If anyone else has more players to add, I'd love to see them. I can't imagine the trimming is complete yet. Any cast out will be disputed - some more than others - but the point is to drop players that anyone can give a good reason why they should be removed from the Hall. Those reasons may be contentious, but if they are rational, they are considered legit.
In the Catfish Hunter case, his rejection usually comes from stat monkeys like myself. More traditional people tend to support him. It's basically the same dispute that occurs when arguing whether Jack Morris should be in the Hall. Indeed, Morris tends to rank pretty close to Hunter in personal lists I've seen, and the two currently sit at 82 (Morris) and 84 (Hunter) on Baseball-Reference's Elo Rater. I have them neck and neck.
Point is, I have certainly read enough on message boards and heard enough to know that I am not alone in my position on Hunter, and also that there are many who oppose my view. And I hope we can stick to those kinds of players when each of us decides who we would like to see gone. A vote for Andre Dawson, for example, is fine, but one for Hank Aaron is just trolling.
Glad to see some discussion on who should be in the Hall. As for Rose, I would only ban him for life if I had concrete evidence that he was throwing games. Otherwise, I would just suspend him while baseball investigates the situation. Rose claims he only bet to win, and unless the league could come up with strong evidence to the contrary, I would reinstate him. How long baseball should get to do that investigation is a more difficult issue, and I don't have an answer. And I won't keep anyone out because of PED use. It doesn't bother me.
Here are my top eligible players not in the Hall for each position:
C Ted Simmons
1B Jeff Bagwell.
2B Bobby Grich. He said in an interview that he had become aware of the push for him from the sabermetric community.
3B Sal Bando. Actually Edgar Martinez, but that's only because I don't rank DHs, and instead put them at the closest position.
SS Alan Trammell. Or Bill Dahlen. Makes no difference to me.
LF Tim Raines
CF Jimmy Wynn. I think he has an argument for the Hall, though he's not slam dunk. I know someone who used to work for the Astros. He told Wynn what I had said about that. Wynn disagrees with me.
RF Larry Walker. Even with the Coor's Field effect considered.
P Kevin Brown.
I know the comments make the list a pain to read. But there it is. Feel free to call me an idiot, and respond with your replacement for my stupid choices.