Our votes cast for ’18
The Baseball Hall of Fame will announce 2018 balloting results Wednesday (6:15 p.m. ET, MLB Network). Candidates must appear on 75% of ballots to earn induction July 29 in Cooperstown, N.Y.; voters may vote for no more than 10 candidates on the 33player ballot.
USA TODAY has five writers who are at least 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association America. Here is how they voted along with some explanation:
Peter Barzilai
My choices: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Vladimir Guerrero, Chipper Jones, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Scott Rolen, Curt Schilling, Jim Thome, Larry Walker.
I may not like it, but I’ll keep voting for Bonds and Clemens until they get in. Neither tested positive or was suspended. Like most people, I have no doubt they doped, but unlike Manny Ramirez, they were never caught violating the rules.
Steve Henson
My choices: Bonds, Clemens, Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Jones, Fred McGriff, Mussina, Manny Ramirez, Thome, Omar Vizquel.
More than 10 players on this ballot deserve to be in Cooperstown, especially when steroid users remain in the conversation. And they do for me. I dropped Sammy Sosa because, with the addition of Jones, Thome and Vizquel, he no longer makes my top 10.
Gabe Lacques
My choices: Bonds, Clemens, Guerrero, Hoffman, Jones, Mussina, Rolen, Schilling, Thome, Walker.
Apologies to Gary Sheffield, but Mussina was my No. 11 last year and his case looks better every year, particularly when you consider park- and league-adjusted ERA-plus rather than his ordinary 3.68 ERA.
Bob Nightengale
My choices: Bonds, Clemens, Guerrero, Hoffman, Jones, McGriff, Mussina, Sammy Sosa, Gary Sheffield, Thome.
Simply, I voted for the greatest players of their era, which just so happened to be the steroid era.
Jorge L. Ortiz
My choices: Jones, Guerrero, Hoffman, Mussina, Jeff Kent, Vizquel.
Jones is an automatic as one of the greatest third basemen and switchhitters of all time. My most controversial omission, other than the obvious steroid guys, is Thome. But Thome always struck me as a one-dimensional player who was not even the most consequential figure on those great Indians teams of the ’90s.