Colorado Rockies: My 2020 Mock Hall of Fame ballot

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DENVER – MAY 25: Larry Walker #33 of the Colorado Rockies throws the ball in from the outfield during the game against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field on May 25, 2003 in Denver, Colorado. The Rockies defeated the Giants 5-1. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /

The real Baseball Hall of Fame results will be released on Tuesday on MLB Network but starting today, we will look at some the mock Hall of Fame ballots for us here at Rox Pile.

For the last number of years, for me personally, I have had ten players on my mock Hall of Fame ballot. Really, I could have had plenty of more players had it not been for the Hall’s ten player limit, as I discussed in this article two years ago.

However, that is not the case for me this year. I was close to voting for ten but ultimately, I did not. I also submitted this vote a few weeks ago for our FanSided mock Hall vote and the results from that will be released on Monday.

I would only vote for nine players so let’s dive in.

The obvious picks (at least in my mind)

Derek Jeter

Is Derek Jeter one of the most overrated players in the history of baseball? Yes. Is he one of the most overrated players in the history of professional sports. Yes. Is he a Hall of Fame baseball player? The answer is still yes.

He is mainly overrated defensively but he did post eight seasons with an OPS+ of 124 or higher and eight seasons with a bWAR of 4.0 or higher and six more seasons between a 3.0 and 3.9 bWAR. That with his postseason track-record makes him a Hall of Famer.

Curt Schilling

You may not like his politics or his Twitter account but when he played, he was a Hall of Famer. He had nine seasons in which he had 168 or more innings and had an ERA+ of 134 or better. That coupled with his postseason track-record make it an obvious choice for me.

Larry Walker

If you’re reading this, you’re likely a Colorado Rockies fan. I don’t need to go into all of the reasons why he is a Hall of Famer but I will put it briefly.

Career 141 OPS+, career .313/.400/.565 slash line, ten seasons with a bWAR of 4.4 or higher, and he was an excellent defender even by using the defensive information that was available at the time he played (unlike Jeter, who really only got Gold Gloves because he played in New York and made flashy plays to his right). Need I say more?

LOS ANGELES – SEPTEMBER 19: Second baseman Jeff Kent #21 of the San Francisco Giants walks on the infield during the MLB game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 19, 2002 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers won 6-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) /

The next tier of players I would have on my ballot

For this next section, I am going to go by how high their vote has been in the past.

Jeff Kent

In my 2018 article with my mock ballot, I said that he would have been on my ballot had there not been a 10 player max. Now that the bottleneck has been cleared some, he would be on for me.

Nine seasons of 93 RBI or more (with seven of them coming while playing his home games in Candlestick Park, Pacific Bell Park (later known by about a million different names), and Dodger Stadium), a .290/.356/.500 career slash line, a career 123 OPS+ with a total of eight seasons of 123 or higher, and eight seasons of a 3.5 bWAR or higher. He also played well in the postseason.

I can see how some would leave him off the ballot but I think he’s a Hall of Famer.

Scott Rolen

He’s another player that I left off in 2018 but I would have added last year and he’d still be on this year. He very much has the “Larry Walker” complex to me. He was very underrated and he wasn’t consistently healthy so it has deterred some of his possible voters. However, he has already received a huge jump this year in Ryan Thibodaux’s HOF Tracker, much like Walker received last year.

Career bWAR of 70.2, eight seasons with an OPS+ of 125 or higher, an excellent defender (116 bDRS from 2003 to 2012), and ten seasons with a bWAR of 3.9 or higher. That defines a Hall of Famer to me.

Billy Wagner

I didn’t think he was a Hall of Famer back in 2018 and I was on the fence on him last year but I have changed my mind on him.

The career WHIP of 0.998 is a big thing plus his 11.9 career K/9 rate compared to the 3.0 BB/9 rate. Also, the career ERA+ of 187 and having five seasons with at least 66 appearances with an ERA+ of 196 or better makes him a Hall of Famer to me.

His postseason numbers are very alarming but it is a small sample size (11 2/3 IP).

Todd Helton

Like Larry Walker, he has largely been discounted because the “Coors” narrative. However, from 1998 to 2005, he was one of the most dominant players in baseball even with the park adjustments. In that span, he had an OPS+ of 149. He also had seven season with a bWAR of 4.5 or better and even on the back end of his career, he was still a good defender with 30 bDRS from 2003 to the end of his career (the DRS stat only goes back to 2003).

Overall, I don’t think he has as strong of a case as Walker does but that doesn’t negate the fact that he is a Hall of Famer.

SEATTLE, WA – JULY 22: Bobby Abreu #53 of the New York Mets heads home to score on an RBI triple off the bat of Travis d’Arnaud in the second inning against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field on July 22, 2014 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) /

Andruw Jones

By offense only, Andruw Jones is not a Hall of Famer to me as he only had four full seasons with an OPS+ of 120 or more (he had two more seasons but he only played 77 and 107 games in them).

However, his overall defense, WAR, and postseason play put him over the top for me. Eight seasons with a bWAR of 4.9 or more and 65 bDRS from 2003 through the rest of his career. In the postseason in his career, he played in 76 games and he hit .273/.363/.433. That puts him over.

Bobby Abreu

Abreu will have a tough time staying on the ballot on his first ballot this year but I think that, at bare minimum, he deserves a second look.

Career bWAR of 60.0, seven seasons with a bWAR of 5.2 or above, and nine full seasons with an OPS+ of 126 or higher deserves at least a second look. At least in the last half of his career, he was not a great defender but he played well in the limited postseason experience he had (20 games, .284/.392/.418 slash line).

There it is: my nine player ballot. But let’s look at some of the omissions.

SAN FRANCISCO – AUGUST 24: Barry Bonds #25 of the San Francisco Giants hits his 761st home run off of Chris Capuano the Milwaukee Brewers during the fourth inning of a game August 24, 2007 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Dino Vournas/Getty Images) /

Steroid guys

I am closest for Bonds and Clemens. In a way, I think that it is a privilege, not a right, for them to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They fairly obviously cheated in my mind but it was technically not proven. Years down the road, this will be a problem in light of recent events with the Astros and Red Sox and, at least as of now, if I had a vote, they wouldn’t be in because they blatantly cheated.

Bonds and Clemens have some of their things in the Hall of Fame museum but they don’t have a plaque. However, I do believe that both (especially Bonds) were on track to the Hall before they started using. I don’t have them on my ballot because with nine players on, I would still have to leave one off. To me, it’s either neither or both so, at least for now, it’s neither.

I’m not sure if I will have them on for next year but I am closer than I was when they first got on the ballot.

The others are a complete non-starter for me. Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Andy Pettitte, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, and others linked to steroids are a no-go for me.

The others

None of the other first timers besides Jeter and Abreu are even close for me either and probably all of the rest will be dropped off the ballot due to the five percent rule.

The only other player is Omar Vizquel. As I described in 2018 and on the Rox Pile Rockies Report podcast yesterday, Vizquel was my favorite player growing up. However, offensively, he was well below average and frankly, his defense is a bit overrated. Therefore, he’s not a Hall of Famer to me.

Podcast: Who do you think is a Hall of Famer?. dark. Next

In the coming days, we’ll have a few more of our mock ballots so stay tuned to see what some of the rest of us here at Rox Pile think.

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