Phillies: Checking the Hall of Fame tracker

Where do the Phillies legends stand on the Hall of Fame ballot?

The Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2020 will be unveiled on Tuesday, Jan. 21 and there are five former Phillies who will be waiting by the phone and tuning in to see whether or not they are elected to the Hall of Fame or received enough votes to remain on the ballot.

With 41.3 percent of the votes made public (as of 11:00 p.m. Friday night) on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame vote tracker, where does the ballot stand?

Right now there would be three new members of the Baseball Hall of Fame: Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, and former Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling.

On his first ballot the votes for Jeter are still unanimous. Only his former teammate Mariano Rivera (last year) has received the honor of a unanimous vote.

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Walker is on his final ballot sitting with 85.3 percent, but he’s not out of the woods yet. Some projections have him receiving a painful 73-74 percent, falling just short of Cooperstown.

Schilling is also very close, but has received a generous jump after dropping and sitting stagnant for a couple of years. He currently has 79.4 percent of the vote, about 19 percent more than he received last year.

If you look at how Schilling has tracked in recent years, this is the first time he’s really remained above the threshold for the majority of the voting.

Schilling sat down with Bob Costas to talk about possibly getting into the Hall of Fame and what he thinks about those who don’t vote for him based on his Twitter and political views.

As for the other former Phillies, the only two tracking above 30 percent are Billy Wagner (35.9) and Scott Rolen (50).

Despite not having as many saves as Trevor Hoffman or Mariano Rivera, many of Wagner’s are better.

Wagner is the all-time leader in the following categories among all relievers with at-least 900 innings:

• 0.998 WHIP – Best in Live Ball Era
• 5.99 Hits/9 – Lowest in Live Ball Era
• 11.92 K/9 – Highest All-Time
• 2.31 ERA – Lowest by a LHP in Live Ball Era

You also can’t discount 422 career saves, more than Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers and sixth all-time, two behind John Franco.

Rolen has the second-most Gold Gloves among third basemen all-time with eight, only behind Mike Schmidt. As Jayson Stark points out, some of Rolen’s numbers are better than Adrian Beltre’s with three more Gold Gloves, and OPS 36 points higher, and an OPS+ eight points higher.

Bobby Abreu is still hanging on by a thread and is in danger of completely falling off the ballot on his first try. He needs just nine votes to receive the minimum five percent to stay on the ballot, which would be six percent of the 139 votes that are not public yet.

I’ve made the Hall of Fame case for Abreu several times, highlighting this one note I dug up.

Abreu is one of just seven players in baseball history with 550 doubles and 400 stolen bases, alone with Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Craig Biggio, Honus Wagner, Paul Molitor, and Barry Bonds. If you factor in his 288 home runs, Abreu, Biggio, Molitor, and Bonds are the only players in baseball history with 200 home runs, 400 stolen bases, and 550 doubles.

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Abreu was one of the best offensive outfielders of his generation, but he played on some bad Phillies teams before bouncing around the league. Yes, his case is not a slamdunk with zero 200 hit seasons, never leading the league in anything other than doubles and triples, and making only two All-Star teams. But Abreu deserves more than this minuscule support.

Speaking of minuscule support, Cliff Lee has just one public vote, courtesy of former New York Times writer Brendan Prunty.

The Phillies won’t have too many newcomers on the 2021 Hall of Fame ballot as Shane Victorino and A.J. Burnett will both be eligible for the first time. Then 2022 will feature Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Jeff Francour, Jonathan Papelbon, and Marlon Byrd, along with Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Mark Teixeira, Prince Fielder, and Joe Nathan.

Unfortunately, the arguments for Chase Utley won’t begin until 2024.