{"id":10080,"date":"2015-01-06T15:14:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T20:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10080"},"modified":"2015-01-06T15:14:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T20:14:15","slug":"hall-of-fame-candidates-with-nationals-ties-2015-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10080","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame candidates with Nationals ties (2015 version)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10087\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/BooneAaron-2003-walkoff-unk-via-youtube.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10087\" class=\"wp-image-10087 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/BooneAaron-2003-walkoff-unk-via-youtube.com_-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron Boone's career achievement.  Photo via youtube.com screenshot.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/BooneAaron-2003-walkoff-unk-via-youtube.com_-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/BooneAaron-2003-walkoff-unk-via-youtube.com_.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaron Boone&#8217;s career achievement. Photo via youtube.com screenshot.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>2nd version of this post: first one was done after the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8437%20\">2014 Hall of Fame class<\/a> was announced and the voting results made public.<\/p>\n<p>On 1\/6\/15, the BBWAA <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/12128504\/pedro-martinez-randy-johnson-craig-biggio-john-smoltz-voted-hall\">announced the results<\/a> of the 2015 Hall of Fame class. \u00a0Sadly, we go another year without any player with Nationals ties going into the hall.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a review of every player who has Nationals ties who has appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot, along with their voting results.\u00a0 This post will let you answer the trivia question, &#8220;What former Nats player has come the closest to Hall of Fame enshrinement?&#8221;\u00a0 (Answer at the bottom)<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll work from most recent to oldest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2015.shtml#BBWAA\">2015 Ballot<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Aaron Boone<\/strong><strong>, <\/strong>who signed a 1yr\/$1M FA contract to be a backup corner infielder with the abhorrent 2008 Nationals team.\u00a0 Boone&#8217;s crowning baseball achievement was his extra innings walk-off homer that ended one of the best games in MLB history (Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS between Boston and the Yankees, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=3482\">ranked #6 by MLB&#8217;s panel<\/a> a few years back when ranking the best 20 games of the last half century).\u00a0 Ironically one of his lowest moments was just a couple months later, blowing out his ACL that subsequent winter while playing pickup basketball, costing him the entirety of the 2004 season and the trust of the\u00a0 Yankees organization.\u00a0 He missed 2\/3rds of the 2007 season after another left knee injury and the Nats were probably his last gasp shot at extending his career at the age of 35.\u00a0 He got a decent amount of playing time thanks to the fragility of <strong>Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong> and <strong>Nick Johnson<\/strong>, somehow got another guaranteed MLB deal the following year, went 0-14 for Houston and was released.\u00a0 He&#8217;s now an analyst with ESPN.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2015.shtml\">Received 2 votes on the 2015 ballot<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ron Villone<\/strong> signed a minor league deal in 2009 and was quickly added to the Nats active roster, where he appeared in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/villoro01.shtml\">63 games<\/a> as our primary one-out lefty.\u00a0\u00a0 He pitched the entirety of 2010 on another minor league contract with Syracuse, posting a 6.59 ERA as a 40-year old and never earning a call-up.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2011 he was invited to spring training again (perhaps with the hope that he&#8217;d join the organization as a coach) but he got cut, then pitched a handful of indy league games for his home-town New Jersey indy league team, got hammered, and hung them up.\u00a0\u00a0 He retired having played in 15 seasons for no less than 12 different teams.\u00a0 In 2012 he took a pitching coach job with the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ron_Villone\">Cubs organization<\/a> (one of the teams he managed NOT to play for during his career) and has been moving up their organization in that capacity since.\u00a0 Received Zero Hall-of-Fame votes by virtue of not appearing on the BBWAA ballot.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Julian Tavarez<\/strong> signed a one-year deal in the beginning of 2009, started out decently but had an awful stretch that resulted in his DFA in mid July 2009.\u00a0 He never threw another pitch in organized ball, abruptly retiring considering his mid-season release.\u00a0 He ended a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tavarju01.shtml\">17-year career<\/a> spanning 11 different franchises.\u00a0 Received Zero Hall-of-Fame votes by virtue of not appearing on the BBWAA ballot.\u00a0 According to his <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Juli%C3%A1n_Tav%C3%A1rez\">wiki page<\/a>, he now resides in a suburb of Cleveland (his original professional team) but does not list any post-career activities, baseball-related or otherwise.