As we push ahead towards the class of 2017 HOF announcement on January 18th, I thought it would be a good idea to change the discussion away from WAR, Murray Chass, Bud Selig, Small Hall mindset, and the annual "nobody gets in until Pete Rose is elected" argument.

Now, we are only going to consider players that would be eligible for the HOF so Rose & Shoeless Joe Jackson are out, as are future eligible candidates like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Those two players should be close to unanimous!

Who are the top 10 players you think should have a plaque in Cooperstown but for reasons beyond our control, are left out in the cold?

Was checking over rosters for a theme league last night and was shocked to learn Tigers catcher Rudy York has not been enshrined. Does the veteran's committee meet anytime soon?

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1934	20	DET	AL	3	7	6	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	.167	.286	.167	.452	19	1		0	0			/2
1937	23	DET	AL	104	417	375	72	115	18	3	35	101	3	2	41	52	.307	.375	.651	1.026	151	244		0	1			25/3	MVP-23
1938 ?	24	DET	AL	135	557	463	86	138	27	2	33	126	1	2	92	74	.298	.417	.579	.995	140	268		2	0			*27O/3	AS
1939	25	DET	AL	102	376	329	66	101	16	1	20	68	5	0	41	50	.307	.387	.544	.931	129	179	8	2	4			23	MVP-33
1940	26	DET	AL	155	686	588	105	186	46	6	33	134	3	2	89	88	.316	.410	.583	.993	145	343	12	4	4			*3	MVP-8
1941 ?	27	DET	AL	155	687	590	91	153	29	3	27	111	3	1	92	88	.259	.360	.456	.816	106	269	16	1	4			*3	AS,MVP-23
1942 ?	28	DET	AL	153	653	577	81	150	26	4	21	90	3	3	73	71	.260	.343	.428	.771	109	247	16	0	3			*3	AS,MVP-27
1943 ?	29	DET	AL	155	661	571	90	155	22	11	34	118	5	5	84	88	.271	.366	.527	.893	152	301	22	1	5			*3	AS,MVP-3
1944 ?	30	DET	AL	151	652	583	76	161	27	7	18	98	5	3	68	73	.276	.353	.439	.792	121	256	18	1	0			*3	AS,MVP-23
1945	31	DET	AL	155	656	595	71	157	25	5	18	87	6	6	60	85	.264	.331	.413	.745	109	246	23	0	0			*3	MVP-32
1946 ?	32	BOS	AL	154	669	579	78	160	30	6	17	119	3	2	86	93	.276	.371	.437	.808	119	253	16	1	3			*3	AS,MVP-11
1947 ?	33	TOT	AL	150	644	584	56	136	25	4	21	91	1	0	58	87	.233	.302	.397	.699	94	232	22	0	1			*3	AS
1947	33	BOS	AL	48	206	184	16	39	7	0	6	27	0	0	22	32	.212	.296	.348	.644	74	64	10	0	0			3
1947	33	CHW	AL	102	438	400	40	97	18	4	15	64	1	0	36	55	.243	.305	.420	.725	105	168	12	0	1			3
1948	34	PHA	AL	31	58	51	4	8	0	0	0	6	0	0	7	15	.157	.259	.157	.415	11	8	2	0	0			3

http://www.si.com/mlb/2017/01/10/hall-of-fame-best-players-no-votes

best players who didn't even get a single vote for Cooperstown

Without researching ill make my list-not in order.Ill skip the steroids users i wouldve voted for.3rd basemen are underrepresented in HOF(like their fielding isnt important).So ill put a couple of those in
1 Graig Nettles
2 Matt Williams
3 Tim Raines
4 Tommy John
5 Jim Kaat
6 Larry Walker
7. Fred Mcgriff
8 bernie williams
9 Jeff Kent
10 Lance Parrish

Larry Bowa?

Well he played a ton of games at ss-i think hrs a defensive whiz-so if maranville & mazeroski (2B) can make it then....like i say i didnt research so if its bad choice so be it

Matt Williams?!?!?! Really?!?!? I've been a Giants' fan for over 40 years and at NO TIME did I think that Matt Williams was a HOF-quality player.

