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The 2025 MLB HOF voting is in. While most of the attention will be about those that made it, we are an Angels site, so, here, we care about former Angels who were in danger of falling off the ballot. Hunter and K-Rod survive onto 2026, just barely in Hunter’s case. Only 20 voters voted for him, he needed all 20 votes.
Quijada avoided Arbitration after all, as he gets a deal with the Angels. 1/1.075M
Around Baseball
The 2025 MLB HOF class will be 3 members, Ichiro, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner. Honestly, they were by far the 3 most deserving on the ballot.
Ichiro was the most shoe in guy by far, what was the real question was if he would be unanimous? Turns out, no, 1 voter left him off the ballot. No one knows who it is, but there were no blank ballots this year. At 99.7% it is the 3rd highest percentage of all time. He is also the Marlins’ HOF player with most games played for them. Oh and the Mariners will retire his number.
Of those that did not make the cut, Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones are the closest, at 70% and 66% respectfully. Next year they are the favorites to get in. And why is that? Because the 2026 MLB HOF ballot looks to be one the weakest ever.
Dodgers signing so many players they have to make roster moves to add the players they added. Life is not fair.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
So the IndiGuards sign Paul Sewald in their attempt to bullpen baseball to death…. their pen is gonna be siiiiicccckkk.
Oh, is Paul Sewald someone whose picture should be posted in the comments section along with the caption “he should have been ours”?
He’s not like a closer level guy, but he’s solid, and in Cleveland his WHIP will drop another half tick.
Huh ? He was a closer level guy that got the D Backs into the World Series in 2023
I mean on the Indians. They’ll have a couple guys ahead of him.
Only if he pitches in 2025 like he did in the second half of last year.
Be careful… you might invoke him…
my musing for today….
a facebook friend listed his all-century team today. We’re a quarter of the way through it now, and this got me thinking. I thought, since we have another 75 years, a list like that is bound to change as bigger, stronger, faster players come and go.
It’s been said that the pre-integration players weren’t quite as good as they seemed *because* they weren’t playing against the best competition. That’s probably true. Ruth’s 60 HRs might have been 50. Sadly we’ll never know. And now we have the best baseball players from all over the world. And yet…
i wonder if there’ll even be baseball, as a major sport, by the year 2100. I think a case can be made that today’s top level of baseball is relatively inferior to 50 years ago because of the decline of baseball and the rise of football and basketball, both of which have taken a lot of the very best athletes.
I haven’t dived too deeply into this since it just occurred to me this morning but I have a hunch the 1970s were really the Golden Age of baseball. Or is that my age showing?
Good conversation. My take:
About a third of baseball was not white in Mays day, so about a third of the guys Ruth faced didn’t belong in the Majors. You take the worst third of the pitchers Ruth faced and he probably did half his damage against them. Replace that third with the best third of the Negro and Cuban leagues and you have the much deeper league the Mays played in. Ruth’s numbers take a huge hit in that scenario. Hence my contention Mays is the GOAT.
Football and basketball have weaned athletes in America, but compared to 30 or 50 years ago the number of kids playing globally has exploded. You could name the odd Dominican or Asian player back in the 80s and 90s. Now you can’t even keep count of them. And the tide is turning against youth football domestically.
Sports are becoming more niche as streaming takes over broadcasting. Gone are the days of 3 channels, even 20-30 in the early cable days. Now there’s a content overload. So ratings are down for everything but global reach is actually expanding.
Take my other love boxing. Barely a peep over here yet Uysk vs. Fury 2 had well over 20 million global viewers between legal and illegal streams. So, as ratings domestically dwindle, realize people in Tokyo are watching MLB games now.
Really a great take, Jeff. The same thing is unfortunately occurring in Japan where soccer and now basketball are sucking great young athletes from baseball while Japanese women are choosing not to have kids. So, while baseball is still a king now, I don’t think it will last too long either there. Do you have any suggestion as to how to promote baseball to youth?
You can make a team of players from the last 25 years that would stack up against any other era in my opinion. Pujols at first, Ohtani as DH and an outfield of Trout, Judge and Betts would be better than the Murderer’s Row Yankees. Starting pitching might suffer a bit, but then you can throw Rivera, Wagner, Hoffman and bunch of others at them in the late innings.
I’m not a good judge, but I have asked older guys who I know played MLB in 70s and 80s and coach now. To a man they totally fail to coachdad this shit.
The point they pretty much all make is that a guy like Alec Bohm is bigger than Babe Ruth. A guy we consider a depth starter wouldn’t be the best pitcher in 1957, Bob Gibson etc is still all time great, but the tomato can pitchers of today would have been pretty devastating compared to say Jack Kralick. A guy like Daryl Patterson would not be in AAA today. Players are, in general, huge and fast compared to then. A guy like Rengifo would be a big deal.
