biggentleben

Technically, Hrbek wasn't in any displays while I was there this summer, thankfully. That would have ruined the trip, but I'm sure they possess pictures and even some memorabilia of his career. So, here's something fun to learn...fully 1/3 of the BBWAA had never visited the Hall of Fame as of a poll taken the year before Bonds and Clemens were on the ballot. So we're entrusting people to determine who should be part of a museum who do not have enough of a stake to have even visited the place ONCE! I don't exactly hold their "private organization" in high regard for deciding much of anything, frankly.

Also realize that the revenue sports fund those that do not create revenue. So sports like cross country and swimming in most schools are completely funded by sports like basketball and football. So, you wouldn't be able to have a 1/1 relationship with dollars earned from the game to the dollars available to the athletes within that particular sport. Also, why would the QB on the football team deserve to get paid but a swimmer not, even if his/her sport isn't revenue-generating? That's where this all gets into quite a bit of a quagmire.

I did do a lot of research on this outside of this discussion and published an article on my site today on the HOF: http://tomahawktake.com/2016/01/11/is-the-hall-of-fame-already-tainted/

Ding, ding, ding! The U of M had no problem pushing me so hard that I had no time to see my personal eye doc, or even a non team doc, but as soon as surgeries began, they had no idea who I was. I'm certainly not even tan, so it wasn't a race thing to exploit me. It's how it happens. Funny thing is, I'd have done about 90% of it all the same given the same opportunity, even knowing it'd be the exact same outcome with my eyes to end things in the end of it.

But they're not apples to apples. Manny Ramirez will be on the HOF ballot. He was suspended twice for failing a PED test. Pete Rose violated one of the "do not pass Go, do not collect $200" rules of the game by gambling on the game while being employed in the game.

Of course, Revere was hitting 9th in the Toronto lineup after he was acquired last year. Who knows if he'll end up leading off in Washington.

Wonderful, but for the BASEBALL HALL OF FAME, it doesn't matter. If the Black Sox had bet thousands of dollars on horse racing on the side with illegal gamblers and been convicted for that, they'd all still be eligible for the Hall of Fame (and many in it). If Pete Rose had bet on the Bengals with a bookie and got thrown in jail for it instead of betting on baseball, he'd still be a criminal, but he'd be in the Hall of Fame. If you weren't caught doing it by baseball, you retain all eligibility for the Hall of Fame, and your candidacy from that point forward should be based on where you ranked among your peers and among the greats of the game.

When healthy, the Nationals have a pretty stout lineup as well with Harper, Rendon, Werth, Zimmerman, Murphy, etc. It's not Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion, but the Blue Jays also don't have Scherzer, Strasburg, Gonzalez, and even Joe Ross.

Wouldn't work. Needs more Duensing.

But he was never proven to have taken anything by MLB testing. I can assume a lot of things about a lot of people, but for all we know, he was constantly taking things that weren't technically banned the entire time and wouldn't have ever been suspended.

The issue we also see is guys like McGwire, who used andro, and Sosa, who used Creatine, both admitting a PED usage, but it wasn't a steroid. There are lots of PEDs that aren't steroids, so a lot of these players could have technically been playing within the rules the entire time. That's where the CBA, player's union, and major league baseball are all culpable to some degree for the issue with the Hall of Fame right now, and why I really think that you cannot rail on the players for doing what was permitted within their particular era, whether it was utilizing amphetamines and steroids before they were specifically banned, or utilizing non-steroid PEDs until PED testing expanded the definition of a PED from simply a steroid to the broader-termed performance-enhancing drug (I'd actually more accurately consider it a PES, as it's a performance enhancing substance, with many of the items utilized as a cream or powder rather than a pill or injection form). I do not defend the use of steroids, even though there are even medically-viable uses for testosterone-based anabolic steroids under a doctor's supervision for many aging men who suffer from issues with rapid loss of testosterone in their system. There are a number of items on the PED list I believe could be utilized in a safe and effective manner if teams were willing to invest in the medical care and oversight to do such, but they can be abused if unsupervised, and most players aren't willing to go to a point where their teams control the level of their lives probably necessary to make those PEDs viably legal in the sport. However, there are some that I just don't understand, like HGH, that could be of huge benefit to players, would require minimum oversight, and could help the health of the players in the game, but no one wants to make the effort to research how to utilize them in a healthy way.