A couple of other 3B for the Giants would be better : Darrell Evans and Bill Madlock... heck, even Kevin Mitchell

It's hard. I think they do a good job of putting people in that should be HoFers. Just put Jim "Toy Cannon" Wynn, Raines, Bagwell, and eventually Edgar Martinez in, and we're gucci

Posted by farleyfustle on 1/11/2017 10:19:00 AM (view original):
Without researching ill make my list-not in order.Ill skip the steroids users i wouldve voted for.3rd basemen are underrepresented in HOF(like their fielding isnt important).So ill put a couple of those in
1 Graig Nettles
2 Matt Williams
3 Tim Raines
4 Tommy John
5 Jim Kaat
6 Larry Walker
7. Fred Mcgriff
8 Dave Lopes
9 Larry Bowa
10 Lance Parrish

3rd basem,en being underrepresented in the Hall is not a good reason to elect a 3rd basemen who does not belong there. I loved Nettles, but I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. neither is Matt Williams or Larry Bowa or Davey Lopes. The rest I can see someone making an argument for.

Anybody else think Steve Garvey deserved stronger HOF consideration?

Posted by wylie715 on 1/11/2017 12:54:00 PM (view original):

Posted by farleyfustle on 1/11/2017 10:19:00 AM (view original):
Without researching ill make my list-not in order.Ill skip the steroids users i wouldve voted for.3rd basemen are underrepresented in HOF(like their fielding isnt important).So ill put a couple of those in
1 Graig Nettles
2 Matt Williams
3 Tim Raines
4 Tommy John
5 Jim Kaat
6 Larry Walker
7. Fred Mcgriff
8 Dave Lopes
9 Larry Bowa
10 Lance Parrish

3rd basem,en being underrepresented in the Hall is not a good reason to elect a 3rd basemen who does not belong there. I loved Nettles, but I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. neither is Matt Williams or Larry Bowa or Davey Lopes. The rest I can see someone making an argument for.

Bill Madlock won 3 batting titles. Does anybody think he deserves to be in the HOF?

Maybe it would be more accurate to say i thought these people deserved more consideration than they got.Nettles is 3rd alltime in games played at 3rd with 2 gold gloves& 200plus plate appearances in playoffs.Williams with 389 hr's,4 gold gloves &also over 200 plate appearances in postseason.Lopes has 559 sb,over 80 successful.19sb 3 cs in postseason.1 gold glove.Also over 200 plate appearances.That penalizes theoldtimers who didnt get to play in wildcards & such.ps nettles with 390 hrs

Like I said, Nettles was one of my favorite Yankees from that era, but its the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Longevity. He was a very good player, but I don't think he was ever the best 3rd baseman in the game during his career.

Posted by wylie715 on 1/11/2017 12:54:00 PM (view original):

Posted by farleyfustle on 1/11/2017 10:19:00 AM (view original):
Without researching ill make my list-not in order.Ill skip the steroids users i wouldve voted for.3rd basemen are underrepresented in HOF(like their fielding isnt important).So ill put a couple of those in
1 Graig Nettles
2 Matt Williams
3 Tim Raines
4 Tommy John
5 Jim Kaat
6 Larry Walker
7. Fred Mcgriff
8 Dave Lopes
9 Larry Bowa
10 Lance Parrish

3rd basem,en being underrepresented in the Hall is not a good reason to elect a 3rd basemen who does not belong there. I loved Nettles, but I don't think he's a Hall of Famer. neither is Matt Williams or Larry Bowa or Davey Lopes. The rest I can see someone making an argument for.

That's a very complicated statement you're making and I suspect that a lot of people - including myself - would tend to disagree with it (Mike and Tec probably agree). Here's the thing. The HOF has between 21 and 24 players at each fielding position except catcher and 3B, but only 17 catchers and only 16 third basemen. Catcher makes a certain amount of sense. Due to the physical demands of the position, there are less guys who play long enough to merit serious consideration. The great majority of HOFers have at least 8000 career PAs, and only 11 guys have every played a substantial amount of catcher and reached that number, 12 if you want to count Biggio who made under 15% of his career starts there. So they're already stretching the rules a bit to get to 17 catchers. But there have been 37 guys at 3B. That's more than 2B but fewer than any other position (except C, of course). So maybe the real problem is that we have too many 2B in the Hall. Some people believe that logic dictates a certain proportion of players should probably be considered HOF-worthy, and if a position is way off of that it might mean the standards have been evaluated incorrectly for that position. With that being said, I don't see any slam dunk 3B candidates on the outside looking in. There's certainly an argument to be made that relative to their position Nettles and maybe Robin Ventura should be in. We'll see what happens with Scott Rolen. But none of these guys are as glaringly obvious to me as Ted Simmons.

TL/DR - Ted Simmons

Also Jeff Kent. I get that people didn't like him very much, and he disrespected the game. So maybe he doesn't deserve to be in as a bad ambassador for the sport. But based on his numbers it's absurd for him to still be waiting.