The Hall of Fame announced this evening that Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones have been elected to the Hall of Fame. They’ll be inducted into Cooperstwon alongside Jeff Kent, who was elected by the Era Committee, next June.
Beltrán gets the honor in his fourth year on the ballot. The switch-hitting outfielder was the only player who fell between 70% and 75% on last year’s balloting. His positive trend lines made it a near lock that he’d surpass the 75% threshold this winter.
The Royals drafted Beltrán, a native of Puerto Rico, in the second round in 1995. He reached the big leagues as a September call-up three years later and ranked as one of the sport’s top prospects going into his first full season in 1999. Scouting reports projected him as a potential five-tool center fielder, and Beltrán lived up to that billing immediately.
He hit .293/.337/.454 with 22 homers and 27 stolen bases during his debut campaign. Beltrán was the runaway choice for American League Rookie of the Year, the first of many accolades he’d accrue over the next two decades. Injuries and a sophomore slump limited his playing time in 2000, but Beltrán reestablished himself as one of the sport’s best outfielders the following year. He’d hit above .300 in two of the next three seasons, earning his first top 10 MVP finish behind a .307/.389/.522 showing in 2003.
The roster around Beltrán was not nearly as strong. A small-market Kansas City franchise was unlikely to re-sign him, making him a top trade chip as he entered his final season of club control. The Royals dealt Beltrán, a first-time All-Star, to the Astros midway through the ’04 season. He appeared on the National League roster — Houston was then an NL team — and finished 12th in NL MVP balloting despite spending the first three months in the American League. Beltrán hit .258/.368/.559 with 23 homers in 90 regular season games for Houston.
His introduction to the postseason couldn’t have gone any better. Beltrán batted .435 with eight homers in 12 playoff games, helping Houston to within one game of a trip to the World Series. The Astros would go on to win the pennant one year later, but Beltrán had moved on in free agency by that point. He signed what was then a franchise-record deal with the Mets: seven years and $119MM.
Beltrán’s first season in Queens was a bit of a disappointment, but he rebounded with arguably the best season of his career in 2006. He hit a career-best 41 home runs and drove in a personal-best 116 runs with a .275/.388/.594 slash line. Beltrán won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards while finishing fourth in MVP voting. Baseball Reference credited him with eight wins above replacement for his all-around dominance, the best mark of his career. He remained a force into the playoffs, batting .278 with a .422 on-base percentage over 10 games.
For the second time in three years, Beltrán’s team lost the seventh game of an NLCS battle with the Cardinals. The ’07 Mets famously melted down in September to squander the NL East title to the Phillies. They wouldn’t return to the playoffs during Beltrán’s tenure, yet there’s no doubt they got their money’s worth from the free agent investment. Beltrán played in 839 games while hitting .280/.369/.500 with 149 homers over six and a half seasons in a Mets uniform.
The club also netted a top pitching prospect named Zack Wheeler when they traded the impending free agent Beltrán to the Giants in 2011. He raked down the stretch with San Francisco, but they narrowly missed the postseason between their World Series wins in 2010 and ’12. Beltrán signed a two-year deal with the Cardinals the following year. He hit .282/.343/.493 over his time in St. Louis, but his impact again was brightest in the postseason. Beltrán was a stellar playoff performer in both years.
Beltrán signed a three-year contract with the Yankees over the 2013-14 offseason. He remained an above-average hitter over his time in the Bronx, albeit without the defensive value he’d had for the majority of his career. He made it back to the playoffs in 2016 after being dealt to the Rangers at the deadline. Beltrán finished his career on a one-year contract to return to the Astros.
The final season in Houston wound up leaving Beltrán with a complicated legacy. He was reportedly an integral part of the team’s sign-stealing operation that wasn’t publicly revealed until a few seasons thereafter. Beltrán wasn’t much of an on-field contributor at age 40, but he collected his first World Series ring when the Astros won their first title in franchise history.
Beltrán’s role in the sign-stealing scandal became public over the 2019-20 offseason. He had just been hired by the Mets as manager a few months earlier. He stepped down and forfeited his salary once the operation became public. Beltrán has remained involved in the game in less prominent roles, working as a television analyst with the YES Network and spending the past few seasons as a special assistant in the Mets’ front office. He’s also in charge of building the roster for the Puerto Rican national team at the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
The sign-stealing scandal probably delayed Beltrán’s entry to Cooperstown. His statistical résumé made him a very strong candidate to get in on the first ballot. He finished his playing days with a .279/.350/.486 batting line. Baseball Reference valued his career at 70 WAR, which doesn’t even account for his playoff excellence. Jay Jaffe’s JAWS metric has him as a top 10 center fielder of all time. Whatever trepidation some voters may have had about honoring him within the first couple years on the ballot, the end result is that he’s headed to Cooperstown to cement his legacy as one of the best center fielders to play the game.
