The Case For: A Baseball Hall of Fame Podcast

In Episode 13, the last Episode of Season 1, Russell breaks down the 2024 BBWAA ballot including the players elected to the Hall, who fell off the ballot, who is still on for next year and what newcomers to watch for in 2025.

In this episode Russell breaks down the ENTIRE 2024 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot and discusses the HOF cases for every player not already assigned their own individual episode. The results of the 2024 BBWAA Ballot will be announced on January 23, 2024, if you're curious what might happen or you're a BBWAA voter who is still undecided then take a listen!

Bobby Abreu is 1 of 7 players with 900+ extra-base hits 400+ stolen bases in his career. The others are Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, Barry Bonds, Craig Biggio, and Paul Molitor. Will this be enough to get Abreu in the Hall of Fame? Born and raised in Venezuela, Abreu first drew the attention of MLB scouts when he was 14 and signed with the Houston Astros organization when he was 16. He would eventually play 18 years in MLB retiring with a career .291 BA, 2,...

Carlos Beltran played 20 years in MLB with a reputation retiring with very impressive career stats of a 70.1 WAR, 2725 hits, 565 doubles, 435 home runs, 1587 RBI, and 312 stolen bases. He is one of only 4 players in MLB history along with A-Rod, Bonds, and Mays to accumulate 2,500+ hits, 400+ homers, 300+ stolen bases and 1,000+ walks.Arguably one of the greatest post-season batters of all time, "Señor Octubre" hit .307 with 16 home runs and 42 RBI in 65 post-season games. Only Be...

Over a 6 year peak 2005-2010 Chase Utley's season average was .298 BA, 27 HR, and 95 RBI. During that period he won 4 Silver Sluggers and received MVP votes in 5 seasons including 3 top-10 finishes. Utley was also in the top 3 NL leaders in WAR for 4 seasons. Utley excelled in the post-season, helping his Phillies win the 2008 World Series and in the 2009 World Series tied Reggie Jackson's World Series record with 5 home runs including 2 games with 2 home runs. He also set the postseason reco...

Andruw Jones won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves with the Atlanta Braves and in 2005 set a franchise record (since broken) with 51 home runs in a season. Defensively he's 2nd all time in MLB history in all players, all positions, in Total Zone Runs (Brooks Robinson is #1). Andruw is also 1 of 5 center fielders to record at least 400 putouts in a season 6 times; the other 4 are in the Hall of Fame. He’s also 1 of only 4 players to have won 10 Gold Gloves with 400 career home runs the others a...

Joe Mauer played 15 years in Major League baseball, all of them with the Minnesota Twins. A hometown hereo, he grew up in Minnesota and was a standout athlete in baseball, basketball and football at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul. Joe was drafted in the 1st round of the 2001 MLB draft and played his entire 15 year career with the Minnesota Twins where he won 3 batting titles, 6 All-Star selections, 5 Silver Sluggers, 3 Golden Gloves, and the 2009 AL MVP Award. Joe retired wit...

Gary Sheffield was a feared slugger who tallied 509 home runs, 1636 runs, 2689 hits, 1676 RBI and a career .292 career batting average over 22 MLB seasons. He is 1 of only 4 players in MLB history with 500+ home runs and 250+ stolen bases. Of the 28 members of the "500 home run club" only Mel Ott and Ted Williams have less career strikeouts. A 9 time All-Star and 5 time Silver Slugger, Gary received MVP votes in 7 different seasons including 6 top 10 finishes and 3 top 3 finishes....

Episode 5 explores the Hall of Fame Case for relief pitcher Billy Wagner. Billy pitched in 853 games over 16 seasons, all of them in relief. He retired with 422 saves which is 6th best all time. A 7 time All-Star, his advanced stats compare favorably with Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman however Wagner struggled in his post-season appearances posting a career post-season ERA of 10.03. Will that impact his Hall of Fame chances?

In episode 4 we examine the voting process and the difference between the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) ballot and the Veterans Committee ballot, and breakdown the cases for all the candidates on the 2024 Contemporary Baseball Committee:Ed Montague (Umpire)Joe West (Umpire)Hank Peters (Executive)Bill White (Executive)Cito Gasto...

Episode 3 addresses the Hall of Fame case for Todd Helton who played his entire 17 year with the Colorado Rockies, retiring in 2013 holding Rockies career records for games played, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI's, and walks. Todd batted .300 or better in 12 seasons and retired with a career .316 batting average. His 592 doubles are the 20th most ever in MLB history. Last year he received 72.2% of the BBWAA vote, is this the year he gets the 75% he needs for induction? Will Todd wear a Rockies...

In this episode we discuss the Hall of Fame Case for Detroit Tigers legend Lou Whitaker. Lou and shortstop teammate Alan Trammell are the longest-running double play combination in major-league history, turning 1,527 double plays over 19 seasons. The 1978 AL Rookie of the Year, Lou won 3 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, was a 5 x All-Star selection and a key member of the 1984 Detroit Tigers World Championship team. He retired with a career WAR of 75.1 along with 2369 hits, 1...

The inaugural episode of The Case For: A Baseball Hall of Fame Podcast is dedicated to former Atlanta Braves legend Dale Murphy. Attorney and baseball fan extraordinaire Russell Christian makes the case for the induction of 2-time NL MVP Dale Murphy into Cooperstown.