Bleeding Yankee Blue: HALL OF FAME 2020 COULD BE A ONE-MAN SHOW

Monday, July 22, 2019

HALL OF FAME 2020 COULD BE A ONE-MAN SHOW

I don't understand how some people can say baseball is boring. There's so much strategy and I love how things can change in a game faster than you can blink. All of the walk off home runs or the unbelievable plays and the pitchers duels keep me interested. Then there's also just the human interest side of it. We all have our favorite players, Mariano Rivera was mine. I loved watching him play and I loved watching him get inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend. But have we just seen the most interesting Hall of Fame class for years to come?

It's been fun to watch all of these new names be added to Cooperstown recently. In the last 6 years, the Hall has been working overtime making new bronze plaques for their 29 new additions. That's more guys added to the Hall in the last decade without including the 17 Negro Leaguers that were inducted back in 2006. So, can the trend continue?

It doesn't look likely. According to baseball reference HERE the 2020 potential Hall of Fame Ballots there could be fewer bronze plaques being made not only for next season, but for a few years to come. Looking ahead to next year's first year eligible players include: Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi, Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett, Eric Chavez, Alfonso Soriano, Adam Dunn, Paul Konerko and Derek Jeter.

The biggest name on the list goes without saying, and that's Derek Jeter. The rest of the guys on the list for the first time were all good players, but even media outlets like Newsday are wondering.....could Derek Jeter be the only one inducted into Cooperstown next year? Could it be unanimous? Rivera was the first to get a unanimous vote, could Jeter be the second?

The first year ballots are not as exciting as recent years so that theoretically opens the door for players returning to the ballot to possibly earn extra votes. But would they get enough votes? The player with the highest votes from last year is Mr. Controversial Curt Schilling with 64.7% of the votes. After some stupid and racist comments back in 2015 and 2016 that hurt his votes he has won back a surprising number of votes the last couple of years which has inched him closer to the needed 75% to be voted in.

So whether you like Schilling or not, the smaller pool of eligible players may help him get voted into Cooperstown. His eventual election into Hall of Fame looks like it is getting more likely. He may not get in next year, but he may get in by 2021 which is his ninth year on the ballot.

The upcoming first year players through 2023 look pretty uninteresting compared to recent years. We could see very small classes for the foreseeable future. Is Jeter the only inductee next season? It will be interesting to see how many votes Jeter does get, and if anyone else shares the stage with him.