That’s also the case for Jones, who ranks 11th among center fielders by the same JAWS calculation. He gets in on his ninth year on the ballot, one season after receiving 66% of the vote. A native of Curacao, Jones signed with the Braves as an international amateur and flew through the minor leagues. He was arguably the #1 prospect in the game when he reached the majors in the second half of the 1996 season. Jones stepped seamlessly onto a loaded Atlanta roster that was midway through their run of dominance in the National League. They were coming off a championship and would head back to the Fall Classic in ’96.
A 19-year-old Jones embraced the big stage, hitting .345 with a trio of home runs in October. That included a two-homer showing in Game 1 against the Yankees, and he remains the youngest player ever to hit a World Series home run. The Braves won the first game but wound up dropping the series in six games.
Jones played mostly right field during his first full season. He hit .231 with 18 homers in 153 games and finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. He really took off the following year, kicking off a decade-long run as the sport’s best defensive outfielder and a premier power threat. Jones hit 31 homers while batting .271/.321/.515 and earning his first Gold Glove in 1998. That was his first of seven 30-homer campaigns and, more remarkably, the start of a streak of 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards.
He’d start all 162 games for the Braves in 1999, playing elite defense while batting .275/.365/.483 with 26 homers and 35 doubles. The Braves made it back to the World Series after losing the NLCS in the prior two seasons. They were again knocked off by the Yankees, this time in a sweep. Jones didn’t have great playoff numbers over that stretch but remained one of the league’s best players in the regular season. He hit 36 homers in a 2000 season which Baseball Reference valued at eight wins above replacement, a career high that ranked fourth in MLB among position players.
Jones earned an eighth-place MVP finish in 2000 and very likely would have finished higher had today’s defensive metrics been around at the time. He reeled off another three 30-plus homer seasons after that, narrowly dropping below that cutoff with a 29-homer season in 2004. He rebounded with his most impressive offensive showing in 2005, as he slugged an MLB-best 51 longballs and led the National League with 128 runs batted in. Jones won a Silver Slugger for the first and only time and finished as the MVP runner-up behind Albert Pujols. It was a narrow split, as Pujols received 18 first-place votes against Jones’ 13. (Third-place finisher Derrek Lee received the other one.)
The righty hitter remained an impact run producer the following season, as he slugged 41 more home runs with a career-high 129 RBI. That was his last impact season, as his rate stats dropped in 2007. The Braves let him depart in free agency at season’s end, and he was essentially finished as an everyday player at age 30. Jones played parts of five more seasons between the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Yankees. He didn’t record more than 64 hits in any of his final five campaigns.
More to come.
Good for Andruw. Bout time.
Long overdue.
Long overduw*
I see what yuw did there
unfortunately that was the sentiment. He was certainly a fine ballplayer but never a dominant one except for that one season with 50+ homers. For the inflated numbers of the time his numbers don’t stand out.
Other than that season he was top ten in MVP once, 5 all star game appearances for a long career isn’t that good. Happy for him, but the Hall of Very Good strikes again.
Jim Edmonds had a better batting line than Andruw Jones, and he was able to stay productive into his late 30s as opposed to Jones basically falling off the cliff at age 31. Hoping the veterans committee takes a deeper look into Edmonds’s career than the BBWAA ever did. He was neck-and-neck with Jones and Beltran as one of the top CFs in baseball.
Heck yeah. Glad for him he deserves it!
One of my favorite players as a kid. In the days when there wasn’t much baseball on TV… except for the Braves on TBS. Still remember all those players even though I’m not a braves fan.
Agreed. Defense needs to be rewarded more often.
Had to put Beltran in so they can put Altuve in later
great career but a trash can banger. and the only thing i remember about beltrans time with the mets is 06 game 7
andruw totally deserves it, shoulda been in long ago
Don’t forget Beltran’s long stint as the Mets manager lol
He is undefeated.
Hired & fired without ever managing a single game
I wonder if thats ever happened in mlb history
Wally Backman in Arizona. I don’t remember the reason though.
