2018-19 Hot Stove Thread

[Blue in the Face]

Sorry, never really replied to this. The reason I asked about Beltre is his wondrous 2004 season. As we know, this is the height of the Barry Bonds era and Beltre was in a contract year. He put up numbers that year unlike anything else he would do again. If I'm remembering things correctly, the Dodgers declined to sign him to a long term deal so he left for the Mariners.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...eltrad01.shtml

Don't get me wrong, as a Dodgers fan I was a huge fan of Beltre in his early years. But he along with Shawn Green, Gary Sheffield, and Eric Gagne were all supposedly on the list:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...eroids-in-2003

Being on that list didn't hurt Pedro or IRod's HOF chances, and while neither of them had a single year as glaringly out of context as Beltre in 2004, I don't think it's going to affect him either. (And IRod drew a lot more PED whispers throughout his career than Beltre). I'm confident he's a first ballot guy, barring solid PED evidence coming out.

But speaking of the Hall of Fame, here's a guy who doesn't think Mo belongs - nothing specific to Mo, he thinks the closer role is much too limited for anyone to be valuable enough to be a Hall of Famer. (He also hasn't voted for Edgar, but that seems to be less about being a DH than about simply not being good enough). I do think the closer role is overrated, but I disagree with how far he's taken it, but that's not what I find strangest about his article. He thinks Mo might be the first player to be elected unanimously (I think he's almost certainly wrong about that, but whatever) and he doesn't want to spoil the party, so he's not going to vote at all this year. I mean, what? If he genuinely thinks Mariano isn't a hall of famer, he should vote that way. He certainly shouldn't bow out to bump up the voting % of an undeserving player. That seems pretty weird to me.

https://www.telegram.com/news/201812...l-of-fame-vote