Rays beat writers release their 2018 Hall of Fame ballots

Over the last 24-hours, the two beat writers at the Tampa Bay Times have released their Hall of Fame ballots for 2018.

Roger Mooney’s, released this morning, is a solid list. Bonds and Clemens get votes as being among the best players to ever grace the game, and players who succeeded greatly in limited roles like closer Trevor Hoffman and DH Edgar Martinez get nods.

If there’s anything controversial here, perhaps voting for Hoffman but not Wagner could turn heads, but all around it’s a solid list.

Topkin, meanwhile, makes room for both top-line closers on his list, but at the expense of voting for the “pure DH” of Edgar Martinez.

This has been a fire storm on twitter, with the swiftest criticism coming from Steven Souza Jr.:

For his part, Topkin seemed to respond by possibly holding Souza’s Team MVP award ransom, and has thus far played along with much of the criticism being lobbied his way for overlooking Edgar, requiring aplomb from the lead beat.

Notably, both long time beat writers voted for the Crime Dog, although Fred McGriff does not seem to be hall bound in the long run due to a lack of support across baseball.

In total, five writers at the Times submitted ballots, with only five players being named on each ballot (Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Mike Mussina, Trevor Hoffman, and Vladimir Guerrero), and four players appeared on at least four ballots (Bonds, Edgar, McGriff, and Clemens).

Marc Topkin (Times baseball writer)

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Vladimir Guerrero
Trevor Hoffman
Chipper Jones
Fred McGriff
Mike Mussina
Gary Sheffield
Jim Thome
Billy Wagner

Martin Fennelly (Times sports columnist)

Vladimir Guerrero
Trevor Hoffman
Chipper Jones
Edgar Martinez
Fred McGriff
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Gary Sheffield
Jim Thome
Larry Walker

Roger Mooney (Times sports reporter)

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Vladimir Guerrero
Trevor Hoffman
Chipper Jones
Edgar Martinez
Fred McGriff
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Jim Thome

John Romano (Times metro columnist)*

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Vladimir Guerrero
Trevor Hoffman
Chipper Jones
Edgar Martinez
Mike Mussina
Manny Ramirez
Curt Schilling
Jim Thome

Joe Smith (Times hockey writer)*

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Vladimir Guerrero
Trevor Hoffman
Chipper Jones
Edgar Martinez
Fred McGriff
Mike Mussina
Scott Rolen
Jim Thome

*Previously covered baseball

[tampabay.com]