2020 MLB Hall of Fame Voting

The ballot for the 2020 baseball Hall of Fame class was released a couple weeks ago. So it's time for me to put out my theoretical ballot of who I would vote for as well as my prediction of what the results will be.  Last year I predicted all 4 new inductees.  Hopefully I can do as well this year.

This year's ballot includes the following 32 players:

Curt Schilling   Roger Clemens   Barry Bonds   Larry Walker   Omar Vizquel   Manny Ramirez
Jeff Kent   Scott Rolen   Billy Wagner   Todd Helton   Gary Sheffiled   Andy Pettite   Sammy Sosa
Andruw Jones   Derek Jeter   Bobby Abreu   Jason Giambi   Cliff Lee   Rafael Furcal
Eric Chavez   Josh Beckett   Alfonso Soriano   Brian Roberts   Carlos Pena   Chone Figgins
Paul Konerko  Raul Ibanez   Brad Penny   Adam Dunn   JJ Putz   Jose Valverde   Heath Bell 

My Picks (up to 10 votes allowed):

Derek Jeter
Bobby Abreu
Larry Walker
Curt Schilling
Scott Rolen
Billy Wagner
Andruw Jones
Todd Helton
Omar Vizquel
Jeff Kent

My predictions of players I find interesting (75% of voters needed for election):

Derek Jeter- 99.3%
Curt Schilling- 81.1%
Larry Walker- 76.1%
Roger Clemens- 63.3%
Barry Bonds- 62.9%
Omar Vizquel- 53.5%
Scott Rolen-36.8%
Todd Helton-33.2%
Billy Wagner- 26.4%
Manny Ramirez- 25%
Jeff Kent- 24.7%
Bobby Abreu- 15.7%
Andruw Jones-8.1%

This year I also decided to look at the Veteran's committee ballot.  This includes players who had previously been on the hall of fame ballot and not elected.

The ballot:

Lou Whitaker   Dwight Evans   Tommy John   Dale Murphy   Ted Simmons   Thurmon Munson 
Don Mattingly   Dave Parker   Steve Garvey

My picks (up to 4 votes allowed):

Lou Whitaker
Ted Simmons
Dwight Evans
Thurmon Munson

*Tommy John would be 5th

My predictions:

Lou Whitaker
Ted Simmons


So there it is!  My voters and predictions for the upcoming MLB Hall of Fame Ballots!  Let me know what you think!

2019-2020 MLB Free Agent Predictions

Below are my predictions for this offseason.  Hopefully I do better than 1-25 like last year.  Enjoy!

Gerrit Cole- New York Yankees
Anthony Rendon- Washington Nationals
Stephen Strasburg- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Zack Wheeler- Toronto Blue Jays
Madison Bumgarner- Atlanta Braves
*Yasmani Grandal- Atlanta Braves
Hyun-Jin Ryu- Los Angeles Dodgers
Josh Donaldson- Texas Rangers
Marcell Ozuna- Chicago White Sox
Nicholas Castellanos- Cincinnati Reds
Wade Miley- Minnesota Twins
Dallas Keuchel- San Diego Padres
Mike Moustakas- New York Mets
Didi Gregorius- Milwaukee Brewers
Cole Hamels- Chicago White Sox
Yasiel Puig- Arizona Diamondbacks
Edwin Encarnacion- Tampa Bay Rays
Brett Gardner- New York Yankees
Avisail Garcia- Pittsburgh Pirates
Michael Pineda- Cincinnati Reds
Corey Dickerson- Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim
Tanner Roark- Milwaukee Brewers
Cole Calhoun- Cleveland Indians
Dellin Betances- Boston Red Sox
Will Harris- Washington Nationals

*I was a little late getting this finished up and Yasmani Grandal had already signed with the Chicago White Sox.  But I will admit that is not where I would have predicted he would sign.  So I'm starting this one off 0-1. 

There they are! Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

Rob Manfred and Baseball’s New Rules

Major League Baseball has passed some new rules, which will be implemented either this season or next season. These rule changes have been very controversial. Let’s take a look at them. 

The current limit on on non-pitching change mound visits is 6 per game. This year that limit will be reduced to 5 and possibly down to 4 in 2020. I don’t think the 5 per game limit is a big deal. Last year no one really reached that limit of 6 so I think that 5 a game would be fine. Reducing it to 4 next year might be too low. Catchers need to slow their pitchers down and review signs with them occasionally. Coaches need to relay advice and strategy. If the 5 per game limit works this year, MLB should just leave it there. 

