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We already know the writers are some of the stingiest voters, but you won't believe some of the absolute LEGENDARY MLB names that did NOT get in on the FIRST BALLOT!! These are OBVIOUS HALL OF FAMERS that NO BASEBALL FAN would have to take more than a split second to say YES, THAT'S A HALL OF FAMER!!! This is the FIRST of a two part series!!!

Almost all of these are outrageous but there are explanations for a few so while I do have some disagreements I won't bother getting into them. The one I completely disagree with is Trevor Hoffman, he's lucky to in the Hall of Fame at all. I never would have voted for him. He pitched all of 1,089 inning a ridiculously low total for Hall of Fame consideration. Take a look at Orel Hershiser who is not in the Hall, just between 1985-1989 he pitched 1,259 innings going 87-56 with a lower ERA than Hoffman, a WAR of 28.8 vs Hoffman's WAR of 28, won a Cy Young award and finished in the top 5 in voting for the award 3 other times. In 1988 he had a streak of 60 consecutive scoreless innings that's the same number of innings as Hoffman pitched in all of 2001! I'm not arguing the case for Hershiser, but how does he not get in when Hoffman who was not capable of accomplishing what Hershiser did go in. They are both pitchers, one is clearly superior to the other, more accomplished than the other, it makes no sense.

Recently there have been things going on with respect to Hall voting which defy logic. How does Jim Kaat go in but not Tommy John. Both pitched in the same era and played in both leagues, both were lefthanders, John won more games than Kaat, John lost fewer games than Kaat, had a lower lifetime ERA than Kaat , John was 6-3 in the postseason with a 2.65 ERA, Kaat 1-3 with a 4.01 ERA, John finished runner up twice in Cy Young voting and had a total of 4 top ten finishes, Kaat one top 10 finish, John had a higher lifetime WAR than Kaat. How does something this ridiculous happen!

I'll do one more, Billy Wagner with 903 career inning was voted in this year, Curt Schilling who pitched 910 innings just between 2001-2004 didn't get in. Schilling won 216 games with a lifetime winning percentage of .597, 3 times winning 20 games and was 11-2 in the postseason with a 2.23 ERA, one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time. Billy Wagner a lifetime postseason ERA of 10.03!