Barry Bonds' departure from Hall of Fame ballot is a sad mistake

On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick discusses San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds falling off the Hall of Fame ballot after being rejected for a 10th and final time by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Bonds received 66% of the vote, far short of the 75% threshold needed to get in. David Ortiz, in his first year on the ballot, was elected to the Hall of Fame. Ortiz reportedly tested positive for PED's in 2003, but that apparently didn't matter to some of the writers who felt the need to keep Bonds, a far superior player to Ortiz, out of the Hall.
Ben discusses how the Hall of Fame has left him feeling jaded after all these years, and his overwhelming feeling is one of not caring anymore, as opposed to being enraged. He talks about how Bonds has the second-most fWAR of all time, behind Babe Ruth, and Ortiz is over 100 fWAR behind him. Ben would've voted for Ortiz, but Bonds is arguably the best baseball player ever. As former FanGraphs writer Jeff Sullivan noted on Twitter, the difference between Bonds' fWAR and Ortiz's fWAR is Alex Rodriguez. That just about says it all.
Finally, Ben discusses more details about the MLB lockout. The MLBPA and the league met on Monday and Tuesday in New York, and Ben has more details about those meetings. The league reportedly agreed to the players' proposal of a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, although they remain far apart on the amount of the pool. The league proposed $10 million after the players asked for more than $100 million. But Ben sees a big flaw with the idea: both sides have proposed basing it on Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, which is not a clear-cut metric like average, OBP, or slugging percentage. Different sites use different calculations, and their formulas are regularly tweaked. There are many issues with using WAR, but on the whole, it's a good thing that both sides agree that pre-arb players should be eligible to earn more money based on performance.
Follow & Subscribe to the Locked On Giants Podcast on these platforms
🎧 Apple http://apple.co/3ycRK3U
🎧 Spotify http://spoti.fi/3Bak0pN
🎧 Google https://bit.ly/3D356mr
🎧 Overcast https://bit.ly/3wqZsbg
🎧 Megaphone https://bit.ly/3wGGcXD
📲 Follow Locked On Giants on Twitter
Locked On Giants https://twitter.com/LO_SFGiants
Ben Kaspick https://twitter.com/BenKaspick
More by Ben Kaspick
Personal channel https://bit.ly/BenKaspickYouTube
Website https://www.benkaspick.com/
Linktree http://www.linktr.ee/benkaspick
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Built Bar
Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.
BetOnline AG
There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick discusses San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds falling off the Hall of Fame ballot after being rejected for a 10th and final time by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Bonds received 66% of the vote, far short of the 75% threshold needed to get in. David Ortiz, in his first year on the ballot, was elected to the Hall of Fame. Ortiz reportedly tested positive for PED's in 2003, but that apparently didn't matter to some of the writers who felt the need to keep Bonds, a far superior player to Ortiz, out of the Hall.

Ben discusses how the Hall of Fame has left him feeling jaded after all these years, and his overwhelming feeling is one of not caring anymore, as opposed to being enraged. He talks about how Bonds has the second-most fWAR of all time, behind Babe Ruth, and Ortiz is over 100 fWAR behind him. Ben would've voted for Ortiz, but Bonds is arguably the best baseball player ever. As former FanGraphs writer Jeff Sullivan noted on Twitter, the difference between Bonds' fWAR and Ortiz's fWAR is Alex Rodriguez. That just about says it all.

Finally, Ben discusses more details about the MLB lockout. The MLBPA and the league met on Monday and Tuesday in New York, and Ben has more details about those meetings. The league reportedly agreed to the players' proposal of a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, although they remain far apart on the amount of the pool. The league proposed $10 million after the players asked for more than $100 million. But Ben sees a big flaw with the idea: both sides have proposed basing it on Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, which is not a clear-cut metric like average, OBP, or slugging percentage. Different sites use different calculations, and their formulas are regularly tweaked. There are many issues with using WAR, but on the whole, it's a good thing that both sides agree that pre-arb players should be eligible to earn more money based on performance.

Follow & Subscribe to the Locked On Giants Podcast on these platforms

🎧 Apple http://apple.co/3ycRK3U

🎧 Spotify http://spoti.fi/3Bak0pN

🎧 Google https://bit.ly/3D356mr

🎧 Overcast https://bit.ly/3wqZsbg

🎧 Megaphone https://bit.ly/3wGGcXD

📲 Follow Locked On Giants on Twitter

Locked On Giants https://twitter.com/LO_SFGiants

Ben Kaspick https://twitter.com/BenKaspick

More by Ben Kaspick

Personal channel https://bit.ly/BenKaspickYouTube

Website https://www.benkaspick.com/

Linktree http://www.linktr.ee/benkaspick

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!

Built Bar

Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.

BetOnline AG

There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices