Some of baseball’s top stars from the steroid age are once again up for consideration on this year’s BBWAA Hall of Fame ballots for 2017. Among them are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa. this year’s ballot includes 34 players carried over from last year’s ballot, including Jeff Bagwell, Trevor Hoffman, and Tim Raines. In addition, 19 newcomers are on the ballot, highlighted by the additions of Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, and Ivan Rodriguez.
Bagwell has a good shot of getting in this year after receiving 71.6 percent of the votes in 2016. He missed the Hall of Fame by 15 votes in a year that had a shoo-in first-timer in Ken Griffey Jr. How some of the new additions to the ballot impact players like Bagwell, Hoffman, and Raines, in his final year on the ballot, will remain to be seen.
Ramirez was quite a character during his career, most famously spent with Cleveland, Boston, and Los Angeles, but he produced like few could. Ramirez hit .312 over his career with 555 home runs, 1,831 RBI, 12 All-Star selections, and nine Silver Slugger awards. He was also a key part of the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox World Series championship teams and led the Dodgers to the NLCS in both 2008 and 2009.
Rodriguez, or “Pudge,” was one of the top catchers of his time with the Texas Rangers before making stops with the Marlins, Tigers, Yankees, Astros and Nationals. The 13-time Gold Glover was a 14-time All-Star and the 1999 AL MVP. Guerrero was a career .318 hitter with the Expos, Angels, Rangers, and Orioles with 449 home runs and 2,590 career hits. He could hit just about anything thrown his way it seemed. An eight-time Silver Slugger award winner and 2004 AL MVP, Guerrero also led the league in intentional walks five times and finished fifth place in all-time intentional walks.
Other newcomers to the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot are Casey Blake, Pat Burrell, Orlando Cabrera, Mike Cameron, J.D. Drew, Carlos Guillén, Derrek Lee, Melvin Mora, Magglio Ordóñez, Jorge Posada, Edgar Rentería, Arthur Rhodes, Freddy Sánchez, Matt Stairs, Jason Varitek, and Tim Wakefield.
The others returning to the ballot are Curt Schilling (52.3 percent), Roger Clemens (45.2), Barry Bonds (44.3), Edgar Martínez (43.4), Mike Mussina (43.0), Lee Smith (34.1), Fred McGriff (20.9), Jeff Kent (16.6), Larry Walker (15.5), Gary Sheffield (11.6), Billy Wagner (10.5) and Sammy Sosa (7.0). This will be the final year on the ballot for Lee Smith as well as Raines. If either doesn’t make it this year, they will have to wait for his time on the veterans committee ballot.
This year’s Hall of Fame class will be announced on January 18, 2017 and will be inducted on July 30, 2017.
