The returning players, in order by vote percentage from last year and their write-ups I gave last year. We have 16 returning players and 5 newcomers on the 21 player ballot. The players back from last year are listed here, with their percentage vote from last year.
Returning Players
- RF Sam Sagar (69.2%)* 2nd Year
- SP Ricky Bolden (53.8%)* 2nd Year
- SP Jules Paradis (38.5%)* 5th Year
- CL Aubrey Colcheeper (30.8%)* 2nd Year
- SP Alfredo Aicon (30.8%)* 4th Year
- C Julian Harle (30.8%)* 5th Year
- CL Martin Griffin (30.8%)* 5th Year
- SP Dan Macias (30.8%)* 5th Year
- 3B Louis May (30.8%)* 3rd Year
- CL Joe Riley (23.1%)* 2nd Year
- RP Alfredo Gonzalez (15.4%)* 3rd Year
- LF Gregg Burkholder (15.4%)* 5th Year
- SP Reginald Krause (15.4%)* 3rd Year
- 3B David Paquette (7.7%%) 5th Year
- SP Jose Brito (7.7%)* 2nd Year
- 1B Tommy Green (7.7%) 5th Year
1st Timers
SP Earl Harper
CL Ernesto Jijon
SP Donald Manning
SP Guillermo Mendoza
SS Augusto Pena
Fell off the Ballot
- SS Gael Goyette
- 1B Jason Grant
- C Lucio Harrell
- SP Lewis Jefferson
- SP Art Ellis
- 2B Dylan Sinclair
The Too Old, Pretty Much Too Late (2):
3B David Paquette. Drafted at age 32 by Baffin after putting up 6+ WAR in 2 of the last 3 years. Put up 4 straight solid seasons with OBP over .360 and an OPS around .800 with 4+ WAR before leaving for Indy as a 36 year old. He would play one more year in LA before calling it a career at age 37 in 2016. Finished 5 hits short of 1400, 140 HR and 36.8 WAR.
SP Jules Paradis. Tough decision where to put him. Drafted late but had extreme longevity. 4-time All Star and innings eater who played til age 39. While his 44.1 WAR put him 25th All-time right now, his career would be similar to Steve Haynes right now. Good pitcher, but started in 2007 at age 31 was just too late for him, starting at age 23.....we might be talking.
The Were They Good Enough? (5):
SP Reginald Krause. An early time ace who's two best seasons were at 23 and 24. He had a very bright start to his career, and stuck around for 13 seasons, but was really never one of the better players in the league after the age of 25. He finished his career 128-114 with a 4.35 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 4.23 FIP and 31.8 WAR. He won 10+ games 7 times in his career, but he just didn't have a HOF career IMO.
1B Tommy Green. Drafted as a 25 year old in the inaugural draft after an impressive three straight 4+ WAR seasons. He would win the MVP award in our first season with a career high numbers across the board. Had 2 more productive seasons in HEN before being shipped off to Madison where his production would fall off sharply. Eventually retired as a 33 year old with 1728 career hits, a .298/.380/.484 hitters with 35.3 career WAR.
LF Gregg Burkholder. One of the players who beat father time and played until he 40 in 2018. 1 time GG winner and 2 time all star, was a solid player, but never a star. His .290/.390/.490 to go with 215 HR and 1372 hits was good for 37.5 WAR, which leads a lot of early stars, just isn't good enough to sniff the Hall IMO.
3B Louis May. An original player who had a long playing career that spanned 14 years. He finished his career a .270/.389/.440 player with 465 doubles, 213 HR and 1006 RBI. He was a 3-time All Star and 1 Time Gold Glove Winner. He topped 5 WAR on 4 separate occasions, with his best season coming in 2013 with Hadonfield. He was a good player and he does rank 14th in doubles and was an OBP machine, I'm not sure there is enough there to consider him a HOF player.
SP Jose Brito. I would describe Brito as a workhorse. He surpassed 200 innings eight times while winning 10+ games 10 times in his career. His tendency to give up the long ball is probably what held him from being a great pitcher. He finished his career with a 159-112 record to go with a 4.03 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 4.47 FIP and 28.2 WAR. A nice long career, but not HOF worthy.
The Relievers (4):
MR/CL Martin Griffin. He was great while he played. Racked up 323 saves with a 2.42 ERA, 2.63 FIP and an ERA+ of 237. He did get started in 2009 at age 29 and in the BSA years at 32. Was one of the best closers of his time, but has already been surpassed by 5 players in terms of saves. Personally I think it's tough to vote in relievers and his late start might cost him, though he was very impressive for an extended amount of time.
RP Alfredo Gonzalez. Often overshadowed being 2nd in line to the great Tommy Smith in Hendersonville. He retired with a sparkling 2.24 ERA, 2.23 FIP, 0.94 WHIP, 10.9 K/9 and 25.0 WAR. For all intents and purposes, he has better stats across the board than Griffin except for the saves. Instead of the beginning of his career cut short, it was the end where he last pitched in the big leagues at age 32. His 185 holds rank 11th in BSA history.