Didn’t mention domestic violence arrest and filing for bankruptcy.
@78
Dam rly? When was beltran arrested?
I really find it amazing that these writers will elect Beltran into the Hall but would rather send Manny Ramirez to hell if they could vote on that
Unfortunately, Manny got caught multiple times for PED use after testing was fully implemented and all players knew the stakes. Add in his terrible defense to some degree of questions about the authenticity of his hitting excellence, and it’s not crazy, though it is sad. But none of that thinking requires a character judgment, so I don’t see why Beltran should be kept out by comparison.
Beltran was involved in sign stealing. Manny got caught using PEDs twice. Not sure what the comparison between the two is. Elaborate sign-stealing scandals are as old as baseball. Putting guys in the scoreboard to signal to home plate, putting guys with binoculars in the outfield bleachers, little buzzers in the dirt by the third base coach, etc., all part of the game decades before Beltran.
They both broke rules, but taking drugs to improve your performance, getting caught and suspended, then doing it all over again seems more egregious to voters than a sign-stealing scandal that involved a ton of players simultaneously.
I’d say “cheating is cheating” but there is something to be said about not taking no for an answer. Manny being Manny.
It wasn’t cheating when Beltran did it with the Yankees in 2015-2016 or in Houston. What the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, and most other teams did in 2017 with electronic distribution of signs to the batter was not against the rules for the teams until September 14, 2017 when the commissioner sent out a memo informing the team owners and management of his ruling. It was not against the rules for players until the 2018 season after the MLBPA had voted to allow the rule into the CBA.
My point is that the writers will turn a blind eye to some cheating and not other types of cheating. You get caught with PEDs, you get suspended, lose salary, etc. You orchestrate a sign stealing scandal, you lose your manager job, salary, etc. Both PEDs and sign stealing predate the careers of anyone on this ballot and neither are grounds for HOF disqualification
I find it frustrating that writers are the Gate Keepers for the Hall to begin with. They should have a board of inductees be the ones voting players in or out imo.
Hey, I found the first person ever to say the Veterans Committee does a better job than the Writers do!
Absolutely. Mastermind a sign stealing scheme that stole the WS, all ok. Take a pill, you’re dead to baseball
Happy for Andruw, but not for Beltran.
An error was made above: Beltran only won a ring in 2017 as the Cardinals lost in the 2013 world series to the Red Sox.
Andruw is the greatest defensive centerfielder of all time.
Maybe of the 80’s/90’s.
But I’d still take Ken Griffey, Jr. over Andruw Jones.
All time?
Besides Jr. there
‘s a lot of folks from NY who would tell you that Andruw probably couldn’t hold a candle to Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle.
A lot of people from New York say a lot of things all the time. A lot of it is not based in reality, but in their New York bubble mindset. Andruw was the greatest to ever do it.
You ever hear of Willie Mays? Number 24 was the very best. Made everything look easy.
Next up for the hall…. Kevin Kiermaier
The Cardinals didn’t win a World Series in 2013. Red Sox did….
Omg. Andrew Jones????? He is not a hall of famer.
You don’t know ball.
He was just elected, so, yes he is.
Ha
Agree 100%. No one thought he would be in the Hall of Fame when he was playing.
I guess you weren’t alive then. Everyone thought he was a sure-fire HOFer, until his career tanked after he left the Braves.
I was alive his entire career. Never heard anybody refer to him as a future Hall of Famer.
I was also alive his entire career and often heard him referred to as a future Hall of Famer, so we must have been listening to two different groups of people.
The downward spiral began his last year in ATL. Lowest BA, HRs, OPS, etc. since his rookie season. He was only 30 but began to play like a 40 year old.
Pretty much everyone thought he was a lock for the hall until his nightmare in LA. After his knee injury as a dodger he was never the same.
Honestly, the knee injury (at the time) felt secondary to the fact that he showed up in awful shape in spring training. It was as if he signed the deal in the offseason and just sat on the couch. His final year in ATL was probably papered over by the superficial gold glove award – there were signs he was falling apart at the plate already.
When they released him, it was probably the best I ever felt about a player being released.
Andruw is arguably the greatest defensive outfielder of all time. He’d have a strong case even without the 400+ HR.
That barely above average career OPS+ says otherwise
You know when a casual fan posts. 😂
This is obviously someone just fishing for responses. Also, when Votto gets elected they will say “Votto who? He didn’t play for the Yankees or Dodgers.”
