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

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – SEPTEMBER 25: Former Minnesota Twins player Justin Morneau gives a speech during his induction into the Minnesota Twins hall of fame before the start of the game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Field on September 25, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) /

To start with, I’ve broken the players down to a few different categories. Also, since we have less than a dozen votes to work with as far as percentages go, I’ll just give you the general range rather than the specific number.

First-timers with no votes from our team

Carl Crawford
Prince Fielder
Tim Lincecum
Ryan Howard
Justin Morneau
Joe Nathan
Jonathan Papelbon
Jake Peavy
A.J. Pierzynski
Jimmy Rollins
Mark Teixeira

I’m certain that many of these players will receive votes when the ballot results are announced later this month. Many of them will even gather the more than 5% they need to stay on the ballot going forward. That said, we see many players go the “one and done” route with the HOF voting, and there’s no shame in that. You have to have a pretty incredible career to even be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest players of all-time, so I’m sure it’s an honour regardless of how many times you appear.

For what it’s worth, if I had a legitimate ballot this year I would definitely have voted for Justin Morneau. Not that I think he should make the Hall by any means, but as a fellow Canadian I would have shown him some love, especially because my personal ballot wouldn’t be full this time around. To his credit, he does have an AL MVP award on his resume, and I’ll always wonder how his career would have gone if not for the unfortunate concussion issues he went through.

Returning candidates with no votes from our team

Tim Hudson
Bobby Abreu
Torii Hunter
Mark Buehlre
Andy Pettitte

Obviously several of these players are going to receive their fair share of the votes. Hudson just barely snuck back on the ballot with 5.2% of the vote last year (you need at least 5% to stick around), but Pettitte had 13.7%, and Buehlre finished with 11%. Still, none of these players received any love from our staff, and for the most part I can understand why. I mean, I’m included in that total, so obviously I agree to some extent.