What our hypothetical Hall of Fame ballots look like (part 1)

For Schilling: six time All-Star, four times in the top four in Cy Young voting (including three times coming in second), nine seasons of 200+ innings pitched including four seasons of 250+ innings pitched, three seasons of 300+ strikeouts, five time leader in strikeout to walk ratio, 11-2 record with a 2.23 ERA in 19 career postseason starts.

Walker: six time Gold Glove winner, three time Silver Slugger Winner, ranked in MVP voting eight times including winning in 1997, .313/.400/.565 slashline, and (most importantly) a 141 OPS+ (so all the Coors Field haters can be quiet because OPS+ adjusts to park’s played in and the era played in).

McGriff: first off, if he there weren’t steroid users, his numbers would look even better. Five time All-Star, eight times ranking in MVP voting including five times in the top ten, eight seasons 100+ RBI plus another five seasons of 88 RBI or more, .284/.377/.509 slash line, 493 home runs, 134 OPS+.

Santana: he might surprise you the most of the ten I chose but if you look at his career numbers, his numbers are very similar to Sandy Koufax. Personally, I like about 8 “Hall of Fame seasons” but Santana was so dominant in about six so I include him. Three time ERA title winner, six seasons of 199+ innings pitched, lead the American League in strikeouts from 2004-2006 as well as the ERA+, FIP, WHIP, hits allowed per nine innings, and strikeouts per nine innings titles in those seasons. He also won the Cy Young Award in ’04 and ’06 plus four more seasons in the top seven in Cy Young voting.

I would also vote for Santana in my hypothetical vote as he very well could drop off the ballot with the five percent rule. According to Ryan Thibodaux’s HOF tracker, Santana has garnered three votes, or 1.7% of the ballots that have been publicly released (which is 42.0%).