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Baseball Hall of Fame 2017 ballot: Who’s in and who’s out?

By Joshua Sadlock

Jul 26, 2015; Cooperstown, NY, USA; The 4 Hall of Fame plagues of Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz installed and available for viewing in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Gregory J. Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 26, 2015; Cooperstown, NY, USA; The 4 Hall of Fame plagues of Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz installed and available for viewing in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Gregory J. Fisher-USA TODAY Sports /
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Apr 2, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Fan holds a sign in support of HOF induction for Tim Raines (not pictured) and Vladimir Guerrero (not pictured) before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 2, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Fan holds a sign in support of HOF induction for Tim Raines (not pictured) and Vladimir Guerrero (not pictured) before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports /

Tim Raines

Raines is in his tenth and final year on the ballot. His candidacy has received a major boost in recent years thanks to the increased acceptance of advanced metrics. Raines should see the final-year bump and climb over 75 percent and enter Cooperstown.

It’s hard to understand why Raines was never embraced as an easy Hall of Famer. He gets knocked down a peg because he was only the second-best leadoff hitter of his generation, behind only Ricky Henderson. That’s an unfair comparison as Henderson is one of the best ever. Raines did not reach the mythical 3,000 hit barrier, but he did record 2,605 hits and 1,330 walks. In total, he was on base more often than slam-dunk Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.

Raines has had a long path to Cooperstown because he can be viewed as a “compiler,” a player who hung on well past his prime to rack up numbers. There is some validity to that claim; Raines played over 130 games only once after the age of 32. Regardless of how many years it took him to compile those numbers, Raines rates as a Hall of Famer, and will finally be enshrined this year.

Verdict — It took long enough, but Raines is in

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