Hall of Fame Poll: Roger Clemens

The next two on the ballot are Jeff Cirillo and Royce Clayton, who I feel pretty safe in saying are no one's idea of Hall of Fame players.

Cirillo was a pretty good player. He played 14 major league seasons, with 6 different teams. He had a .296/.366/.430 slash line, 112 home runs, 727 RBI. He played in 2 All-Star games.

Royce Clayton played 17 seasons in the majors, including a good part of 1 season with the Jays. He has a .258/.312/.367, 110 home runs,723 RBI and 231 stolen bases. He played in 1 All-Star game.

Now Roger Clemens...there's a guy who had a Hall of Fame career, if you are willing to overlook the substances he injected into his body.

In 24 seasons, Clemens had a 354-184 record, 3.12 ERA in 707 starts. 1580 walks, 4672 strikeouts (3rd all-time) in 4916 innings. He won 20 games in 6 different seasons.

He won 7 Cy Youngs, including 2 as a Blue Jay. He won 1 AL MVP award. Played in 11 All-Star games. Baseball Reference has him at a 133 WAR which is 3rd all-time for pitchers.

Roger was found not guilty of lying to Congress in 2008.

We have a few guys on the ballot that are believed to have used steroids, Roger, well he was a jerk about it. When he was found to have human growth hormone delivered to his house, he blamed it on his wife. To me that's as lousy a move as there is, guys are supposed to protect their wives, not use them as an alibi.

There are other things in his past that might cause the BBWAA to leave his name off the ballot. Throwing at Mike Piazza, with the ball and a broken piece of bat. And his affair with an under-aged Mindy McCready doesn't exactly speak to his good citizenship.