There area a bunch of first-timers on the Hall of Fame ballot. Only a couple deserve to be selected in our humble estimation. Though there are a couple of interesting possibilities that somewhat confounded our rating system.

ATG: All-time Great, OEB: One of the era’s best, WATM: Wouldn’t Argue Too Much, NCA: No Compelling Argument For, NDMO: No Due To Moral Outrage.

Bobby Abreu, one of the best hitters of his era. Our case for induction here: https://thespitter.com/2019/12/10/bobby-abreus-case-for-the-hall/ OEG

Jason Giambi, At least he copped to cheating which is something. But a charade is a charade. NDMO

Derek Jeter SS All-time great Sustained excellence. One of the smartest ballplayers I’ve ever seen. Made the right decision even in the most unusual of circumstances. ATG

Cliff Lee. Cy Young Award winner. finished top-seven four other times. Only 143 wins. Career 4:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. OEB/WATM

Josh Beckett. Couple World Series titles. Nice career. Too many injuries NCA

Heath Bell, Five years of overuse by the Padres and three years of more than 40 saves. NCA

Eric Chávez, Good hitter, Good power.Gold glove winner. Would have had Scott Rolen-type numbers but injuries derailed career. NCA

Chone Figgins nice ball player. Did a lot of things pretty well but none exceptionally. NCA

Adam Dunn one of the best power hitters in the game for the first decade and a half of the 21st century but hit only .237 for a career. Remarkably similar to Dave Kingman, who isn’t in either. Sorry, man. NCA

Rafael Furcal pretty good hitter. Racked up the errors though. NCA

Raúl Ibañez. I love Ibañez because he did what it took to win. If there’s a HOF wing for winners, he’s in it. Otherwise his stats don’t warrant it. NCA

Paul Konerko .279 average, 439 HR, 1412 RBI are pretty similar to Carlos Beltran. I would think he’d be a veterans committee selection someday WATM

NCA: Carlos Peña light hitting catcher one Gold Glove , Brad Penny 4.29 ERA Occasionally great third starter.

J.J. Putz is an interesting case only because he had six seasons of ERAs in the twos, but as a middle reliever/closer, he has virtually no chance of being considered. A 3.08 ERA in 566 innings sounds pretty good until you consider the average starter eats up that number in three seasons. WATM/NCA

Brian Roberts one of the “I’m on the list so I have to admit to at least using it once” list. Thankfully his numbers are basically good to very good but don’t rise to a hall-of-fame discussion. NDMO

Alfonso Soriano not terrible at second base but not great. Was moved to the outfield for a reason. .270 average 412 HR .500 slugging. Almost refused to walk. Hit .255 with runners in scoring position. Only 40 HR/40SB player not on the Mitchell Report. Man he started off like he was Cooperstown bound. WATM but more likely a NCA

José Valverde six year stretch led the league in saves three times and a 3.27 career ERA. For closers though the standard is high. If Billy Wagner with a career ERA a full run lower isn’t in ain’t nobody getting in. NCA