This Year's Nominees - Who would you vote for?

Knuckles, I agree with Kevin Brown, I was trying to fit him into that category more than anything. He isn't a Hall of Famer to me, but I can at least see the argument. I did pretty well in my predictions except that it was Juan Gonzalez being the 4th newbie to stay on the ballot rather than John Franco, which is a bit of a surprise. I think there were just too many guys and there is the 10 player limit so some guys just got dropped. With no one major being eligible next season, (I guess Bernie Williams, Ruben Sierra or Terry Mulholland would be the best candidates, yes it is that bad), Larkin looks like a shoo-in, since they want to elect someone every year (although he should get in anyway, clear HoF for me). But Bagwell and Morris may see a big jump next year to get them close.

Here is the list of eligibles for next year according to ESPN...Edgardo Alfonzo, Pedro Astacio, David Bell, Jeromy Burnitz, Vinny Castilla, Scott Erickson, Carl Everett, Jeff Fassero, Alex S. Gonzalez, Danny Graves, Rick Helling, Dustin Hermanson, Jose Hernandez, Brian Jordan, Matt Lawton, Javy Lopez, Bill Mueller, Terry Mulholland, Jeff Nelson, Phil Nevin, Brad Radke, Joe Randa, Tim Salmon, Ruben Sierra, Jose Vizcaino, Bernie Williams, Eric Young Not good. And I did find out that anyone who has played 10 years is eligible but there is some kind of vetting committee that decides who actually is on the ballot. So that makes it a bit more special. Although, how any vetting committee decided Bobby Higginson should appear on a HOF Ballot is beyond me.

Stubby Clapp sounds as if he was one of Spinal Tap's drummers.Gotta love Baseball-Reference.com: Clapp was indeed a mid-season call-up for the Cardinals in 2001: www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clappst01.shtml