Starting this year the winner of the home run derby will receive $1 million. MLB hopes this will incentivize the best hitters to participate in the derby. I’m not sure how this will work out. On one hand, some people will do anything for money, so if there is a cash prize they will join in. On the other hand, the derby is notorious for messing up players swings (aka their livelihood). Countless players have altered their swing to do better in the derby and then gone on to have a slump in the 2nd half of the year. Also many players want as much of a break as possible in their long year. So many players will still not want to participate. I guess we will have to see how this works out. 

This year commercial breaks will be reduced from 2 minutes, 20 seconds to 2 minutes, with the purpose of reducing game time. I like this rule. There were already too many commercials. This is a simple way to reduce game time without affecting the game too much. Also announcers could also do in-game ads. It’s been done before and I wouldn’t mind it when downtime dictates an opportunity. 

Position players will be prohibited from pitching in games that don’t go into extra innings, unless a team is ahead or behind by at least six runs.  This rule has not been talked about much, but I don’t like it. I think a manager should have the right to use his pitching staff how he deems suitable. If a bullpen got overused the day before and the team is losing bad again the next game, even if it’s not 6 runs, a team should be allowed to used whoever they want to pitch. Ultimate this rule shouldn’t have too much of an affect on the season but I can see it being annoying. 

The injured list (Not disabled list. We can’t say that now) will have a minimum time of 15 days again, back from being 10 days. Last year the Dodgers occasionally put pitches on the 10 day DL who weren’t necessarily hurt but they wanted to give them some extra rest. Personally I didn’t have a problem with that. It was clever and if the player is ok with it, then it shouldn’t matter. Also this inhibits teams from putting player on the IL who might only need 10 days, but don’t want to lose them for that extra 5 days. That can be a big difference. I liked when the 10 day DL instituted and I’m upset to see it go. 

All-Star voting is changing.  There will still be the regular voting but that will be like the primaries now. The top 3 vote-getters at each position will be put on a ballot, then there will be an “Election Day” to vote for the starters. I’m intrigued by this. My initial reaction is that I like it.  It creates more drama for the voting without changing the process too much. Hopefully the execution of this idea works well. 

There will now only be one trade deadline. All trades must be made by July 31. This replaces the initial deadline on July 31, the then waiver deadline on August 31 where a player had to pass through waivers first. MLB got this new rule half right in my opinion. Most baseball fans wanted 1 deadline. However the popular idea was to split the difference and have it be on August 15. This gave teams a little more time than the July 31 deadline to figure out their needs while still simplifying the process tons singular deadline. I feel like MLB messed up an easy one here. 

In 2020 roster size will be increased to 26, with the September roster size being set at 28. This is a good change. This allows for one more full-time player during the year, one more guy getting to live his dream, and most likely one for pitcher for the bullpen. Also this fixes the issue of teams having entirely too many players available for a game in September, when their could be 10 relievers used and pinch hitters at every opportunity. It was just too much and too big of a difference from the way the game was played the rest of the year. Good rule. 

Finally and most controversially in 2020 pitchers will have to pitch to a minimum of 3 batters, unless they finish an inning or are injured. Some people love this rule, some people hate it. Interestingly the players union did not agree to the rule change. MLB has the ability to implement it on their own since they warned the union about its coming the previous year. This rule will eliminate the “lefty specialists” from the game or force them to face right handed hitters. Admittedly  the parade of relievers in the later innings of the game can be annoying but at the same time it’s players doing what they are best at. And as previously mentioned, I don’t think you should be able to restrict how a manager uses his pitchers. 

Ultimately I think Commissioner Rob Manfred just needs to stop. In in my opinion; what he is doing is trying to get himself in the hall of fame already. He’s trying to find the one rule change that revolutionizes the game and makes a name for him. He will be the commissioner who instituted that great new rule.  But he’s trying too hard. Since he took over, all he’s talked about is changing rules. The game is good. It works. Changes should be made when necessary. Not for the sake of change. People still enjoy the game. Rob Manfred, please stop and let baseball be. 

