This year's Hall of Fame class was announced yesterday, tabbing former Met Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for the honor. There were bigger stories besides just the inductees. The steroid issue continues to dominate the voting process and the surrounding chatter. And it probably will keep many of the suspected players out for the immediate future. Joe Posnanski spoke with Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson as part of his great HOF recap post and he found a man totally on board with the BBWAA witch hunt. Just to provide a little context again on this issue, this is the same group of writers who ignored and belittled the story while totally lined their pockets with windfall profits from the increased interest in the 1998 home run chase.
Met fans also had to be disappointed by the performance of some of their most beloved players on the HOF ballot. John Franco, in particular, had a rough day and did not qualify for another year on the ballot. Baseball Prospectus had a fun look at Franco's career. John Olerud also failed to qualify despite compiling a little less than the median WAR of Hall of Fame position players.
The two biggest snubs of this year? Probably Barry Larkin and Jeff Bagwell. Larkin's exclusion this year is intriguing because his career was so similar to newly inducted Alomar. And, we probably shouldn't worry too much about Bagwell because history is in his favor after his first ballot showing.
So, back to non-Hall of Fame stuff. Mike Piazza and Angel Pagan have been chosen to receive this year's Thurman Munson award for their outstanding efforts in the New York community.
I love Ted Berg's idea of bringing in a bunch of quirky players who will create good copy and fan appreciation.
Mets Geek takes a look at what we all thought about the Oliver Perez extension when it happened. Mixed bag here, but as the post concludes, no one could have predicted this.
St. Lucie to Flushing talks with Baseball America's Matt Eddy who still has high hopes for Brad Holt.
Craig Lerner over at Metsmerized has a funny article on how wrong Ford Frick was about most of his unbreakable record predictions.
The Florida farm system is looking particularly barren of late.
And, finally, two third basemen are making news and can expect significantly different paydays. Adrian Beltre signed on with the Rangers for big money while former great Eric Chavez is just hoping to impress someone enough to continue playing.