Hall of Fame Poll: Roger Clemens

Next on the Hall of Fame ballot is Luis Castillo, who had a pretty nice 15 year career, but I don't think anyone would consider him a Hall of Famer.

Luis hit .290/.368/.351 with 370 stolen bases and scored 1001 runs. He made 3 All-Star teams, won 3 Gold Gloves (I really didn't think he was a great defensive second baseman).

Next one worth voting on is Roger Clemens

Rogers Clemens had the stats of a a first ballot Hall of Famer, if you can ignore the fact that he used PEDs and that he is a giant (what's the technical term, oh right) asshat (it is kind of fitting that Bonds and Clemens are back to back in these polls).

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 and played in 11 All-Star games. Baseball Reference has him at a 133 WAR which is 3rd all-time for pitchers.

His numbers mark him as a Hall of Fame type, but then he's one of several on the ballot who used PEDs, which, generally, I don't think should be a deal breaker for making the Hall. Clemens, as is his nature, was a particular jerk about it. When he was caught having human growth hormones delivered to his home, he blamed his wife, trying to tell us that it belonged to her. That's incredibly scummy. A man should be protecting his wife, not throwing her under the bus. He also lied to congress about it. but then who hasn't lied to congress.

There really is no end to the examples of his jerkism, including throwing at Mike Piazza, with both a ball and a bat and there was the affair with an under aged, future country singer,  Mindy McCready.

Clemens is a very tough call for me. I don't think PEDs should necessarily be reason for to keep someone out of the Hall. Nor do I think being a lousy human being is reason to be excluded from the Hall. There are many lousy people in the Hall. It doesn't make sense to me to exclude new candidates from the Hall for being a lousy person.

But it is Roger Clemens.

I couldn't vote to give Roger Clemens any kind of award or honor.

This is Roger's fourth time on the ballot. He was on 37.5% of the ballots last year. I see very little chance that he could mount a campaign that would convince enough writers to get him on the 75% of their ballots before his name come s off the ballot.