Hall of Fame 2018

Jones and Thome are the only no brainers. I agree with most of your choices except for Sosa. I think Bonds, Ramirez, and Clemens should get in despite the PEDs because they were clearly HOF level players before the PEDs. I'm not as certain about Sosa. 

I like Larry Walker even with the Colorado factor because he won 7 gold gloves. Defense tends to be discounted way too much. 

Vlad might be my favorite non-Brewer of all time

Maybe I'm impressionable, but I can't get over the PED thing.

I so enjoyed the Maguire/Sosa HR Derby in (what year was it?) and I still feel a bit cheated by it as being a fraud.

I don't really get worked up about PEDs as I look at the fact that every generation of baseball player has tried to find ways to cheat the system in order to gain an advantage to perform better. From dried monkey testicle elixirs to spitballs to nail files to thumbtacks to bent eyelets of gloves to wedding rings to sandpaper to greenies to red juice to stealing signs to altering the field to corked bats to superballs to PEDs. 

There's a helluva lot of cherished Hall of Fame stars, that have cheated in various ways in order to try win and be better than their peers. I don't think PEDs are all that different than the ways in which players have pushed the envelope to get a leg up.

But, to each his own.

El-Ka-Bong posted:

Vlad might be my favorite non-Brewer of all time

I love dominant pitchers. That I played catcher throughout my baseball playing career (ending as a walk on in college so I could basically be a bullpen catcher and ruin my knees without seeing much action! What a deal!), probably plays into it.

Can't pick one, but the 3 pitchers of different ERAs for me are

Nolan Ryan. Just for the pure adrenaline rush of watching him throw. That fastball of his that looked like it accelerated half way to the plate. And knowing any night he could throw a no-no. I would have done anything to catch him for 1/2 inning. I just wanted to know what that fastball looked like up close. I wanted to know how much that hurt to catch. Saw his 300th win at County Stadium (and Yount's 3000th hit!)

Pedro Martinez. Every single time he took the mound was must watch TV. His 7 years from 97-03 is freaking NUTS!

118-36, 2.20 ERA, 213 ERA+, 2.26 FIP, 0.940 WHIP

Clayton Kershaw. I love watching him throw. Just makes it look so damn effortless. His 7 years from 11-17 is almost identical to Pedro's. 

118-41, 2.10 ERA, 179 ERA+, 2.36 FIP, .913 WHIP

Blair Kiel posted:

Maybe I'm impressionable, but I can't get over the PED thing.

I so enjoyed the Maguire/Sosa HR Derby in (what year was it?) and I still feel a bit cheated by it as being a fraud.

Same here. I know those players will eventually get in once the voters past the PED thing but for me I am not ready for those players to get in.   Anyhow of the PED guys you mentioned I am very on the fence about Sosa. He was a decent player but not great until PED's and then he blew up.

CAPACKFAN95, I was just a big of a Nolan Ryan fan.  I had a ticket for the game when he got win 300 but I had to give up the ticket because I had to work

I was able to see a really cool thing a few years ago when I toured the Louisville Slugger factory and museum in Louisville.  They had a catcher enclosed in class and on the screen they had several pitchers throwing the ball to give you an idea of how fast they threw.  When I was there the pitchers on the screen were Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.   If that ball was close to the real speed I honestly don't know how anyone ever hit one of their pitches.

This is a catchers view of a Nolan Ryan fastball 😳🔥pic.twitter.com/g5zlw6UI5D

— Baseball King™ (@BasebaIlKing) January 5, 2018

Seems like as good a place for this as any.

One of my favorite at bats was Randy Johnson vs. John Kruk in the All Star Game.  Kruk was bailing out of the batters box and yet still swinging.  Johnson was laughing on the mound.  4 pitches and Kruk was out of there.  He wanted nothing to do with Johnson. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYXTV51GdUs