Baseball Hall of Fame vote 2018: 5 things to watch for ahead of reveal

4. Can Andruw Jones stay on the ballot?

All-Star third baseman Scott Rolen has already secured 30 votes and cannot go lower than five percent when the final ballot is revealed. That’s great news. For 17 years, Rolen was the model of consistency at the hot corner. He retired with 316 home runs, 1,287 RBI, seven trips to the All-Star Game and eight Gold Gloves. Rolen also won the 2006 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The advanced metrics love Rolen much more than they do shortstop Omar Vizquel. Perhaps not as flashy simply because of his position, Rolen contributed nearly as much defensive value with substantially more production at the plate. It is nonsensical that Rolen had to fight to stay on the ballot while Vizquel could bring home over 25 percent of the vote simply by virtue of winning more Gold Gloves.

A more interesting five-percent case to watch is that of Gold Glove center fielder Andruw Jones. He needs eight more votes to stay above the minimum threshold and keep his name on the ballot beyond this year. For those who may have already forgotten how good Jones was during his peak, here’s a reminder.

For the better part of 17 seasons, Jones was a god in center field. He won ten Gold Gloves at one of the most important positions on the diamond. Jones was worth 24.1 dWAR for his career and 62.8 WAR overall. Compare that to Vizquel’s career WAR of 45.3, and it boggles the mind that Jones is the one fighting for his life on the Hall of Fame ballot. Obviously, he didn’t do himself any favors by falling out of shape and floundering around for the final six years of his career, but Jones is one of the best defensive players in MLB history and backed it up with 434 home runs.