24 newcomers, who played their last major league game in 2007, are on this year’s ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame. \u00a0Balloting started yesterday and runs through December 31st, with the results announced on January 9th, 2013. \u00a0Here’s my quick read on the chances of these first timers.<\/p>\n
Sandy Alomar Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n The former White Sox backstop had a very good career and will likely get enough support to stick around on the ballot, but he will not be joining his brother in the Hall.<\/p>\n Craig Biggio<\/strong><\/p>\n The career Astro might have to wait a few years, but he will eventually be enshrined.<\/p>\n Barry Bonds<\/strong><\/p>\n And this is where things get interesting. \u00a0Bonds was a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer when, by all accounts, he got jealous of the amount of attention being heaped on Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. \u00a0Barry responded by ingesting enough steroids to make his head grow three sizes, and because of that he is likely to spend the next few years, if not forever, on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n Jeff Cirillo<\/strong><\/p>\n Royce Clayton<\/strong><\/p>\n Likely to become the newest members of the zero vote club.<\/p>\n Roger Clemens<\/strong><\/p>\n Clemens initially retired following the 2003 season, and had he stayed retired, he would have been easily elected on the first ballot. \u00a0Unfortunately for him, he unretired, came back with the Astros, and got himself entangled in the whole steroids scandal and a lawsuit with his former trainer. \u00a0Like Bonds, he is likely to be held up as an example.<\/p>\n Jeff Conine<\/strong><\/p>\n Steve Finley<\/strong><\/p>\n These two are not likely to get enough votes to stay on the ballot.<\/p>\n Julio Franco<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely\u00a0not a Hall of Famer, but will likely get enough support to stay on the ballot for a few years.<\/p>\n Shawn Green<\/strong><\/p>\n Roberto Hernandez<\/strong><\/p>\n Solid players, but not Hall of Fame material.<\/p>\n Ryan Klesko<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope<\/p>\n Kenny Lofton<\/strong><\/p>\n Jose Mesa<\/strong><\/p>\n Former Indian teammates that I think will both get some, but not a lot, support.<\/p>\n Mike Piazza<\/strong><\/p>\n Of the supposed sure-fire inductees, Piazza may have the easiest road. \u00a0His connection to the steroid scandal seems tenuous at best, so he may get in ahead of players who were thought to be above him.<\/p>\n Reggie Sanders<\/strong><\/p>\n No<\/p>\n Curt Schilling<\/strong><\/p>\n Schilling will be an interesting case. \u00a0His post-season success will likely bode well for him, as will spending some time in Boston, as that seems to be the main justification for electing Jim Rice. \u00a0However, he certainly has had his detractors, and his post-baseball financial ruin may work against him.<\/p>\n Aaron Sele<\/strong><\/p>\n No<\/p>\n Sammy Sosa<\/strong><\/p>\n The former Cub and White Sox outfielder finds himself in a similar position as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. \u00a0The main difference being that those two would likely have been Hall of Famers had they never gotten involved with steroids. \u00a0In my opinion, the same cannot be said of Sammy Sosa. \u00a0His Hall of Fame candidacy hinges on the home runs he hit while under the influence of performance enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n Mike Stanton<\/strong><\/p>\n Todd Walker<\/strong><\/p>\n No<\/p>\n David Wells<\/strong><\/p>\n Wells will likely get some support, thanks to his time in Yankee pinstripes and the perfect game, but not enough to gain enshrinement.<\/p>\n Rondell White<\/strong><\/p>\n Woody Williams<\/strong><\/p>\n Sorry, but, again, no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 24 newcomers, who played their last major league game in 2007, are on this year’s ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame. \u00a0Balloting started yesterday and runs through December 31st, with the results announced on January 9th, 2013. \u00a0Here’s my quick read on the chances of these first timers. Sandy Alomar Jr. The former White […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2781,113,395,2770,2780,2284,44,115,2771,2773,388,2777,2774,2449,56,2778,2167,258,2779,2597,396,2782,2772,2776,397,899,2775,912,877,49,2783,51],"class_list":["post-2951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-aaron-sele","tag-astros","tag-barry-bonds","tag-craig-biggio","tag-curt-schilling","tag-david-wells","tag-hof","tag-indians","tag-jeff-cirillo","tag-jeff-conine","tag-jim-rice","tag-jose-mesa","tag-julio-franco","tag-kenny-lofton","tag-mark-mcgwire","tag-mike-piazza","tag-mike-stanton","tag-red-sox","tag-reggie-sanders","tag-roberto-hernandez","tag-roger-clemens","tag-rondell-white","tag-royce-clayton","tag-ryan-klesko","tag-sammy-sosa","tag-sandy-alomar-jr","tag-shawn-green","tag-steve-finley","tag-todd-walker","tag-white-sox","tag-woody-williams","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2952,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions\/2952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}