2015 Baseball Hall of Fame: 8 Players Who Should Have Gotten In

Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio were voted in the Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday. All are deserving. More should be joining them.

We could go into great detail as to why the voting system is incredibly flawed and why certain players should be in and who shouldn’t during what is without a doubt the most polarizing voting period the sport has ever seen due to the post-steroid era. I recommend, reading articles like these, which go into great detail as to why some voters are protesting or giving up their voting rights.

In short, I feel writers should be able to vote for more than 10 players, and that those who used steroids — IF they were still the greatest players of their era — should be let in. 

Mike Piazza received 69.9% of the votes this year, just 5.1% from the 75% needed to be elected. He’s the most prolific hitting catcher in the game’s history. He’s not in because many feel he was probably on juice — even though it’s never been proven so. Is that fair?

It’s impossible to know who used PEDs and who didn’t, and even if we do know for sure (Mark McGwire), it was something players did to stay on the field and wasn’t illegal by any means until after the fact. 

Again, I could keep rambling… you’re probably sick of me by now. But long story short — was it fair for baseball to allow players to use steroids, only to shun them years later?

That being said, here is who I would like to see in the Baseball Hall-of-Fame. Here are the guys who have the numbers to back it up, including the guys who were voted in Tuesday.

The 2015 baseball Hall of Fame ballot included Gary Sheffield, Nomar Garciaparra, Troy Percival (the aforementioned elected) and returning candidates (with their 2014 election percentages): Craig Biggio (74.8%), Mike Piazza (62.2%), Jeff Bagwell (54.3%), Tim Raines (46.1%), Roger Clemens (35.4%), Barry Bonds (34.7%), Lee Smith (29.9%), Curt Schilling (29.2%), Edgar Martinez (25.2%), Alan Trammell (20.8%), Mike Mussina (20.3%), Jeff Kent (15.2%), Fred McGriff (11.7%), Mark McGwire (11.0%), Larry Walker (10.2%), Don Mattingly (8.2%) and Sammy Sosa (7.2%).

Joining Cooperstown includes a ballot vote in which players need 75 percent of the nearly 600 votes cast by qualified members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Related: Cooperstown: My Trip To The Baseball Hall of Fame

Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports.

Photo Credit: Getty

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