Baseball Hall of Fame Candidates

These are the players that are eligible for the Hall of Fame. It is a weak class, which means some of the previous guys who have not reached enough of the votes could possibly get in this year. But I want to take a look at this class…do any of them have a shot? Do any of them deserve to be in the HOF?

Gut reaction to seeing this list, I would say Cole Hamels, Edwin Encarnacion, Matt Kemp, and Ryan Braun. That is just a feeling, those are the guys I remember being the best from this list. I would also maybe put Hunter Pence in there, but without looking at his career stats, I think he falls into the Hall of Very Good (which sometimes gets into HOF). 

Am I right?

Cole Hamels: 163-122, 3.43 ERA, 2560 K, 59.0 WAR
Edwin Encarnacion: .260 AVG, 424 HR, 1832 H, 35.3 WAR
Matt Kemp: .284 AVG, 287 HR, 1808 H, 21.6 WAR
Ryan Braun: .296 AVG, 352 HR, 1963 H, 47.2 WAR
Hunter Pence: .279 AVG, 244 HR, 1791 H, 30.9 WAR
Shin-Soo Choo: .275 AVG, 218 HR, 1671 H, 34.7 WAR
Alex Gordon: .257 AVG, 190 HR, 1643 H, 34.8 WAR

Honestly, these are the only ones who even have a shot. I think you can exclude all of them minus Hamels. And even then, he falls fairly short of the usual HOF inductees. Ryan Braun is an interesting case. He was on track during those early years, but then came the PED suspension. Also, his career dropped significantly after that scandal (or maybe once he was not juicing his power dipped…but he also had a hand surgery that impacted his power). 

I guess Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones get in next year. Hamels is very similar to King Felix, so I imagine he gets about 20%. Will those two get in after a few years?