Community HOF Ballot

KL's procrastination led to a decent idea.  The HOF is always a good debate, so why not put together a HOF ballot from the community. Standard HOF ballot rules apply, meaning you can vote for up to 10.  You don't have to vote for 10, but up to 10 will count.   I personally have my votes in mind, and I will list them with reasoning after I list the candidates.

Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, Tim Raines, Lee Smith, Andre Dawson, Barry Larkin, Fred McGriff, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Kevin Appier, Harold Baines, Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, Pat Hentgen, Mike Jackson, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Don Mattingly, Dave Parker, Shane Reynolds, David Segui, Alan Trammell, Robin Ventura, Todd Zeile

Alomar- Best 2B of the 90s.  Not much question on him

Blyleven- People have gone over his case too many times for me to re-hash it here

McGwire- I can overlook some pills for bringing the game back to the hearts of the fans in '98.  In addition, I can't think of a hitter that pitchers feared more in the second half of the 90s. 

Raines- If it wasn't for Rickey Henderson playing at the same time as Raines, he'd already be in as the greatest lead off guy of his generation.

Larkin- The best SS in the NL of the 90s.  I made my case in KL's vote thread. 

Martinez-  I was on the fence on him, but then I looked at his numbers.  This guy was a sick hitter despite not getting regular big league action until he turned 27.  If you can list .300/.400/.500 hitters with 15 full seasons in the bigs that are eligible and not in the HOF, I'd love to see that list (I suspect Dick Allen is the list edit: He's not).

McGriff- Was always considered a top 1B in his time, and was the best hitter on the the Braves 95 world championship team (my call on that one).  What really put me over the edge was his similarity scores.  They include 4 HOF-ers (Stargell, McCovey, Billy Williams and Eddie Matthews) 4 likely HOFers (Thomas, Bagwell, Sheffield and Thome) and 2 great hitters (Galaraga and Delgado).  Some people will throw him in there with Galaraga and Delgado as good but not hall worthy.  I don't.

Morris- He was the ace on 3 world championship teams.  His game 7 performance in the '91 series will always be considered one of the best performances in the clutch by a pitcher.  And though Ws have as much to do with a pitcher's ability as hat size, between 79 and 92, he was in the top 10 in wins 12 out of 14 years.  That's pretty phenomenal. 

Andre Dawson- I was really on the fence here, but what convinced me was that he was a hell of a defender as well and the guy stole over 300 bases. He was the most feared hitter in the NL of the late 80s and the best power/speed threat of the early 80s, and IMO, Jim Rice got in last year when Hawk should've.

Guys I didn't vote for, but will be considered:

Smith- I'm kinda on the fence on this one, but frankly, he was the most consistent closer of his time, and remained a closer a very long time even though the position usually sees about 50% turnover every year.  I just couldn't pull the trigger.

Allen Trammell- later career injuries sapped away his abilities, and he just couldn't produce late in his career.  Hell of a player though

Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly- these guys were dominant for a few years, they just didn't do it for long enough. 

Baines- he may get more love once Edgar gets in, though I just don't think he was ever good enough.

Galaraga- had 3 years where he could've been the best hitter in baseball.  Unfortunately, those years were 88 (Gibson and Strawberry were better) 98 (Sosa and McGwire), and 93 (coors induced, and Bonds was ridiculous that year too).  Other than that, he was a good player, but not hall material.

Dave Parker- He'll take the Jim Rice route to get in.

What do you think?