You’re right. But Andruw Jones now is.
And trash can Beltran is?
My GOAT Andruw finally got in! Well deserved.
If you’re going to let Beltran in you might as well let in Rose, Bonds, Clemens, Manny, etc…this is coming from a Dodgers fan who despises Bonds and especially the Astros.
Exactly right. You can’t cherry pick and let Beltran and David Ortiz in but exclude others. The voters are hypocrites, but sadly, many of them have acknowledged the hypocrisy in interviews over the years.
Being in the hall doesn’t erase history, and Beltran will always be known as the architect of a massive and blatant cheating scheme before anything else.
Um, yes you can. Rose broke a rule that already explicitly stated that breaking it would get you banned from baseball forever. Beltran used a slightly more advanced system to do what players have been doing forever by stealing signs.
And it’s super easy drawing the line between Ortiz and Ramirez. Ortiz being connected to PED use is basically a rumor. Oh, someone leaked his name from a list that we can’t check because it’s sealed and was never supposed to be revealed in the first place, as well as a million qualifiers about how the tests were done and how legal meds could result in false positives.
Meanwhile, Manny failed MULTIPLE tests AFTER MLB came down hard on PED usage.
Do you mean that same 2003 test Sammy Sosa failed? That 2003 test has been the only direct link to steroids for Sosa yet he’s held out of the HOF. Ortiz somehow gets in though…
I’m glad the HoF voters disagree with you. Pete Rose accepted a lifetime ban, so there’s literally no comparison between him and any of the other players you mentioned.
As much as I despise the roiders, they all did what they did to enhance their ability to win.
Can’t possibly say the same about a degenerate gambler who often owed mob backed bookies money. Rose’s record and moves in the games he didn’t bet don’t show a guy trying to win.
What the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, and most other teams did in 2017 with electronic distribution of signs to the batter was not against the rules for the teams until September 14, 2017. It was not against the rules for players until the 2018 season.
Boricuaaaa!!!! 🇵🇷🔥
Celebrate this moment by pounding loudly on your kitchen trash bin 🙂
The Hall of Fame will never be seen as a legitimate institution ever again. Carlos Beltran disgraced the game and should be shunned from baseball history just like Pete Rose. I see no difference between the actions of Shoeless Joe and Beltran, both men compromised the essential integrity of the sport. I hope the crowd at Cooperstown this summer boos this disgusting cheater when he goes to the podium. Most baseball fans are done with this flawed and now stained Hall of Fame.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, MachadoFan.
LOL
You see no difference? That’s on you. Pro sports have always made it clear that gambling cheating is an order of magnitude worse than cheating trying to win. Baseball history is littered with guys who cheated on the field trying to win, and there are punishments but not banishments. But the slippery slope of losing on purpose is a bridge too far.
I agree with this. Though apparently many think the case against Shoeless Joe is weak and not convincing..
Hope you vote out Willie Mays for his part in the 1951 Giants’ sign stealing scandal, which also used technological assistance
Mays was never directly implicated. Beltran was specifically named. Big difference.
Never directly implicated? The entire team took advantage. But fine, let’s kick out Leo Derocher, then, because he definitely was implicated in the scandal.
@ruthless
Yep giants cheated. the shot heard round the world.
MachadoFan,
What qualifies you to speak on behalf of most baseball fans?
“A 2015 ESPN survey found 69.1% of voters felt the HOF selection process was unfair and 66.2% said it was unclear, with many wanting changes to the Veterans Committee”.
He is factually correct.
Really? ESPN was asking about Carlos Beltran 10 years ago? Because MachadoFan was specifically speaking about Beltran’s induction.
Also, “69.1% of VOTERS”. Is that people who voted in the survey? Not usually the wordage people use, but whatever. Or was it a survey OF HALL OF FAME VOTERS? Because then you’ve got a problem of using the very people that people like MachadoFan say don’t speak for the average baseball fan, being used as evidence to support that claim, which contradicts itself.
Kind of ironic coming from a guy who is a Machado fan seeing as Manny is one of the dirtiest players around and ruined the rest of Pedroia’s career with a dirty slide along with other noted incidents.
It’s funny, because people have been saying the Hall is flawed and stained… for as long as I can remember.
What the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, and most other teams did in 2017 with electronic distribution of signs to the batter was not against the rules for the teams until September 14, 2017. It was not against the rules for players until the 2018 season.