Though a guy like Mays, with today’s resources, may be Acuna Jr, in a lot of cases you just had weaker athletes and pitchers back then and todays rosters are just full of guys who would do well in 1962.
The HOF clearly set the floor for entry when they allowed Artificially Big Papi in.
Andruw Jones career WAR is over 10% higher than Roidy’s.
Bobby Abreu’s is right at 10% higher than Roidy’s.
Ian Kinsler’s is nearly identical.
I’m not saying the last two should be in, but when you consider Ortiz got in first ballot despite a positive PED test, it is pretty obvious the HOF voters are shit.
So following that logic, and I don’t necessarily disagree, WAR is the be-all end-all number for entry? If so a lot of players need to be ejected as well.
I don’t use WAR as the end all be all and I particularly dislike it for pitchers and players before 2000 or so.
But these are Ortiz’s peers and were measured by the same metrics and to the same degree so WAR is a fair comparison.
All three of these guys provided similar or better overall value to the one trick roid boy. Yet none of them will sniff the Hall while the roider got in first crack.
I don’t see Sabathia as a HOF guy. Imagine if he put up those middling numbers for a team other than NY, such as the Angels.
250 wins in middling?
It’s not even half as good as Cy Young.
I’m assuming this is sarcasm
I’ll have to ask Mia how she inserts the sarcasm font.
3.74 ERA is mediocre. I see him as a workhorse.
This shows why looking at the raw numbers only tells part of the story. Sabathia has a career ERA of 3.74, but his Adjusted ERA+ is 116. That’s the same as Eckersley who had a 3.50 ERA. It’s one better than Jim Bunning who had a 3.27 ERA and three better than old-timer Charles “Chief” Bender who had a 2.46 ERA. When scoring is up across the league, ERA will be too.
Nah, he’s a 100% a HOFer
But f WAR is the measure as noted above, he’s a first-ballot’er at 62.3.
Right?
2009, if the Angels had CC, they would have won the World Series.
To finish my thought, off the top of my head, here is a partial list, in no particular order, of more deserving SP’s who are not in: Johan Santana, Luis Tiant, Vida Blue, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Curt Schilling and Orel Hershiser. I’d rather have any of these guys go at peak in a Game 7 than Sabathia (well, maybe not Tommy John). Sabathia is a slightly less deserving than Don Sutton type, who also doesn’t belong IMO.
Many on this list are hampered by not having a long enough peak, but I’m okay awarding HOF for a smallish number of amazing seasons.
Tim Anderson to the Angels
Eat it dodgers!
Minor league deal, can cover short until Neto is ready and can always move to 2nd. Not bad.
I hope he’s a defensive replacement only. His last season made Rendon’s look good in comparison. The only plus is Anderson won’t be paid much.
His recent batting exploits look like Danny Espinosa without the home runs.
Or the Beard
Yeah, on a minor league deal, I’m fine with it.
Honestly not bad
Cheap lottery ticket. Good move!
Not bad compared to what…..signing Albert Pujols for the 2025 season?
Exactly. There’s nothing wrong with a big pile of “Might be useful, won’t hurt if he isn’t” players heading into March. MUCH better than an FA you need to play at this stage for us.
Five years from now he will most likely be relegated into the “Oh, I forgot that guy played for the Angels” category.
I’m okay with signing before spring training. It’s during the season that would concern me.
Love this lottery ticket signing. The dude was a top short stop just a couple seasons ago before he suddenly forgot how to play baseball. Worth taking a shot.
Just make him watch The Sandlot before he comes to camp. Remind him that he likes baseball and he’s good at it. Get him to hit .290. Trade him.
Or get Jose Ramirez to knock some hitting sence in him.
ATTENTION: BIG SPLASH HAS OCCURRED!
Tim Anderson was good in 2022. His 68 strikeouts to 7 walks last season must have been the attraction to Perry.
Panda bats will be in a deep freeze to start the season
https://www.instagram.com/p/DEp5GaRPSsH/
Baseball America ranks Caden Dana #78 and Christian Moore #79 in their Top 100 😇😇.
Andruw Jones was my favorite non-Halo as a kid. It was a shame how he completely let himself go after signing with LAD because he was undoubtedly on a HOF trajectory.
Based strictly off WAR — he should make it eventually, but not a slam dunk like he could’ve, and should’ve, been.
Maybe fun to debate who among current farmhands is most likely to join them. People seem to gloss over the fact Rada played AA last year at age 18. He was a high school senior basically. Only batted .230, sure… but finished strong, hitting .300-ish final two weeks. As a high school senior.
I think that, if he stays fast and doesn’t sell out for power, he can be a CF with a .350 OBP and 30+ steals a year with plenty of doubles.
