If you look at the Wikipedia article on Albert Belle you will find that the section on his controversies is longer than his accomplishments.  He fought with sportswriters, with fans, with other players, and his temper was legendary.  So was his prowess with a bat.

Albert Belle may have been the most feared slugger of the 1990s.  He was the first 50/50 man (doubles and home runs) in baseball.  He pounded out extra base hits by the truckload and was able to generate a decent Batting Average.  He was a constant Triple Crown threat as he was to win the MVP Award.  In fact, Belle was jobbed out of the 1995 MVP to Mo Vaughn, likely due to the baseball media's hatred of him.

Albert Belle retired at the age of 34 due to a degenerative hip condition, though he quit his baseball career before his numbers declined to an unproductive level.  The writers’ bad will towards Belle meant they would have had to amass numbers they could not ignore.  As he did not hit them, they dropped him off the ballot after two years.  If the writers only looked at what he did on the field instead of off of it (as they should), it is hard for them to justify why his vote tally was so low.

Omar Vizquel was considered one of the best defensive Shortstops of all time, earning 11 Gold Gloves and posting a career Defensive bWAR ranked in the top 10.

This isn’t to say that Vizquel couldn’t provide assistance with his offense.  The Shortstop had 2,877 career hits in a career that saw him play until he was 45 years old.  He also had 279 career Stolen Bases, but what holds him back is a low on-base percentage (.336) and a lack of a power game.  Advanced metrics don’t help him (offensively anyway), but in his prime (and evidently well past it), this was a player that teams wanted on their roster.

Following his retirement, Vizquel was involved in a domestic violence scandal that shattered his chances and plummeted his votes.

With all due respect to Ivan Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero, statistically speaking, Manny Ramirez is the top dog of the new possibilities for the 2017 Class. We will also say that he was the most entertaining. We are all aware of the eccentric “Manny being Manny moments, but ahead of all that was a man who was an incredible hitter who had a career slash line of .312/.411/.585/.996 that included one Batting Title, three On Base Percentage Titles, three Slugging Titles, and three OPS Titles. Most importantly, Ramirez maintained his offensive production in the postseason and was the Most Valuable Player for the Boston Red Sox in their 2004 World Series win. Arguably, Manny Ramirez is one of the most prolific offensive superstars to never win an MVP award or even make a runner-up finish, though he was in the top 10 in voting eight times, and he has more than enough stats to be a Hall of Fame entry.

Still, we all know what the elephant in the room is here, don’t we? “Manny being Manny” meant Manny injecting himself with Performance Enhancing Drugs, and unlike many suspected PED users, Ramirez WAS caught and served a suspension for it. If alleged PED use keeps superstars out, confirmed PED use will probably keep him out, regardless of what the stats say.  As he recently concluded his ten years on the writer’s ballot, we know the answer. 

Kenny Lofton took the city of Cleveland by storm in the early 90’s and by doing so, got the baseball world to notice the Tribe again. By the decade’s end, though, power numbers took over the game, and many forgot how good he really was.

Lofton’s emergence with Cleveland saw him cement himself as the best leadoff hitter in the American League. With five straight seasons hitting at least .300 (and with a decent OBP), he was able to set the table often with his speed. Five times, Kenny would be the Stolen Base king of the AL, and he was a must-watch defensively. With his incredible speed and athleticism, Lofton was a SportsCenter highlight reel by robbing batters of Home Runs and his diving catches. As must-watch a player as Lofton was in the 90’s, he would be overshadowed by the power hitters of the last half of the decade. His 2000’s also saw him bounce from team to team, and though he wasn’t a player we would classify as a journeyman, he certainly travelled like one. These perceptions may cost Kenny Lofton dearly in his pursuit of Cooperstown.

If Baseball truly is an International game, then we would like to name Julio Franco as its Global Ambassador. 

The Dominican-born Franco played professional baseball until age 47 in the United States, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and his home country. Cooperstown does not recognize accomplishments abroad, but despite playing outside the Majors for an extended period, he still amassed over 2,500 hits. Franco had a strange batting stance, but considering he batted over .300 eight times, a Batting Title, and five Silver Sluggers, it had to be considered effective. 

Julio Franco may be the ultimate test of whether the Baseball Hall of Fame would reward durability over what is considered traditionally great by Baseball standards.