The Harper and Machado Deals

It took until the beginning of Spring Training games, but baseball’s two most hyped free agents have finally signed. Last week Machado signed a 10 year, $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres. Today Bryce Harper signed a 13 year, $330 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. After all the hype, speculations and waiting (and waiting) the saga is over. So where does this leave us?

At the beginning of the offseason, it was assumed these two would command record breaking deals. So did they? Well yes and no. Machado’s $300 million deal set the record for biggest total free agent (not extension) deal ever, previously held by Alex Rodriguez’s 10 year, $275 million contract. Machado’s record was then just broken by the Harper contract. Harper’s contract also set the record for biggest contract of any kind, topping the 13 year, $325 million extension Giancarlo Stanton received while in Miami. So in that sense, these were record breaking contracts. 

However these contracts did not break the record for highest annual average value (AAV) for a contract. Machado’s deal averages $30 million a year and Harper’s is only at $25.4 million. The highest AAV contract is that of Zack Grienke, whose 6 year, $206.5 million deal has an AAV of $34.4 million. 

Then there is the question of “Is Free Agency Broken”?  At first glance the answer would seem to be no. The two biggest total value free agent contracts were just signed. They will be making a stupid amount of money. All seems well. However there are still two top quality free agents still unsigned in Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel (most likely a future Hall of Famer). How could star players still be unsigned at this time? Not to mention the dozens of other quality mlb players who should be on someone’s roster.  So is free agency broken?  That’s still unclear. 

So what I think of Machado and Harper’s deals?  First off, finally!  Months and months of waiting and speculation and waiting and rumors and waiting and waiting, finally over. I’m just glad to see them finally signed somewhere. Machado signing with San Diego was a surprise. They have not been good for a while and LA and Colorado will offer some pretty steep competition in that division. But money talks.  Harper to Philly is not as much a surprise. They said they wanted to spend “stupid money” this offseason. Looks like they have.  Unpopular opinion, but I wish the Cardinals would have signed Harper still. His contract goes through age 38. I feel he will be productive through most of that contract. And there will probably be the DH in the NL by then, so that would have helped. I wonder how much beyond the $330 million St. Louis would have had to go in order to get him.  I’m disappointed I missed both my predictions for where they would sign. You can see the full list here. I had Machado to Philly and Harper to the Dodgers. Would have gotten Harper had he taken the 3/4 year, $45 million a year deal they reportedly offered him. Darn.  

So that’s it. Harper and Machado have signed. Finally. For lots and lots of money. With the wrong teams. Still waiting on Keuchel and Kimbrel to sign. And Bartolo Colon. Come on guys.  Someone has to give Big Sexy a contract. 

My 9 Worst Sports Injuries

I wanted to do something a little different for a change. Decided to discuss the 9 worst sports-related injuries I’ve had in my life. So without further ado: me getting hurt a lot. 

9. Bruised Chest

        In high school I was playing baseball over at my friend Tyler’s  house. I was pitching and he lined the ball right back at me and pegged me right below my left shoulder.  I went down and he and his mother ran out to check on me. When they got there I was laughing my butt off because it didn’t actually hurt, I just found it hilarious. I did end up with a nice, yellow bruise with the seams imprinted. 

8. Injured Hand

        I played rec baseball up through my freshman year in high school. During a game in middle school injuries was batting and the pitcher threw pretty hard. He threw an inside pitch and jammed me. I swung and instead of the ball hitting my bat, I hit it off my hand.  Didn’t break anything, but it hurt really bad and I had to sit out until my next at bat. 

7.  Various Crotch Shots
        When one plays sports, this periodically happens. It’s no bueno. The worst one I remember was in middle school when I was playing catch at my friend Joe’s  house. I thought we were done, so I took off my glove. Apparently he wanted to throw another one, so he fired one at me and I was completely unprepared. Went down, wanted to vomit. Standard stuff. Felt better about 15 minutes later. The peak pain was highest here but it does subside much quicker.

6. Bruised Foot
         When I was in college, possibly still high school, I was out at the park playing baseball with the same friend who pegged me with the line drive. I was batting and fouled the ball straight down off my left foot. I gained so much respect for professionals who do this, because I can’t hit a ball nearly as hard as they do and I was in a ton of pain. Ended up with a nice bruise on my foot. But not on the top of my foot where the ball hit it. No, on the bottom of my foot where my foot hit the ground. That was so weird. It hurt to walk for a few days.