CL Aubrey Colcheeper. Colcheeper was a very good closer for a very long time. He played parts of 15 BSA seasons, retiring at age 40. He was a 4-time All star and currently ranks 12th in saves with 321. He led the league in saves once and finished his career with a 2.30 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 2.44 FIP. He falls into that category of very good relievers.
CL Joe Riley. One of the BSA's best closers and currently sits 4th all time with 425 saves. He led the league in saves 3 times. He finished with a 2.76 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 12.1 K/9 and and 2.98 FIP. He was voted to the AS game 4 times and was dependable for a long time. Besides saves his career marks fall short of Colcheeper's though. He also falls into the very good reliever category
Fringe Contenders (4):
C Julian Harle. He was a beast in pre-BSA years winning the MVP in 2008 before being drafted as a 25 year old by LAB. He could never could replicate his early years but did go on to win 2 battling titles and finished as 4 time All Star. His 1559 hits to go with a solid .300 average and 41.9 WAR are impressive but have already been surpassed by 7 catchers (Madrid, Fujita, Antelo, Gomez, Moore, Molina, Torres). Nice career, but not quite HOF worthy in my book.
SP Dan Macias. I will say he has the best resume of pitchers who have retired at this point next to Garrett who has already been inducted. Finished with 167 wins, 4 time All-Star selections and led the league in WAR in 2014. His 55.8 WAR is the highest by players eligible and is 11th all-time for pitching WAR at the moment. One of only 16 pitchers with 2K strikeouts. Good enough to get in? IMO he would be the closest, but still a fringe contender
SP Alfredo Aicon. Aicon was a 7 time All-Star playing his entire post-2010 career with the current Los Cabos franchise. His 165 wins rank him 12th all time, 2 wins behind Macias who is also on the ballot. He and Macias are both similiar in wins and innings pitched. Aicon finished his career with 47.3 WAR, a 3.36 ERA and 3.86 FIP. I would rank Aicon and Macias in the same tier and would hard to vote for one and not the other.
SP Ricky Bolden. Ricky was a 5 time all-star who pitched for 7 teams in his career. He was a strikeout machine, racking up 2536 K's which currently ranks 5th all time. He won 191 games and led the league in 2011 with 21, the only time he reached the 20 win plateau. He was a very good pitcher and ace for a long time. He finished with a 3.94 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 4.04 FIP and 51.1 WAR. IMO he wasn't as good as Garrett who was voted in last year, but would be a fringe contender in my book.
The Contenders (1):
RF Sam Sagar. Sagar was a 9-time All Star who picked up the ROY award in 2007 and the MVP in 2008. A solid all around player who finished his career with a .309/.381/.537 with 2447 hits, 576 doubles, 380 HR and 1361 RBI. Sagar was one of the league's first superstars and ranks near the top in almost all hitting categories at the current time.
The Newcomers (5):
SP Earl Harper. The knuckleball throwing Harper was a strikeout machine who played in 16 different seasons in the BSA and was one of the last players who played in all 3 pre-BSA seasons. He amassed 181 wins and his 2731 career strikeouts trails only Scott Hill for 2nd all time. He was a 2-time all star, but his real achilles heel was giving up the long ball, which he gave up 366 in 433 starts. While he was dominant at times and had several very good years, I just can't say that I would vote him in and would fall into the fringe category.
CL Ernesto Jijon. Playing part of 15 seasons, Jijom had a good career which saw put up 13.2 WAR over his career which included 346 saves, most of which came with the San Francisco franchise. He was a very good closer, but was never dominant and was only voted into the AS game twice. That being said, there are relievers on the ballot right now who are much more deserving than him.
SP Donald Manning. Manning was a 2-time All Star who split the majority of his career between the Maui and Greenville franchise. He won 15+ games 5 times in his career but was really never in the Top 5 at his position. He finished his career with 123 wins and 23.4 WAR, but didn't have the dominance nor the longetivity for me to consider a contender.
SP Guillermo Mendoza. For us old timers Mendoza will probably always be known as the 1st move Goldi made when he came into the league, fleecing the then Haddonfield franchise out of the reigning Cy Young Award winner. That would be the only Cy Young Award that Mendoza would win and he would elected to the AS Game 4 times in his career. He left Toronto at age 31, and put up a 5.1 WAR season with Chicago at age 32 and was looking like he might have a HOF career....but quickly fell off the table and in his final 3 seasons he put up 0.9 WAR combined, for a career total of 42.7 to go with a career record of 143-93 with a 3.75 ERA. Hall of very good?
SS Augusto Pena. Pena was a career journeyman playing for 7 franchises in parts of 14 BSA seasons. He won the Rookie of the Year of the BSA's 1st official season in 2010 and would later pick up a Gold Glove in 2017. I would say he was an above average overall player for his career. Never an all-star and never great with the stick, most of his value came from his glove, though he does rank 13th in doubles with 471 and 9th in Stolen Bases with 320.
There's this year's class. Thoughts? Will we have anyone join our 2 Hall of Fame players? Remember, if you do not wish to vote for anyone, please submit an empty ballot. Also I am counting this as my post-season PR.