Both no brainers IMO.
Congratulations to Andruw Jones and….Jeff Kent.
🙂
Yup, congrats to Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones. That’s as far as I go. The writers are a joke…
I personally didn’t ever think the Astros Scandal was gonna stick for guys like Altuve and others, but I’m shocked Beltran being named in the report didn’t tank his stock.
It kind of did. He only got 45% the first time and it took him four tries.
It made him wait longer than he would have, that’s something.
Congratulations to Andruw! One of my all time greats! Still remember those World Series blasts in 1996, we lost but memorable for sure
Omg. Jones is not a hall of famer. That’s a disgrace to everyone in the Hall
You’ve said that twice, and it’s still not true.
Only 4 players have 400 homers and 10 GG. Schmidt, Mayes, Griffey and Jones. All 4 are now in the HOF.
Sweet Lou should be next!
Mays, Schmidt, and Griffey didn’t hit their wives though. Jones was arrested, charged, and convicted of domestic violence against his wife. It’s all there on his wiki page under the personal life section. In comparison Vizquel was on track to enter the hall but then it came out that he assaulted his wife a couple of times and bullied a bat boy who has autism. Since those came to light his support has dwindled rapidly. The BBWAA vote is a joke, morally speaking. They don’t want some cheaters and wife beaters, but they’ll let other cheaters and wife beaters in for some unknown reason.
Man. I wish your parents would have paid attention to you. Now the whole world has to suffer another troll begging for attention. Shame on them. You get a pass because you’re clearly still a child. Jordan 5 Years Old.
EVERYONE in the Hall? Like, even the guys who were “a disgrace to the Hall” when THEY got in?
What about Andruw?
Congratulations!
By the way, Chase Utley finished with 59.1 % in his 3rd yr, and Félix Hernández had 46.1 % in his 2nd
Very Surprising. i dont think either is a hof’er but standards are way down in recent years
About what I expected. Congrats, guys!
Congratulations Andruw Jones
Congratulations, Carlos! You represented the Royals well when hardly anyone else did.
Since they’re electing Beltran, they need to remove the character clause from the qualifications, and vote in every stat-worthy PED user and gambler.
Eventually, they will. Any truly deserving, based solely on measured, on-field performance, will get in through Veteran’s Committee votes. Personally, I would be quite happy to see all of them that deserve it go in posthumously.
Guess there’s no nuance in life? Injecting drugs is the same as gambling on your own sport which is the same as stealing signs. Got it. Let’s throw in scuffing pitches, too, and toss a bunch of old pitchers out.
Seeing Felix’s climb and early trajectory makes me wish the Johan Santana could get another crack at things.
Santana’s problem was that he only played two years on a coast.
He pitched four years with the Mets, chief.
Felix pitched for a Mariners team that was mediocre/bad throughout his entire career. The running gag is that nobody cares about the team outside of Seattle because they play in South Alaska and sucked for very long periods of time. Santana at least got into the playoffs a few times and received more national attention.
King Felix had a career like Mike Trout except with only one CYA/MVP. The injuries in his 30s did him dirty. Trout’s peak was unmatched so he’ll get in the HOF obv.
Trash can banging great time in the Beltrán household.
So last year they don’t get voted in, but this year they do. What changed? Did Jones hit a few more HR to boost his stats?
Hall of fame is a joke.
You’re only realizing this now? When that’s how the Hall’s been electing people for NINETY YEARS by this point?
Andruw Jones being in the HOF when Jim Edmonds fell off the ballot in one year is really weird. They were considered equally good during their playing years, they were both equally good in the postseason, their WAR is within 3 points in both measurements, they both combined power and a gold glove…I don’t get it
Timing was a big part of it, surely.
But also… Players with 400 home runs and 10 Gold Gloves: Willie Mays, Griffey, Mike Schmidt, Andruw Jones
You have to lower the threshold to 350 home runs and 8 Gold Gloves to include Jim Edmonds, and by doing that you’re also including guys like Torii Hunter and Dwight Evans. You’ve gone from a group made entirely of 1st ballot Hall of Famers plus [candidate] to a group that includes several guys who still aren’t in the Hall.
*shrug*
Congrats to both very deserving players!
I saw Beltran in the title and assumed the Mets signed him again.
Congrats to Jones! Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine all credited Jones and his incredible defense in helping them achieve their own respective HOF careers.
Let’s get Whitaker in there!