5. Broken Shoulder and Collarbone
         Being born is a sport, right?  Maybe?  Anyway I was born with a broken shoulder and collarbone. Also jaundice. I was a messed up baby.

4. Hypertended Knee
          Again middle school rec baseball. I promise this is the last baseball one. I was on first base. Ground ball to the second baseman, He threw it to the shortstop for the out at second. Normally the shortstop would then throw it to first. Baseball. No. The shortstop once they had made the out at second, ran directly at me. We collided and I went down in a ton of pain. I said earlier the crotch shot was the worst peak pain. Actually this rivaled that. Coach ran out to check on me. Helped me walk off the field. He said he was really worried at first because my knee went backwards. Thankfully there wasn’t any structural damage.

3. Concussion
          Last year we were playing slip and slide kickball up at church (you can already tell where this is going). I kicked the ball and was running to first.  I went to slow down and my feet came out from under me and I fell backwards. I lost consciousness for a second or two. I remember coming to and realizing I must have been out but no one had reacted so it must not have been for a noticeable amount of time.  Felt fine after that, except for a little dizziness about an hour later.

T-1 Broken Finger
          In 3rd grade we were playing capture the flag at church camp. The other team got the flag and I was chasing that person. I made a dive for his flag (missed) and my left index finger went straight into the ground. It hurt after that and I told my counselor and but they figured I was fine. When I went home, we went to the doctor and it was in deed broken. It healed up in the normal amount of time, But it didn’t heal completely straight. To this day the tip past my last knuckle is slightly bent outwards towards my thumb.

T-1 Undetermined Ankle Injury
          In college, I was up at church playing basketball with a couple of friends, Matt and Adam. At one point Adam and I went after a loose ball, we collided and both went down. When I tried to stand up, I couldn’t put any pressure on my right ankle. Eventually made it over to a chair and after a few minutes decided to head home. The difficult part about driving though was that it was my right ankle, attached to the foot I use to drive.  My ankle hurt so bad I couldn’t push down on the pedal. So I decided I had to drive with my left foot. That’s not easy. Once I got up to speed I was able to just put it in cruise. Now I call this injury undetermined because I was a broke college kid and didn’t want to pay to go to the hospital. So I bought a brace from Walgreens and wore that for 3 months until my ankle felt better.

And there we have it.  My 9 (really 8) worst sports related injuries. They are my battle scars and I will wear them proudly. Hope you enjoyed me being hurt. 

Alliance of American Football

Last weekend a new professional football league debuted, the Alliance of American Football (AAF). This is an 8 team league with a 10 game schedule. The 6 of the 8 teams are located in cities without an NFL team (San Diego, Birmingham, San Antonio, Salt Lake, Memphis and Orlando). The two exceptions are Atlanta and Arizona (Phoenix). A majority of the players have been in the NFL at one point. Some notable names include RBsTrent Richardson and Matt Asiata, QBs Christian Hackenberg, Zach Mettenberger and Aaron Murray and K Nick Folk.  The AAF is billing itself as wanting to be a supplemental league to the NFL, feeding them talent and helping players make it back.  

There are some notable rule differences between the AAF and the NFL. Many of these have to do with kickers. Poor kickers. In the AAF there are no kickoffs. Teams instead start the drive on the 25 yard line. With no kickoffs, there are no onside kicks. In place of that, teams have the choice to convert a “4th and 12” from their 28. Also, there are no extra points, only 2 point conversions. Other differences include a 35 second play clock, instead of 40, a “sky judge” who can correct egregious incorrect calls, a mic’d replay official and an overtime consisting of both teams getting a first and goal from the 10. Games can end in a tie after 1 OT. 

Personally I am very excited about the AAF. For me, the most boring time of the sports year is after the Super Bowl to the beginning of baseball season. This can help to fill that void. The first week of games was quite entertaining. One thing which became apparent is the AAF seems to allow for bigger hits on players. The most popular was a sack of San Diego’s Mike Bercovici, which you can see here. As is normal with the NFL, it may take a few weeks for the offenses to get up to speed and start to gel.  Perhaps the most popular part of the games was the replays. The ref in charge of reviewing calls is on air and it allows everyone to see and hear what they are thinking when looking to perhaps change a call. I found that transparency quite refreshing. I would love to see that adopted by the NFL. 

