There are many people who think of John Olerud only as the guy who wore a batting helmet in the field, which he did so to protect his skull, as he had a brain aneurysm as a teenager.  He was undoubtedly a lot more than that!

Olerud came up through the Blue Jays system and would become their starting First Baseman in 1992, after platooning for three years.  Having never played a game in the minors, Olerud would help Toronto win the World Series in back-to-back seasons (1992 & 1993), with 1993 being incredibly impressive.  In that season, he would win the Batting Title (.363) and would also lead the American League in On Base Percentage (.473), OPS (1.072), and Doubles (54). 

Olerud would not have another year like that, but there was a lot left for him to offer.  He had three more .300 Seasons (one with the New York Mets and two with Seattle), was an All-Star for a second time in 2001, and overall had five 20 Home Run Seasons, with 255.  

Defensively speaking, Olerud was one of the best at his position.  He would win the Gold Glove three times and would finish either first or second in Total Zone Runs for First Basemen seven times.

Roberto Alomar has been placed on Major League Baseball’s ineligible list following an investigation of a sexual misconduct incident in 2014. 

Alomar, who had been working as a consultant with MLB and was also a special assistant with the Toronto Blue Jays was immediately terminated from both roles.   The Jays, whom he won two World Series Titles with, announced that they will sever all ties with their former Second Baseman.  This includes removing a banner that honors his retired #12, and also his name from their ring of honor.  

The Baseball Hall of Fame, who inducted Alomar in 2011, will not be removing him.   He also will not be expelled by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, but they did state that they would not be inviting him to future events, nor will they do any work with his foundation.

Alomar played 17 seasons in a career spent with San Diego, Toronto, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York (NL), Chicago (AL) and Arizona.  

The career of Jose Bautista is a fascinating one.  After years of obscurity, a switch in his batting stance took him from journeyman to All-Star and to someone we deemed worthy of discussion.

Seriously, it came out of nowhere.  At 29, with his fifth team (Toronto), it clicked.  Bautista would be an All-Star for the first time, and he shot up from 13 to 54 Home Runs and would win the American League Home Run Title.  He earned his second HR strap the year after (43), and this was year two of six straight All-Star Games.  The power hitter would collect two more 35-plus homer years for the Blue Jays, and he and his bat flip took them to the playoffs in both 2015 and 2016.

Bautista finished in the top six in MVP voting four times and was a Silver Slugger three times.

His run with Toronto made him relevant and allowed him to become a player who would smack 344 Home Runs. 

Roghned Odur won’t consider Jose Bautista for the Baseball Hall of Fame, but others just might!

David Cone may not be best remembered for winning a Cy Young Award. He may be best known as a true hired gun that baseball teams coveted in their stretch drives.

Cone had the coveted label as a big game pitcher. Cone was at his best during high-pressure situations and showcased his abilities as a member of five World Series-winning teams. He was a very smart pitcher who used a variety of skills to defeat opposing batters. Cone was the subject of various sex scandals, yet was able to shut out those distractions and often had his best outings while the target of public ridicule. As such, he shook off those labels and kept only one: winner.

What prevented David Cone from making a serious run at the Hall of Fame was a few bad seasons that really brought down his overall career numbers. He failed to make the 200-win milestone, though had he had more offensive run support, he could have made it. His “hired gun” status also gave him a label that was unsatisfactory to some, though he was one of many to receive it. Flat out, David Cone was one of the top pitchers of the ’90s, and that should not be denied.

One of the more consistent hitters in his era, Carlos Delgado was only named to two All-Star teams due to the glut of top-tier first basemen in his time. He had great power numbers (473 Home Runs and 1,512 Runs Batted In) and a very good career OPS of .929, which sounds like Hall of Fame numbers, but his career WAR of 44.3, although good, is not on par with many of the current players they are looking at.

Dave Stieb may have received a World Series Ring with the Toronto Blue Jays when they won their first World Series in 1992, but the pitcher was at the tail end of his career and had little to do with the coveted trophy landing north of the border. He did, however, give Baseball fans the first legitimate reason to look there in the first place.

With only 176 career Wins in the Majors, Dave Stieb initially does not seem like a Hall of Fame candidate. What cannot be underestimated is the difficulty he had in his first five full seasons playing for a terrible Toronto team that constantly trailed the rest of the American League. Despite playing for bad Jays' squads, Stieb had a winning record and became a perennial All-Star. Three times, he would lead the league in WAR for Pitchers and would be dominant in many other sabermetric categories. 

The common knock on Stieb was that his intensity was so high (he would give teammates death glares when they made mistakes) that he would occasionally unravel. Still, we love players who want to win; we know there are far too many athletes who couldn't care less.