The offseason is always a fun time on MLB Monday, and we’re filling it the best ways we know how: with plenty of randomness! Today is a rare column, a piece we only really do about once/twice a year now. We’re looking at two lists of nominees for the Cooperstown Hall of Fame: the “Classic Era” guys who didn’t get in on the first term of eligibility and the players who still have ballot eligibility the first time around.

Let’s finish with the ballot-eligible nominees:

  • Ichiro Suzuki (60 WAR): The career WAR mark is deceiving, but even so, it ranks 17th all time for right fielders, and he has 3,000-plus MLB hits. He is a shoo-in selection his first time on the ballot. He posted 200-plus hits in his first ten MLB seasons, topping his peers seven times in the process. And he was an age-27 “rookie” when he came over from Japan. He still hit .311 in the majors. VOTE: YES.
  • CC Sabathia (62.3): He ranks just 55th all time for starting pitchers, and his 3.74 ERA is not great. But that equates to a 116 ERA+ mark, and that’s solid enough. Yet he was all but done after his age-31 season, which was the last of six All-Star years. Then it was just padding stats for the final seven seasons of his contract, really. We’re not sold here, for a lot of reasons. VOTE: NO.
  • Billy Wagner (27.7): We think he was one of the best closers ever, stuck on some bad teams for a lot of his career (only 7 postseasons in 16 years). His WAR mark puts him sixth among relievers, though, and if that’s not good enough for the Hall, then we have to wonder what people were doing with this vote a few years ago. We have no idea why writers have not put him in already, in truth. VOTE: YES.
  • Dustin Pedroia (51.9): We have an issue with potential PED use here, despite his rank as the 19th-best second baseman ever. Even so, he was all but done at age 29, and then he just hung on for awhile longer. He admired and respected him at the time of his career, but in retrospect, we’re not that impressed. His .299 career BA is nice, but it’s too bad he didn’t retire earlier. VOTE: NO.
  • Félix Hernández (49.7): His WAR mark is lower than Sabathia’s total above, yet the King was a more dominant pitcher (3.42 ERA). However, after his age-29 season, Hernández wasn’t very effective, and that hurts him here with just 169 victories. Again, this is one of our personal favorites, as he saw his seventh MLB start in 2005 at the Oakland Coliseum. But he just doesn’t have the numbers. VOTE: NO.
  • Curtis Granderson (47.2): He ranks 33rd among center fielders, and that’s just not elite enough for the Hall when you’re on the ballot still. We also find it odd that he never won a Gold Glove, although maybe he deserved it a few times. Plus, the .249 lifetime BA is just bad, despite the power/speed combination he brought to the plate. Cooperstown is for the greats, so he doesn’t rate. VOTE: NO.
  • Ian Kinsler (54.1): He’s in the same ballpark as Pedroia, although he’s generally both less and more impressive in different ways. But if we said no to the Red Sox legend, we’re going to turn down a guy like Kinsler, too. His bat was weaker, and his glove was not demonstrably better, either. VOTE: NO.
  • Troy Tulowitzki (44.5): In his prime with the Colorado Rockies, he put up 39.5 WAR by age 30, but then injuries derailed him pretty quickly. Skeptics would argue it was the Coors Field Effect, yet that is too simplistic. Again, he’s one of our favorite players ever; however, he needed another five years and 25 WAR to truly put himself in Cooperstown. Sometimes, you’re just unlucky with a body. VOTE: NO.
  • Ben Zobrist (44.5): Interesting he has the same WAR mark as Tulo, as Zobrist was a late bloomer, a jack of all trades, and generally a good clubhouse leader. Yet he was good at a lot of things without being great at any single facet of the game. Broken record: We like him a lot, but … nope. VOTE: NO.
  • Andruw Jones (62.7): With a 24.4 dWAR mark for his career, his defense in CF was amazing, even if his bat was somewhat inconsistent throughout his career. He rates out as the 11th best at his position all time, so we’re wondering why he’s not in the Hall, already. He won ten Gold Gloves, all (mostly) legit, and you could argue for an 11th in there, too. Again, he faded hard after age 30, so … VOTE: YES.
  • Carlos Beltrán (70.1): If Jones belongs in Cooperstown, then so does Beltrán. As noted on MLB.com, he is one of only five players with 400 career home runs and 300 stolen bases. His glove was useless later in his career, but he won three legitimate Gold Gloves in his prime and maybe deserved more. There is the sign-stealing controversy to consider, but that was just his final season. VOTE: YES.
  • Chase Utley (64.5): He ranks 12th all time at second base, and that’s good enough for us. His last three-plus seasons didn’t produce much WAR (2.5), but he was a great player for a long time before that. The 17.3 dWAR is impressive, and the 117 OPS+ means he was a good hitter, too. Get it done. VOTE: YES.
  • Omar Vizquel (45.6): His 29.5 dWAR says it all. His 82 OPS+ also says just as much. Put it together, and you have a defensive wizard who was substandard at the plate. Save him for Classic votes. VOTE: NO.
  • Bobby Abreu (60.2): He ran up 47.2 WAR in nine seasons with Philadelphia, but the other half of his career is mediocre, to say the least. With a No. 22 rank all time among RFs, he’s a borderline case. His peak years were great; yet even so, he was not a dominant player that took over games. VOTE: NO.
  • Jimmy Rollins (47.6): He ranks 34th at shortstop all time, despite his peak years being pretty impressive. His 95 OPS+ mark is also disqualifying. We felt we had to point that out. VOTE: NO.
  • Andy Pettitte (60.2): He admitted to using PEDs later in his career, but outside that even, his 3.85 ERA doesn’t impress, nor does his general inability to dominate in the regular season. VOTE: NO.
  • Mark Buehrle (59.1): Despite the WAR mark, he ranks just 79th at his position. His 3.81 ERA is not as good as Sabathia’s career mark; he certainly never dominated much, really. VOTE: NO.
  • Francisco Rodríguez (24.2): At 13th overall in the reliever rankings, he’s borderline for the Hall. It’s not about the WAR mark here, either, as he’s not that far behind Wagner. It’s about the length of time that he dominated. His last six seasons (8.2 WAR) were inconsistent. He’s not there yet. VOTE: NO.
  • Torii Hunter (50.7): He falls short of the standards that Jones and Beltrán set before him. VOTE: NO.
  • David Wright (49.2): With 46.5 WAR through his age-30 season, he looked Cooperstown bound, but again, the body can fail even the best of us. His 133 OPS+ mark is very impressive, but overall, he falls short of worthiness due to factors beyond his own control. Always a fan favorite, but … VOTE: NO.

Note: We did not even consider Carlos González (24.4 WAR); Adam Jones (32.6); Russell Martin (38.9); Brian McCann (32.0); Hanley Ramírez (38.0); Álex Rodríguez (117.6) or Manny Ramírez (69.3)—for varying reasons we probably do not need to explain here.