Blue Jays: How we’d vote if Jays Journal had a HOF ballot

We don’t have a Hall of Fame ballot here at Jays Journal, but I thought it would be fun to poll our staff and let you know how we would have voted if we did.

This year’s ballot features several former Blue Jays, but I don’t think there will be much of a bias coming from our group as far as that goes. The list includes Roger Clemens (a Blue Jay from 1997-98), Scott Rolen (2008-09), Omar Vizquel (2012), and to stretch for a fourth, Jeff Kent (1992). While they all made some memories during their time in Toronto, especially Clemens with his back-to-back Cy Young award wins, none of these players will be remembered as Blue Jays.

With that in mind, I’d like to think that bias shouldn’t play a part in the way we voted here. I’ll add my own thoughts throughout, and also include some notes that came in from others here at Jays Journal. For the most part, I have to admit that I was surprised by how tough our team was on the candidates, and I’ll get to that more a little later on.

Last year there were no players elected through the traditional voting process, so we have to go back two years to when Derek Jeter earned his HOF plaque, and was joined by Canadian outfielder, Larry Walker. They were joined by two more that were elected through the Veteran’s committee, Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller.

It remains to be seen if there will be any players elected this time around, but for now we can tell you what our staff at Jays Journal thinks.