I know that in modern baseball we are all supposed to shit ourselves if a player doesn’t hit 20 HR, but I still think he has plenty of potential value. 85 Cardinal/Royals style value. I’m actually excited to see what he’s like at 22.
DO NOT RUSH HIM A BREAK HIM LIKE ADELL!
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Adell wasn’t killed, thus ADELL ERA 2025
Yeah…. but it would have been great if he’d skipped two seasons of being “Maverick without Goose” and just developed and then been called up. Not being almost arb eligible his first useful season.
But we had a fkin WINDOW we had to hit.
Also excited to see what Ryan Johnson does in his first year of pro ball. Pre-draft, MLB.com tapped him as the pitcher with the best control of any amateur prospect (less than 2 BBs per 9), along with a 65-grade wipeout slider that was probably one of the best five or six in the draft. If he has the stamina to stick as a starter and can develop a dependable off-speed pitch, that’s a dangerous combo… power plus precision. Possible top-of-rotation talent.
I think if the Angels actually start using multi inning relievers in different situations Bachman may be a break out guy…. but not a top 100 prospect. I actually think Burke, Crouse, Marte and Zeferjahn could all do the same. Guys who can face all nine batters one time.
I think, mostly because 3B prospects are thin on the ground, that Fontenelle is a dark horse to follow up being lost to injury with a #90 type showing in AA/AAA this year.
Yeah I’m rooting for Fontenelle too. Great mid-round pick.
I have my eyes on Ryan Johnson as well!
Taylor Blake Ward recently comped Rada to Denard Span and I think he might be right.
Span never lit the world on fire with his bat, but he retired with a career slash line of .281/.347/.398 and an OPS+ of 103. Add in baserunning and his wRC+ was 105.
Dude played really good defense, got on base, and was a solid runner once he got there. You can win with a guy like that, especially if you pick up some power elsewhere like behind the plate.
IE a “building block”. If Neto/Adell/Moore/O’Hoppe/Some guy from this draft turn out to have power, in addition to old Trout, then it’s valuable having say Rada and Schanuel with OBPs over .350.
that’s what I want, old Trout. I’m not expecting that but that’s what I want.
I think he means a mid 30s Trout. Even that version, if healthy, should crack 30 to 40 bombs. If he does that while rotation through LF and DH because a 20 year old Denard Span replica is roaming center, that’s perfectly fine.
Would gratefully accept a Span-like career from Rada.
Klassen and Rada
since you qualified your question as ‘current farmhand’, that leaves out whoever gets picked at #2 in June.
That’s likely who may next appear on the BA Top100 prospect list.
Also Dana and Moore could be in the MLB by summer too.
My guess is Rada – because he will have a good 2025.
True. No way our No. 2 is NOT a Top 100 out of the gate unless Perry and co do another under-slot thing.
One voter did not have Ichiro on his ballot….one voter, what a doofus!!
I was many years ago at the Big A and watched Ichiro have a 5 hit game, so glad that he is in, incredible player with both bat and glove and teammate. 10 straight seasons of 200 hits with a high of 262!
The Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame pretty much sucks with who gets in and who doesn’t. Some who cheated have not been held out while other cheats have been included in. Some with numbers so low you have to scratch your head while others with big numbers are left out. Why are the writers so inconsistent?
I commented yesterday. Minus 4 extra years of pitching, Billy Wagner might have been better than Mariano Rivera. But Wagner gets in FINALLY while Rivera is a guy we all had to gushingly get in unanimously on his 1st ballot.
Why? Pinstripes.
It wouldn’t bug me if there wasn’t such a huge difference in how the baseball press values stats done in a select few uniforms.
The Blyleven effect. “Just a stat collector”. Sure he “collected” over 95 WAR in 22 seasons with what was the 3rd most careers Ks at the time and an infamous curveball that gave him a 1.19 career WHIP. He was also a famous character in the clubhouse. But he played for small markets and never won…. oh accept for those WS titles with the Pirates and Twins…. which are only 1/3 as valuable as a Dodgers or Yankees title.
Sure, he played a long time…. but he was good. It’s not like he took 22 years to crack 50 WAR. But it still took forever for the man to make the HOF. If he’d been a Yankee? In in his 2nd year.
Also the best Bermanism of all time: Bert “Be Home” Blyleven.
Richie Allen or Dick Allen in the MLBHOF! Malcontent that was an MVP in a weak year in the AL in ’72. His rookie season was over the top G-R-E-A-T, but Allen comes up short, very short on career numbers.
“Did he over .300 for a career?”
“Well, no not really”
“Did he have 2500 hits?”
“Well, no not really”
“How about 1500 runs or 1500 rbi”
“Well, no not really”
“500 or more Homeruns?”
“Well, no not really”
“Was he well-liked by the press or teammates?”
“Well, no not really”
“Was he a good fielder?”