Overall I was very impressed with the new AAF.  As there is not a team from St. Louis (waiting on the XFL next year) I’ve decided to root for San Diego as their coach is former St. Louis Ram head coach Mike Martz. It’s good to see Mad Mike back at the helm. Go Fleet!  (Update: forgot former St. Louis Rams RB Zac Stacy was on Memphis. So I’ll be rooting for him as well.)

Baseball Hot...Luke Warm...Cold Stove

The Super Bowl is over (thank God). Pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in about a week. This is an exciting time of the year.”! There’s just one problem though. There are still over 100 free agents yet to be signed. The list includes some of the best players available, such as Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. This free agent class had been touted for years as potentially one of the best groups of free agents to be available, yet now that the time has come, no one is signing them. Why is that?

This isn’t completely new. Last year’s free agent class moved very slowly as well, with many players not signing until Spring Training had begun or the season had started. Albeit that group was not nearly as good as the collection of free agents this year. One reason mentioned for last year’s offseason moving so slowly was that teams did not want to play players for past production. The logic being players perform well, reach free agency and then are paid for how they had previously done. But by the time many players reach free agency, they are one the second half of their career and their upcoming years might not be as productive as the previous ones. However, in order to sign these players, teams generally have to pay them more than their earlier years.  That had been the accepted norm for years. Lately teams have not been wanting to offer those contracts and the result is a stalemate between teams and players (or owners vs. agents). This seems to be the case for Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel.  Both  are in their 30’s and teams appear to be worried about being on the hook for a bad contract if these players’ perfermance decreases.

In the past decade, there have been some bad, long-term contracts given to players.  Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera were two of the best players of this generation.  Both were given contracts that could last through their age 42 seasons. Now age has caught up to the two of them and they are not nearly the players they used to be. This leaves their teams with those huge contracts and a lack of monetary flexibility to sign. It is believed Harper and Machado are looking for 10 year deals like the one Pujols signed and that teams are gun shy about offering those deals now because of how the previously mentioned contracts have turned out.  This may very well may be the case but personally I don’t think that logict makes sense.   Harper and Machado are both 26, and therefore, a 10-year contract for them would end when they are 36. Most of these superstars who sign long term contacts are still productive at that age. It is typically in their late 30s when they tend to deteriorate. Harper and Machado are young enough to make it though that contract with solid productivity.

Another potential factor for the slow offseason is the potential for a work stoppage/strike in a couple years. The collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association will expire after the 2021 season. This current conflict between teams and players about contracts could play a major factor in new agreement being completed. With that potential strike looming, there is a theory teams are leery about having those huge contracts on the books. If there is a   strike, it could take a while for fans to start coming back to games in the same numbers once baseball resumes.  In the meantime, teams would not have the same income to which they have been accustomed but would still have to be paying those contracts.

In the meantime, until this is all figured out,  baseball is still looming, players are still unsigned and fans are increasingly frustrated.

My 2019 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot

On January 22, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the class of 2019.  This is the best of my favorite times of the year. Getting to see which of the great players I grew up watching will be immortalized in Cooperstown is so exciting. So I figured I would do a mock ballot of who I would vote for if someone was crazy enough to let me. . Voters are allowed to vote for 10 players maximum, so that is what mine will consist of. In no particular order, here we go!

Mariano Rivera
Roy Halladay
Edgar Martinez
Fred McGriff
Curt Schilling
Larry Walker
Scott Rolen
Billy Wagner
Andruw Jones
Todd Helton

Honorable mentions of players I think should be in the Hall of Fame but couldn’t fit in my list of 10:

Mike Mussina
Jeff Kent
Omar Vizquel
Lance Berkman

Lastly, I wanted share my prediction of who will actually be voted in and how other noteworthy candidates will fare. (Players must receive 75% of votes to be inducted).

Mariano Rivera- 94%
Edgar Martinez- 87%
Roy Hallady- 85%
Mike Mussina- 77%

Roger Clemens- 67%
Barry Bonds- 66%

Curt Schilling- 58%
Omar Vizquel- 49%
Larry Walker- 40%
Fred McGriff- 30%
Todd Helton- 25%
Jeff Kent 19%
Scott Rolen-14%
Billy Wagner- 13%
Andruw Jones- 6%
Lance Berkman- 3%

So that’s my ballot and my predictions.  Let me know what you think!  Do you think I’m right on any of these?  Am I way off?  Let me know!  I can’t wait to see who all will be voted in this year!