, if a player can reach 70 percent, there’s a good chance they reach 75 percent the following year. Given this year’s results, Bonds, Clemens and Schilling should get closer, though they would need stronger boosts moving forward. If they can reach 70 percent next year, they’d be in line for inclusion in their ninth years on the ballot. If not, they could be lining up for the same final-year surge that got Edgar Martinez in this year. But if they can’t reach it by 2022, then they’ll have to hope to get into the Hall of Fame by a veterans committee, which is how Harold Baines and Lee Smith were chosen this year. That might even be a tougher crowd for Bonds and Clemens, as some Hall of Famers might be less forgiving about their connections to performance-enhancing drugs than baseball writers. – – – – – – Mike Oz is a writer at Yahoo Sports. Contact him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Story continues More Hall of Fame coverage from Yahoo Sports: • Hall of Fame adds four: Rivera, Halladay, Martinez and Mussina • Rivera becomes first-ever unanimous Hall selection • Bonds, Clemens, Schilling make progress toward Cooperstown • Jeter headlines star-studded 2020 ballot • The phone rang for Halladay, one of the greats