\u00a0 Received Zero Hall-of-Fame votes by virtue of not appearing on the BBWAA ballot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both Tavarez and Villone belong to the infamous &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8421\">From Nationals to Oblivion<\/a>&#8221; club, a topic we revisit on an annual basis.<\/p>\n<p>Note: it is not entirely clear to me why\u00a0Villone and Tavarez were not\u00a0actually ON the 2015 ballot; both seem to have the <a href=\"http:\/\/bbwaa.com\/hof-elec-req\/\">qualifications<\/a> (10 years of experience and 5 years retired) and both were on previous versions of the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2015.shtml#BBWAA\">anticipated ballot<\/a>&#8221; at baseball-reference.com, but neither showed up on BBWAA&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/bbwaa.com\/\">official ballot<\/a> for this year.\u00a0 <strong>Pete Kerzel<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/nationals-buzz\/2014\/11\/boone-lone-ex-national-on-2015-hall-of-fame-ballot.html\">did a post<\/a> reviewing &#8220;Nats connected&#8221; 2015 ballot members when the ballot came out in Nov 2014 and only mentioned Boone.\u00a0 I include them here since it seems to me they *should* be on the ballot and I&#8217;m not sure why they were not (unless someone is passing judgement on the &#8220;quality&#8221; of HoFame ballot members). \u00a0Are they pushed to subsequent ballots for some reason? \u00a0If anyone has insight i&#8217;d love to know.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2014.shtml#BBWAA\">2014 Ballot<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Paul Lo Duca<\/strong>: one of Bowden&#8217;s more infamous signings; he went from our opening day catcher in the 2008 season to being released by August 1st.\u00a0 The highlight of his tenure here was having his name being revealed in the Mitchell Report just a couple days after signing with us.\u00a0 After his release, he signed on to finish out the season with Florida, took a year off and attempted a come back in 2010 (signing a ML contract with Colorado but never appearing above AAA). \u00a0 Hard to believe this guy was a 4-time all-star.\u00a0 Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2013.shtml#BBWAA\">2013 Ballot: <\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Royce Clayton<\/strong>; signed a contract to be the Nats shortstop during the lean <strong>Jim Bowden<\/strong> years, and then was included in the Mega swap of players that headed to Cincinnati in the 2006 season.\u00a0 He hung around for one more season in 2007 as a backup short stop and retired afterwards.\u00a0 Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mike Stanton<\/strong> was picked up in mid 2005 after being released by the Yankees, and he pitched well enough for the Nats that he was able to fetch a couple of low-level prospects in a late September move to Boston (who was looking for some late season bullpen cover).\u00a0 The team then re-signed Stanton for 2006, and flipped him again mid-season, this time to the Giants for <strong>Shairon Martis<\/strong>.\u00a0 Stanton toiled a one more season before hanging them up after 2007.\u00a0\u00a0 Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2012.shtml#BBWAA\">2012 Ballot<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vinny Castilla<\/strong>: signed a two year deal to join the Nats, timed with their inaugural season in Washington, but was traded to Colorado for SP <strong>Brian Lawrence<\/strong> when it became apparent that <strong>Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong> was set to man the hot corner in DC for the next decade or so.\u00a0 Played one more season and retired after 2006.\u00a0 Received Six (6) Hall-of-fame votes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/awards\/hof_2011.shtml#BBWAA\">2011 Ballot<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Carlos Baerga<\/strong>: signed a one year deal as a 36-yr old to join the Nats in their inaugural season and serve as a backup infielder.\u00a0\u00a0 Hit .253 in part-time duty and hung &#8217;em up after a 14-year career that can be well described as &#8220;journey-man.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 He was an integral part of the early 90s Cleveland Indians as their starting 2nd baseman and a 3-time all-star, and ended up playing on 6 major league teams and spent parts one season in Korea.\u00a0 Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>So, thus far the Nats greatest Hall of Fame achievement is Vinny Castilla receiving 6 sympathy votes.\u00a0 I&#8217;m sure this will change when Pudge hits the ballot in a couple years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2nd version of this post: first one was done after the 2014 Hall of Fame class was announced and the voting results made public. On 1\/6\/15, the BBWAA announced the results of the 2015 Hall of Fame class. \u00a0Sadly, we go another year without any player with Nationals ties going into the hall. Here&#8217;s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1390,5],"tags":[615,1467,2209,507,1257,2155,862,1253,524,107,2222,36,76,2221],"class_list":["post-10080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hall-of-fame","category-natsgeneral","tag-aaron-boone","tag-brian-lawrence","tag-carlos-baerga","tag-jim-bowden","tag-julian-tavarez","tag-mike-stanton","tag-nick-johnson","tag-paul-lo-duca","tag-pete-kerzel","tag-ron-villone","tag-royce-clayton","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-shairon-martis","tag-vinny-castilla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10080"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10194,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10080\/revisions\/10194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}