Marc Narducci: my vote in the Hall Of Fame

Marc Narducci spent 37 years covering all sports for The Philadelphia Inquirer before retiring in July 2021. He covered everything from high school sports to the Phillies’ World Series victory and the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory. A lifelong resident of southern New Jersey, he remains a freelance writer and television host. Once again, Marc reached out to see if MLB Trade Rumors would be interested in publishing his Hall of Fame vote. I’m happy to do it and I hope it can be an interesting topic of debate for our readers. Here’s Marc…

It’s always an honor to be published by MLBTradeRumors.com, one of the most respected baseball publications around. For those who haven’t read the previous years, just a little housekeeping. I don’t vote for those associated with steroids, which means Alex Rodriguez AND Manny Ramirezdon’t get my vote.

I also didn’t vote Carlos Beltran who certainly was the mastermind of the 2017 Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, which altered perceptions of that World Series-winning team. Those actions cost him his job as manager and, for now, this vote. I don’t think all Astros should be punished, but as stated before, that’s a story for another day.

I never criticize the way a fellow voter votes. That doesn’t mean our votes aren’t subject to criticism, including mine. Every voter must do what they think is best.

And now, here is this year’s ballot, which includes five names.

The residues

There are three holdovers that I voted for last year and got my vote again this year.

Chase Utley

There’s no question that injuries slowed Utley’s career and many think he didn’t have the counting stats to go in, but he was a six-time All-Star and only four HOF second basemen have more home runs than Utley’s 259. Those four are Rogers Hornsby (301), Craig Biggio (291), Ryne Sandberg (282) e Joe Morgan (268). I like second basemen who show great power, that’s why I voted for it Jeff Kent (377 career home runs) when he was on the ballot. Furthermore, we tend to look towards excellence, even if it is short term. As mentioned last year, from 2005 to 2009, Utley’s slash line was .301/.388/535 and he averaged 29.2 home runs, 110. Runs. 101.4 RBI, 151 games and 675 plate appearances. His BWAR during that time was 7.7. Only nine HOF second basemen have a higher career B-War than Utley (64.5).

Utley won a World Series in 2008 with the Philadelphia Phillies and the following year hit five home runs in the 2009 World Series against the Yankees, tying the MLB record with Reggie Jackson in 1977 and George Springer in 2017. He was a career 275/.358/.465 hitter with an 823 OPS and a 117 OPS+. Utley has also won four Silver Slugger awards. Will it be enough? Last year, in his first season on the ballot, Utley received 28.8% of the vote, so he has a long way to go.

Billy Wagner

This is Wagner’s 10th and final season on the ballot after coming close to 73.8% of the vote last year, falling short by five votes. Those who don’t think Wagner is a HOF player point to his low plate appearances and World Series statistics. Both are valid.

Wagner pitched just 903 innings. His postseason production, even though it only consisted of 11 1/3 innings over 14 appearances, was poor to say the least. He had a 10.03 ERA.

The reason for voting for Wagner was his excellence. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, his career WHIP of 0.998 is the lowest among all retired relievers with at least 700 innings pitched, and his career 2.31 ERA is the lowest among retired left-handed pitchers with at least 500 live ball innings pitched. era. His ERA+ of 187 is second all-time only to her Mariano Rivera.

According to HOF expert Jay Jaffe, Wagner’s 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings (minimum 900 innings pitched) are the best in MLB history. Now there are others ahead of him, but they have pitched fewer than 900 innings.

Wagner finished with 422 saves, second-highest among left-handed relievers and eighth overall. According to MLB.com, he converted 422 of 476 save opportunities (.887).

He was a seven-time All-Star and played seven times on teams that advanced to the postseason.

David Wright

Wright falls into the Utley category of not having counting stats due to injury. This is his second year on the ballot and last year he received only 6.2% of the vote. However, Wright was a dominant force when healthy. Wright was a seven-time All-Star during a nine-year stretch from 2005 to 2013. During that time, his slash line was .302/384/.505 with a 138 OPS+. He averaged 23 home runs, 90 runs and 93 RBI, while also winning two Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger awards. Wright finished in the Top 10 for MVP voting four times. During that nine-year period, he was among the best players not only at his position, but also in baseball.

According to the Baseball HOF, Wright is one of our four third basemen in history (along with Hall of Famers George Brett, Chipper Jones AND Mike Schmidt) who retired with at least 350 doubles, 200 home runs and 150 stolen bases. He finished with 390 doubles, 242 home runs and 196 stolen bases.

He was a career .296/376/.491 hitter with a 133 OPS+. Only seven HOF third basemen have a higher OPS+ than Wright. Due to injuries, he was never a full-time player beyond his age 31 season.

The new arrivals

CC Sabathia

This is a player who is sure to create some debate. Among his biggest strengths were his career wins (251) and winning percentage (.609) in an era when wins weren’t valued as much as they once were. He ranks 47th all-time in career wins.

Some would use his 3.74 ERA against Sabathia, which is fair. His career ERA+ was 116, solid but not spectacular.

On the bright side, he was the ace for the three teams he played for (Cleveland, Milwaukee and NY Yankees) and led all three to the postseason. (Later in his career he wasn’t the Yankees’ best pitcher, but for his first five years in New York he was the ace.)

The lefty was a six-time all-star and in 2007 Cy young Award winner with Cleveland. He finished in the top 10 of Cy Young voting four more times. He was a workhorse, having made 30 or more starts 12 times. Sabathia helped lead the Yankees to the 2009 World Series championship during his first year with the club. During that year he was the MVP of the ALCS, going 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in two games against the Los Angeles Angels. In 10 of his 19 seasons he has played on playoff teams and has a career record of 10-7 and 4.28 ERA in 26 postseason games. Sabathia is one of three lefties with at least 3,000 strikeouts. He recorded 3,093 strikeouts, 18th all-time.

Ichiro Suzuki

Just as Adrian Beltre was a landslide first-ballot pick last year, so is Ichiro this year. He has what it takes to be a unanimous choice. Probably the best stat is that Ichiro had 200 or more hits and won a Gold Glove in each of his first 10 seasons with Seattle. In 2001 he became the second player to win both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in the same season. Most impressively, he didn’t make his MLB debut until he was 27 years old. In those first 10 seasons, his slash line was .331/.376/.430. Before he got to play with the Seattle Mariners, he had 1,278 hits while playing in Japan. He finished with 3,089 career MLB hits and a .311/.355/.402 slash line. Ichiro hit two batting sheets when he hit .350 in 2001 and .372 in 2004. He also stole 509 bases in 626 attempts (83%) in his career and was a 10-time All-Star, all in his first 10 seasons. In 86 postseason appearances, he hit .346/.400/.436. Primarily a right winger, Ichiro has played 1,970 career games at right, 322 at center and 117 at left. He also had great durability, playing 150 or more games 13 times and 160 or more on nine occasions.