2024 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot
My vote and reasoning
There are 26 players eligible for induction this year: 14 returnees and 12 newcomers. I won’t list everyone, here’s a link to that: 2024 Baseball HOF Ballot.
The cool thing about this one is every player below is one I saw and took a picture of on our 2006 baseball trip, so excuse the quality but it was the the upper deck and dawn of digital cameras.
The rules to get in are pretty straightforward. Eligible baseball writers vote, and anyone with 75% or more approval goes in. Anyone who has been on the ballot for 10 years without going in, or anyone who does not get at least 5% of the vote this year, is ineligible going forward. No ballot can include more than 10 players, so I’ll play by those rules. With that explained, here’s who I would vote for:
Todd Helton, 1B, Colorado Rockies (1997-2013)
We get a rare one-team Hall of Famer in Todd Helton. He hit .316 with 2,519 hits and 369 home runs in his career. He was a 5-time All-star, 4-time Sliver Slugger winner, 3 gold gloves and a batting title in which he hit .372 (in 2000, when he also had 147 RBI and 59 doubles). He ranks in the top 100 players of all-time in RBI and runs scored and 20th in doubles. For the analytics lovers, he ranks 29th in career OBP, 37th in SLG and 23rd in OPS.
He had the best career of any Rockies player from start to finish. He showed up for 17 years, playing in at least 140 games 11 times. In the franchise’s lone World Series run, he went 5/15 against the Red Sox as they got swept. He also just looks like someone you’d think played for a team in the Rocky Mountains for two decades. Look at this lumberjack beard.
Joe Mauer, C/1B, Minnesota Twins (2004-2018)
We could get two one-team Hall of Famers this year. That would be awesome, as there’s nothing cooler for a fan base than watching a player you cheered on from start to finish get enshrined. Joe Mauer had an incredible run in his first decade as a catcher. He won the 2009 MVP, won 3 batting titles, 3 gold gloves and 5 silver sluggers. Though injuries would move him off the plate and to first base for the tail-end of his career, he was still a valuable contributor, averaging 109 games at first base from 2014-2018.
He was a homegrown talent from St. Paul who was drafted 1st overall and lived up to the hype. Could you imagine anyone else being the face of Land O’Lakes Dairy?
Adrian Beltre, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers (1998-2004), Seattle Mariners (2005-2009), Boston Red Sox (2010), Texas Rangers (2011-2018)
The most fun position to play also gets one of the most fun players to play the game. Adrian Beltre was more than just comic relief on the field, though. He debuted at 19 and went right to work for the Dodgers, ending his tenure there after leading the league in home runs with 48 in 2004 and finishing 2nd in NL MVP voting. He then signed with the Mariners where he played in relative obscurity for some bad Seattle teams. It was after rejuvenating his career with the Red Sox in 2010 (a top-10 MVP finish, all-star appearance and Silver Slugger award) that he began to really start forging his path to Cooperstown.
He joined the Rangers in 2011 for their second consecutive American League pennant. In those 8 years as a Ranger, he was a 3-time All-star, 3-time Gold Glove winner, 2 Silver Sluggers and finished top-10 in MVP voting 4 times. His career as a third baseman will go down as one of the best to play the position. He hit 477 home runs (remember he spent the first decade of his career in Dodger Stadium and Safeco Field), 3,166 hits and 636 doubles while slashing .286/.339/.480, all while fielding a position where he stood 90 feet away from missiles being hit his away over 100 mph.
And of course there were the fun times. He and Elvis Andrus were the comedy duo of the 2010’s. His ejection for a disagreement with the ump over the on-deck circle is one of the best clips ever. Any game with Adrian Beltre in the lineup (or in the dugout, or on-deck) was more fun because of it. Even opposing players couldn’t help but enjoy him.
Billy Wagner, CP, Houston Astros (1995-2003), Philadelphia Phillies (2004-2005), New York Mets (2006-2009), Boston Red Sox (2009), Atlanta Braves (2010)
The greatest flame-throwing lefty of this era is Randy Johnson. Closer Billy Wagner isn’t far behind in terms of pure strikeout stuff. Wagner is 6th all-time in saves with 422 as of 2023. He struck out 1,196 batters in 903 innings. That means he struck out exactly one-third of the 3,600 batters he faced. And while that may sound like same-ol’, same-ol’ in today’s game, he was doing this back in the late-90’s, early 00’s when contact was still somewhat valued.
Chipper Jones hit .143 with 12 strikeouts in 21 plate appearances against him. Albert Pujols went 6/24 with no extra-base hits. Barry Bonds was 3/15 with one home run. Tony Gwynn went 3/4 against him though :)
He was a force even at 38, when he was an All-star with 37 saves and struck out 38.9% of batters for the Braves. All in all, he was a 7-time All-star with an iconic nickname, “Billy the Kid”.
Chase Utley, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies (2003-2015), Los Angeles Dodgers (2015-2018)
I had to go back and remind myself how good Chase Utley was. It’s hard to imagine a man who had a run of 4 straight Silver Sluggers, 5 straight top-15 MVP finishes and 5 straight All-star games from 2006-2010 being under the radar. But those Phillies teams were stacked with stars. Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt were in the rotation. Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard won MVPs and were the media darlins of those lineups that won the 2008 World Series.
From 2005 to 2009, he finished no lower than 5th in the NL in WAR. He was also the kind of player all the old-school hard-asses love. He stood unflinchingly in the box (leading the league in HBP 3 years in a row and getting plunked 204 times total). He broke up every double play at second base he had the chance to, cleanly… or not. And he got his jersey dirty every game. While Rollins and Howard got the early spotlight, Utley will get his due now with his forever accomplishment of becoming a Hall of Fame second baseman.
And that’s my ballot. Five seems about right for this class. I left off some PED-suspicious guys. And while I considered Carlos Beltran, he did cheat, too.
Anyways, I hope to see all these guys get inducted this year. Especially so because next summer will be the circus with international superstar Ichiro Suzuki due for enshrinement.