San Francisco Giants: Barry Bonds and My IBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot

Manny Ramirez
69.2 Career WAR, .312/.411/.585/.996, 2574 hits, 555 HR’s, 1831 RBI’s, 1329 BB’s

PED’s are the central theme of many of the best players not in the Hall of Famer yet and Manny Ramirez is no different. After the Mitchell Report came out and rule changes made steroids and other performance enhancing drugs illegal in baseball, Ramirez failed two separate drug tests at the end of his career. Before then, he was simply the best right handed hitter in baseball. Members of the 500 home run club were always automatics to get into the Hall of Fame, but after Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for PED’s at the end of his career, that stopped. Ramirez is likely to have the same fate as Palmiero, possibly falling off the ballot altogether as well. However, the history of the game can’t be written without the best hitter on the team that finally broke the curse in Boston. His career WAR of 69.2 is also higher than Tony Gwynn, Eddie Murray and Ryne Sandberg.

Of course there are also the times of Manny being Manny.