Marc Narducci spent 37 years covering all sports for The Philadelphia Inquirer before retiring in July 2021. He covered everything from high school sports to the Phillies winning the World Series and the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. A lifelong southern New Jersey resident, he remains a freelance writer and broadcaster. Once again, Marc reached out to see if MLB Trade Rumors would be interested in publishing his Hall of Fame ballot. I am happy to do it and hope it can be an interesting topic of debate for our readers. Here’s Marc…
It’s always an honor to be published by MLBTradeRumors.com, among the most respected baseball publications around. For those who haven’t read the previous years, just a little housekeeping. I don’t vote for those associated with steroids, which means Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, don’t receive my vote.
I have also not voted for Carlos Beltran who admittedly was the mastermind of the 2017 Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, which altered the perception of that World Series winning team. Those actions cost him his job as a manager and for now, this vote. I don’t feel all the Astros should be punished, but as stated before, that’s a story for another day.
I never criticize how a fellow voter votes. That doesn’t mean our votes aren’t subject to criticism, including mine. Each voter has to do what he or she feels is best.
And now, here is this year’s ballot, which includes five names.
The Holdovers
There are three holdovers I voted for last year and again got my vote this year.
There is no question injuries slowed down Utley’s career and many feel he didn’t have the counting stats to get in, but he was a six-time All-Star and only four HOF second basemen have more home runs than Utley’s 259. Those four are Rogers Hornsby (301), Craig Biggio (291), Ryne Sandberg (282) and Joe Morgan (268). I’m big on second basemen who show great power, which is why I voted for Jeff Kent (377 career home runs) when he was on the ballot. Also, we tend to look at excellence, even if it is shorter-term. As mentioned last year, from 2005-2009, Utley’s slash line was .301/.388/535 and he averaged 29.2 home runs, 110. Runs. 101.4 RBI, 151 games and 675 plate appearances. His BWAR during that time was 7.7. Just nine HOF second basemen have a higher career B-War than Utley (64.5).
Utley won a World Series in 2008 with the Philadelphia Phillies and the next year hit five home runs in the 2009 World Series against the Yankees, tying an MLB record with Reggie Jackson in 1977 and George Springer in 2017. He was a career 275/.358/.465 hitter with an 823 OPS and 117 OPS+. Utley also won four Silver Slugger awards. Will it be enough? Last year in his first season on the ballot, Utley received 28.8% of the vote, so he has a long way to go.
This is Wagner’s 10th and final season on the ballot after coming close last year by earning 73.8% of the vote, missing by five votes. Those who don’t feel Wagner is a HOF player point to his low number of appearances and World Series statistics. Both are valid.
Wagner pitched just 903 innings. His postseason production, even though it only consisted of 11 1/3 innings over 14 appearances, was poor to say the least. He had a 10.03 ERA.
The reason for voting for Wagner was his excellence. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, his career WHIP of 0.998 is the lowest among all retired relievers with at least 700 innings pitched, and his career 2.31 ERA is lowest among retired left-handed pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched in the live ball era. His ERA+ of 187 is second all-time to only Mariano Rivera.
According to HOF expert Jay Jaffe, Wagner’s 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings (minimum of 900 innings pitched) is the best in MLB history. There are now others ahead of him, but they have pitched fewer than 900 innings.
Wagner finished with 422 saves, second highest among left-handed relievers and eighth overall. According to MLB.com, he converted 422 of 476 save opportunities (.887).
He was a seven-time All-Star and played on teams that advanced to the postseason seven times.
Wright falls in the Utley category of not having the counting stats due to injury. This is his second year on the ballot, and he only received 6.2 percent of the vote last year. Still, Wright was a dominant force when healthy. Wright was a seven-time All-Star during a nine-year period from 2005-2013. During that time, his slash line was .302/384/.505 with a 138 OPS+. He averaged 23 home runs, 90 runs and 93 RBI while also winning two Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger awards. Wright finished in the Top 10 for MVP voting four times. During that nine-year period, he was among the best players not only at his position, but in baseball.
According to the Baseball HOF, Wright is one of our four third basemen in history (along with Hall of Famers George Brett, Chipper Jones and Mike Schmidt) who retired with at least 350 doubles, 200 home runs and 150 stolen bases. He ended with 390 doubles, 242 home runs and 196 stolen bases.
He was a career .296/376/.491 hitter with a 133 OPS+. Only seven HOF third baseman have a higher OPS+ than Wright. Due to injuries, he was never a full-time player past his age 31 season.
The Newcomers
This is one player who is sure to create some debate. Among his biggest selling points were his career wins (251) and winning percentage (.609) in an era where wins aren’t valued the way they used to be. He is tied for 47th all-time in career wins.
Some would use his 3.74 ERA against Sabathia, which is fair. His career ERA+ was 116, solid but not spectacular.
On the positive side, he was the ace for the three teams that he played for (Cleveland, Milwaukee and the NY Yankees) and led all three to the postseason. (Later In his career he wasn’t the best pitcher on the Yankees, but for the first five years in New York, he was the ace).
The lefthander was a six-time all-star and the 2007 Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland. He finished in the top 10 of Cy Young voting four other times. He was a workhorse, having made 30 or more starts 12 times. Sabathia helped lead the Yankees to the 2009 World Series championship during his first year with the club. During that year he was the ALCS MVP, going 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in two starts against the Los Angeles Angels. In 10 of his 19 seasons he played on playoff teams and has a career 10-7 record and 4.28 ERA in 26 postseason games. Sabathia is one of three left-handers with at least 3,000 strikeouts. He recorded 3,093 strikeouts, which is 18th all-time.
Just as Adrian Beltre was a slam-dunk first-ballot selection last year, so is Ichiro this year. He has the credentials to be a unanimous selection. Probably the best stat is that Ichiro had 200 or more hits and won a Gold Glove in each of his first 10 seasons with Seattle. In 2001 he became the second player to win both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player award in the same season. What’s more impressive is that he didn’t make his MLB debut until the age of 27. In those first 10 seasons, he his slash line was .331/.376/.430. Before coming to play with the Seattle Mariners, he had 1,278 hits while playing in Japan. He finished with 3,089 career MLB hits and a .311/.355/.402 slash line. Ichiro won two batting tiles when he hit .350 in 2001 and .372 in 2004. He also stole 509 bases in 626 attempts (83%) in his career and was a 10-time All-Star, all coming in his first 10 seasons. In 86 postseason plate appearances, he hit .346/.400/.436. Mainly a right-fielder, Ichiro played 1,970 career games in right, 322 in center and 117 in left. He also had great durability, playing 150 or more games 13 times and 160 or more on nine occasions.