Not angry at all. He went from notorious pitchers leagues in the minors where some of the best power hitters in the game have had single digit home run seasons to one of the more generous home run parks in the majors. Add in better conditioning that he'd likely never received before that point in his life as it was revolutionary to the game, and turning doubles to homers in the minors to majors transition was a real and fairly common thing in that time.

Eh, no worries. He's going to get a ring, so might as well celebrate the move. I'm just glad he didn't end up on another NL East team or the Cardinals because I enjoy cheering for Span. I strongly wanted the Braves and Twins to match up on him when he was traded. Instead, they signed BJ Upton after the Twins insisted on JR Graham for Span. Just think of how different things could be right now!

I think you missed it on the last page.

Um, you maybe need to talk with guys like Brad Culpepper and Nick Hardwick about why NFL players frequently drop massive weight after leaving the game, because it really has nothing to do with steroids.

It's still not a violation of anything, however weak you view the argument, though. If the substance wasn't specifically banned and the player did not test positive, it's complete speculation.

Having watched Upton for a couple seasons quite closely with the Braves, the guy is massively streaky. I'd noticed it on my fantasy teams before, but I assumed that was simply the hypersensitivity to statistical sway in a short sample in fantasy sports, but it's no joke with JUp. He seriously will go in a funk where he cannot hit anything at all, and then he'll seemingly be the absolute rock star of the entire league for a couple weeks in a row. In the end, he puts up solid numbers overall, but he's like having Mitch Williams as your closer. Sure, the job gets done quite frequently, but you're usually sent to an early grave from the added stress to your heart that he brings to your team. The worst part is that now that he's getting truly big money, no manager in their right mind would sit him without an injury, no matter how bad his slump is.

Pirates sign Neftali Feliz. With Feliz, Watson, and Melancon at the back of their bullpen, that's a shut-down grouping. I also really liked what Juan Nicasio did until he had some arm soreness that he tried to pitch through for the Dodgers in the bullpen last year. That bullpen could be sick.

Chris Carter signs with the Brewers. Dang, I like what the Brewers are doing this offseason on the margins.

No, he did not have 1000 PAs. He had 831 PA before coming to the major leagues over 205 TOTAL minor league games. He hit 6 home runs in that time, yes, but he also hit 9 triples and 48 doubles over those 205 games, meaning in 831 PA (roughly 1.25 of a season) he hit 63 extra base hits, so roughly 50 extra base hits over a full season's worth of plate appearances time. That's pretty incredible for any minor leaguer to go from drafted to majors with that level of power production in the course of less than 2 years.

And nearly none of the players during "the steroid era" were on straight steroids either, so you could make an argument that they were not doing anything banned. Until you have a specific list of banned substances that you then test for to ensure are not being used, you're doing nothing more than saying "don't curse!" without ever defining what a curse is nor listening to the person again.

In fact, he's the perfect example of a non-question - peaked at the right time (26-32), aged normally (and abruptly for him), and never really had any abrupt body morphs. He got into major league conditioning, added muscle, and maintained basically the same size the rest of the way through his career. He also was tremendously athletic throughout his career.

But we're keeping out players who were suspected of using before it was even against the rules, that's the point. Halladay has been rumored to use amphetamines, which are banned now, but they are tested for. However, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and many other players from WWII on through the early 1990s have talked about the incredible frequency with which greenies were used in the clubhouse, and they are essentially one in the same as what Halladay is now in trouble for. Do we punish those who used a substance before it was officially banned and punished by the game?

So you know definitively which ones cheated? That's been my assertion on this discussion the entire time. You want to keep Manny Ramirez out, I'm fine with that. You want to keep out any other player who has been caught and suspended, I completely agree. However, to keep out a guy who hasn't tested positive is selective bias to me.

He was a heavy contributor to the game being unequal for him, utilized methods that were actually outlawed in the game at the time, and even faced suspensions for it. Yet, he's considered one the game's all-time great players because of the player he is, strictly observing the numbers, realizing that some of those numbers may be slanted. Yet, making the same "numbers-first" argument now is looked upon as being "in favor" of PEDs, so it is quite relevant to the current discussion because it IS the current discussion.