I remember Andrew Jones on the Dodgers and when he hurt his knee and said he couldn’t walk properly but then was seeing jumping over hurdles later and being accused of not playing because he didn’t want to… Hall of Famer
The Dodgers are ruining baseball again!
I like how there are so many people who think the Hall of Fame process is a joke because so-and-so is in and so-and-so isn’t, but y’all can’t really agree on what names you put as examples, either.
I am done with the Hall of Fame until Jim Edmonds is enshrined. If Andruw Jones got in, Jim Edmonds has a very strong case. And they both got similar results on their first ballot.. Edmonds had around 2.5% in 2016 Jones had 7% in 2018 and 7.5% in 2019.
Belt ran kind of broke my heart. I badly wanted him to be the manager of the Yankees and to see that they would for once consider somebody other than a white guy for that job, but then he went ahead and screwed his reputation into the dirt.
Andruw Jones…not even the Hall Of Very Good. The Hall Of Kinda good. How does he get in and Jim Edmonds doesn’t?
Ok, I doubted you when you said this but looking at their stats, honestly, you’re right. Don’t know why Edmonds was overlooked (probably cause he didn’t play for a team that was featured on national broadcasts as often as Jones did).
I lived in Seattle and saw Griffey Jr. in his prime. I dare say that Edmonds was the better defensive CF.
Jones was elite in his prime. His productive career ended much earlier than most. He wasn’t any good after 30. No problem with him in the HOF but I understand the wait.
Jones: 400 homers and 10 Gold Gloves puts him in the elite company of Mays, Griffey, Schmidt, all 1st-ballot HOFers.
Edmonds: 350 homers and 8 Gold Gloves puts him in the company of Torii Hunter and Dwight Evans.
Because Jones was the best CF since Willie Mays on defense. Edmonds was very good on defense. Jones was incredible. Jones had 10 straight seasons that were better than the best season that Edmonds ever had on defense. Edmonds 7-year peak was 4 WAR lower than Jones’, about 10% lower. Jones was better than Edmonds.
Are you joking? Probably greatest CF defender ever oh *and* 434 HRs?? What the heck took so long?! Should have been 1st ballot. And I’m a Mets fan.
Lifetime averages too low for me to vote them in. Beltran was borderline for me
Thanks for voting🤣
Haha sorry for adding my 2 cents
Batting average shouldn’t be weighted as heavily anymore. There’s plenty of far better stats that show how productive hitters are
Man Beltran gets 5 paragraphs and Jones get two words. ..
Not mentioned anywhere that I saw, but having Shin-Soo Choo get 3 votes is utterly amazing to me… and no disrespect, but somewhat disingenuous by those voters.
LOU WHITAKER !!!
Just came to see the trash can comments about Beltran.
Three more members of MLB’s Hall of Very Good Players.
Bertrand’s Acceptance Speach
I like to thank the following
Mom, Dad, MLB. But most of all I like to thank Home Depot,Lowes and Ace Hardwares for supplying me with trash cans. Because without them I wouldn’t be standing here with a World Series Ring.
um, and Andruw Jones…
Cheating off the field, Bad
cheating on the field, ok
That has been the agreed upon standard for 90 years of Hall voting, yes.
The hall of fame went from electing great players to really good players.
They’ve always been electing really good players with some great ones every once in a while.
Like seriously, look who’s in there. You’re telling me “400 homers and 10 gold gloves” and “greatest stealing percentage of all time” are LOWERING the threshold of a Hall with guys like Tommy McCarthy, Jesse Haines, Dave Bancroft, George Kelly…
Beltran doesn’t belong there.
Always liked Beltran but the sign stealing scandal should have barred him from the Hall. Eventually you’ll be able to do anything and still get in. I’m really happy for Jones, that was long overdue. Hell of a career
Two more ex-Yankees make it into the Hall…
Guess we’re picking and choosing what cheaters get in. This type of cheating bad but that type of cheating is fine. The ridiculous clown sport becomes even more of a circus.
I’m ok with Jones getting in and feel it’s long overdue. At his peak he was the best defensive Center Fielder in Baseball and an offensive force.
Beltran I’m mixed on. The numbers are decent but it seems hypocritical to me to allow the master mind of the trash can fiasco in while McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens, Ramirez, and Rodriguez remain out
Not getting into point counterpoint of any controversies, but just wanted to say congratulations to both on fine careers and their HOF nominations.