Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martinez, Bert Blyleven Next in Line at Cooperstown

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Dec 15, 2010

Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martinez, Bert Blyleven Next in Line at Cooperstown Editor's Note: NESN.com Red Sox reporter Tony Lee will examine one hot-button baseball topic each day in December. On Tuesday, he looked at baseball's top fashion trends.

Perhaps nothing engenders debate better than matters regarding the Baseball Hall of Fame. Therefore, in the interest of getting one going again, which players should be part of the 2011 Hall of Fame class?

It’s safe to say the baseball writers, as a collection, got it wrong when they left Roberto Alomar out of the Hall of Fame last year. They’ll get it right this time when he heads the 2011 class.

Alomar is the best of the bunch, a group that includes such non-factors (in the voting process) as Kirk Rueter, Lenny Harris and Bobby Higginson. The Mad Spitter was a 12-time All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glover, a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, an ALCS MVP and an All-Star Game MVP. He hit .300 or higher in nine out of 10 seasons through the prime of his career and finished with 2,724 hits.

Perhaps, some refrained from voting for Alomar in his first year due to his spitting incident with umpire John Hirschbeck. They will have to get over it and put him in this time. The outcry over him not making it will be more annoying to listen to than any debates over Alomar being a bad guy because he was quick with a loogie.

As mentioned, the list of candidates has some sure misses, guys who can get to the Hall but only by paying the admission, like anyone else. The rest of the list presents some intriguing players. Here are five guys who could follow Alomar in, either this year or in the next few.

Bert Blyleven
He was actually closer than Alomar was in 2010, missing induction by five measly votes. This will be the year for one of the game’s great curveball artists. In 22 seasons, Blyleven amassed 287 wins and 3,701 strikeouts, fifth on the all-time list. His 60 career shutouts are ninth all-time (the top 22 guys on that list are already in the HOF, except for Blyleven). Blyleven has seemingly been hurt by the fact that he won 20 games just once, never finished higher than third in Cy Young Award voting and was an All-Star just twice. But few in his era were as consistently good as Blyleven, who also shined in the postseason, going 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA.

Barry Larkin
Arguably the best shortstop in the National League for the better part of a decade, Larkin received 51.6 percent of the vote his first time on the ballot last year. That should jump once more take into account solid numbers that are very comparable to Alomar’s, a defensive resume that includes three Gold Gloves and an MVP campaign in 1995. Had he not been hampered by injuries throughout his career, Larkin would be a shoo-in.

Edgar Martinez
The issue which will always hamper Martinez’s candidacy is the fact that he spent the bulk of his career as a designated hitter. He was remarkable in that role (35th in baseball history in OPS), but his lack of a "real" position might keep his voting percentage below 50 percent for a few years. However, the DH pool will get deeper in time and these debates will rage with more frequency, similar to the way they once raged for closers. Seemingly, the tide has turned for that position as both Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter have made it in of late, and Dennis Eckersley was inducted in 2004. At some point, a guy who was basically a full-time DH will have to get in. Is Martinez — a seven-time All-Star, two-time batting champ and a .312 career hitter — a good place to start?

Jack Morris
It’s trending in the right direction for Morris, whose percentage in HOF balloting has risen from 37.1 percent to 52.3 percent in the past three years. A three-time 20-game winner who led the league in wins twice and strikeouts, complete games and innings pitched once, Morris presents a dilemma for those who might not value postseason performances as much. Throw in his 2.96 ERA in seven World Series starts and he might have enough to get a plaque. Take it out and he’s as fringe as fringe can get. If Morris does get in someday, Luis Tiant deserves a nod from the Veterans Committee.

Jeff Bagwell
Would he wear a Red Sox hat in? Course not, but it would give Boston one more connection to Cooperstown, even if it comes in reference to one of the more one-sided trades of all time. Bagwell, traded by the Red Sox for Larry Andersen in 1990, was as potent an offensive force through the decade as anyone else. Remarkably consistent, he drove in at least 111 runs in six out of seven years at one point. On three different occasions, Bagwell led the NL in runs scored, and he did so once in RBIs, once in doubles and once in walks. He was the league MVP in the strike-shortened 1994 season. Whispers of heretofore unfounded steroid use have been unfortunate. If those never surface, and hopefully they won’t, Bagwell figures to get to Cooperstown in time. Just not this year.

Which players should be part of the 2011 Hall of Fame Class? Leave your comments below?

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