“Well, not really”
“Then why is he in the Hall of Fame?”
“Well, I don’t know, makes no sense to me”.
Grandpa, I’m going to have to disagree with you about Dick Allen. His rookie season was great, but the following three seasons were just as good. You see the ’72 season as weak, but I see it as Allen excelled during a particularly strong year for pitching. That was the season the DH was implemented, and we saw phenomenal seasons by Gaylord Perry, Wilbur Wood, Mickey Lolich and that Nolan Ryan fellow. His year is just as strong as the National League’s best that season. I agree he didn’t reach the milestones you mentioned, but he only played in 1749 games and was an absolute beast in the lineup. His OPS+ compares to the best of an era that boasted of Mays, Aaron and Frank Robinson. No, he wasn’t a great teammate or accommodating to the press, but then Philadelphia in the 60s wasn’t a particularly hospitable place for a young, black man to be, ballplayer or not. And Mike Schmidt, no Mr. Congeniality himself, stated in his biography that Allen was a fine teammate as the Phillies started their mid-70s run. His selection makes perfect sense to me.
I had a Dick Allen Slurpee cup from a 7-11 when I was a kid so I liked him.
That’s awesome!
Wow – slim pickings in 2026. Without looking at any stats, Hamels is the only one I see that made me think he’s a maybe. Andruw Jones makes the run next year. Beltran gets in next year – Andruw Jones would have my vote too. While I think I’d lean towards a no on Utley – I’m a definite yes on Whitaker and Grich, so I guess that might sway me as I know their stats are very similar.
MLB Network analysts said the same since there are no certain first year candidate who would get 75% for 2026 that Andruw Jones and Beltran will get in next year. I did not know this, but Andruw Jones played in Japan and he was pretty popular there.
Beltran was a cheater for the Astros and that might hold him back.
I moved to Portland two years before Ichiro’s arrival in Seattle. I was so excited to see him that I bought a pair of 16 game partial season tickets to Mariners home games. I left Portland about 2 pm in the afternoon with my 3rd grade son and arrived around an hour before 7 pm game except for Sunday games. I drove 4 hours to get there and 3 and 1/2 hours to return home with my son sleeping in the car x 16 times. Mariners won every single game that we went to. Mariners tied the MLB record with 116 wins that year, and I still believe if 9/11 did not happen in NYC, they would have won their first World Series. My son became a huge Ichiro’s fan. It was crazy that I did that, but I fondly remember the good time that I had with my son.
Hall of fame vote we t exactly as I would have voted, only those three. Who ever left Ichiro off the ballot should have their voting rights revoked and they should be expelled to an uninhabited island with no communication. And Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran DO NOT belong in the Hall of Fame, regardless of the fact that there is a weak class. That should just mean that nobody gets in that year.
I’m biased for FRod to be enshrined, and maybe Bobby Abreu, but the3 this year all belong in the MLBHOF.
Ichiro was inducted into Japanese baseball (NPB) Hall of Fame earlier this month, and he only got 94% of the votes; Sadaharu Oh was interviewed about the outcome and said that there are some “fruitcake writers” in Japanese media. Are there any “fruitcake” writers in USA?
I’m guessing his body of work in Japan (statistically) is limited relative to his MLB career?
Yes, that was one of the reasons given, but they did not reveal the names of 7 writers who did not vote for him, so it is all speculation. But, as Morosi said on MLB Network, Japanese baseball fans are giddy about their countryman getting into MLB Hall of Fame; it affirms the legitimacy of Japanese baseball. Perhaps, Shohei Ohtani will get unanimous votes 5 years after he retires?
Ichiro only got 94% in Japan? Yeeesh. I’ve seen Ichiro, multiple times at the Big A. The guy was amazing, besides being a hitting beast, he has an arm that completely left me speechless. I saw him throw from right field to 3rd base and still couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. He is a generational star.
Fruitcake writers are everywhere in the US also! It takes absolutely no brains or talent to bang out drivel.
I’m just not a fan of CC – always thought he was overrated due to playing on the Yankees.
i just refreshed my memory of the 2009 ALCS and how CC did against us that series…
im ok with him getting in I guess, he went 2-0 in that short series, 16 innings and gave up just 9 hits and earned the ALCS MVP.
Jones hit 434 home runs and won 10 Gold Gloves. He was elite. Beltran to me was Mr. Steady, but I never saw him as elite. And he was injured way too much. But 20 years of steady stats is pretty impressive. I’d struggle to give him the vote, but not Jones.
Strong rumors of steroid use has been mentioned against him.
Jones lifetime batting average is somewhere around .258. Not sure that is Hall of Fane for me. Defensively he was great, he should be in the Hall of Pretty Good.
True, 434 dingers are hard to argue against.
I was glad to see that Fraudney received the exact number of votes he deserved.