[Sly Fox]

Which is why I doubt all three will be first ballot inductees. Anybody on here who knows any of the voters knows what I am talking about.

[RagingTireFire]

Anybody on here who knows any of the voters knows what I am talking about.

You have got to be kidding me. Dude, how much average weight do you lose in a day just from dropping names?

[Hold My Own]

Anybody on here who knows any of the voters knows what I am talking about.

You have got to be kidding me. Dude, how much average weight do you lose in a day just from dropping names?

He's on Scars diet

[whmatthews]

Smoltz goes to Cooperstownfor no other reason that he's a beast on the mound and that he's had a sweet beard and the horseshoe hairdo for most of his career. I love Smoltzie, he's pitched in about 4 or 5 Braves games I've been to and each time they've won.

And Chipper goes too, no doubt, homerun number 400.

And if Andruw Jones could get back on track and have another good 5-10 years like he did before this and last season, I would make the case that he should go too.

[Hold My Own]

bro...Andruw will be lucky to have 1 good year left...

[Ed Dantes]

Smoltz goes to Cooperstownfor no other reason that he's a beast on the mound and that he's had a sweet beard and the horseshoe hairdo for most of his career. I love Smoltzie, he's pitched in about 4 or 5 Braves games I've been to and each time they've won.

And Chipper goes too, no doubt, homerun number 400.

And if Andruw Jones could get back on track and have another good 5-10 years like he did before this and last season, I would make the case that he should go too.

Andruw Jones is on the wrong side of 30 to get back on track... let alone have another "5-10 years" like he did in 2006.

Smoltz is going to be a very interesting discussion. He only won more than 16 games in a season twice in a career... and this is while he was playing for one of the winningest teams of the decade. His ERA against the league average for his career is 127, which roughly equates him with Kevin Brown.

The only other player with as many wins & saves is Dennis Eckersley, but Smoltz falls short in comparison to him. Smoltz has more wins & a better ERA, Eck has close to 400 saves (Smoltz -- 150).

Frankly, I have no doubt that Smoltz will be in Cooperstown (yeah, the horseshoe hairdo will put him over the top), but to see it's an open-and-shut, first ballot case... that's certainly up for discussion. That being said... it will only help Smoltz's case to have both Glavine & Maddux listed on the ballot at the same time. Writers are saps for stories like that.

[bigsmooth]

smoltz is a hall of famer though im not sure of the first ballot though. this certainly hurts for this season's prospects as well thought the NL east is pretty balanced other than the nats.

[Fumblerooskies]

smoltz is a hall of famer though im not sure of the first ballot though. this certainly hurts for this season's prospects as well thought the NL east is pretty balanced other than the nats.

Like Tim K on ESPN said...either you are a HOFer or you're not. Smoltz is without a doubt.

[whmatthews]

I'm not saying Andruw is a lock, cause he isn't. Smoltz, yes. Chipper, yes. Andruw.... if he lost some weight and could get that bat going and have a few more good seasons, his career power numbers won't be comparable to any of the great hitters in the hall, but his glove belongs there. He'll get to 400 homeruns, just like Chipper did, over 1,000 RBI and he won something like 10 gold gloves in a row - and some silver slugger and other miscellaneous awards, I think you have a case. Not first ballot - but still a case. I know the writers want someone who will knock the cover off the ball - but if Ozzie Smith got in for his fielding at SS, Andruw should be in for his fielding at CF.

[Ed Dantes]

smoltz is a hall of famer though im not sure of the first ballot though. this certainly hurts for this season's prospects as well thought the NL east is pretty balanced other than the nats.

Like Tim K on ESPN said...either you are a HOFer or you're not. Smoltz is without a doubt.

Problem is, I disagree with the "either you are or are not" attitude. To separate people into such binary labels is a little off, because there are Hall of Famers and then there are the uber-elite. I think the most easiest way to determine if someone is sponge-worthy enough to be uber-elite is to say that they are first-ballot or not.

[Sly Fox]

Chipper's inflated numbers from the juicing era make him far from a lock.

[whmatthews]

If you're saying his numbers are inflated because of the steroid era, then you're saying nobody will get in because of the steroid era, and that won't happen. He won the MVP, a few silver sluggers, is tied for the record for most consecutive games with an extra-base hit, most homeruns in a season by a switch-hitter and only behind Eddie Murray and Mickey Mantle for most homeruns all-time by a switch hitter, oh, and he has a chance to hit over .400 this season. No way he's not a lock.

[ToTheLeft]

And the consensus from guys like Stark, Gammons, Olney, etc, seems to be that "If Chipper wasn't clean, no one was clean." His stats were never THAT inflated. Pretty consistent.

[Schfourteenteen]

And the consensus from guys like Stark, Gammons, Olney, etc, seems to be that "If Chipper wasn't clean, no one was clean." His stats were never THAT inflated. Pretty consistent.

And most likely against inflated competition. I mean come on 19 games a year vs the Mets? Yep

I wouldnt be surprised if Andruw ends up being remembered as a better version of Brady Anderson - a very good player who decided one day he wanted to hit 50 HR's, "miraculously" did so and then dropped off the face of the earth.

[whmatthews]

At one time I thought Andruw was on the roids... he got bigger (at least fatter) and was murdering the ball. The first Braves game I ever saw not in Atlanta he hit two homers and became the Braves single season homerun leader. But, he's still big, and it's not that he's not hitting a ton of homers, he's not hitting the ball period. I mean, if he were on the roids, the homeruns would go down, but he'd still be making contact with the ball.

[Hold My Own]

Andruw's been on them...my buddy Jose Guillen and Andruw are very good friends from the same place DR...the reason why your latin ball players like Jose and Andruw are not cut like your american steroid poster boys is they simply dont care enough to diet correctly...my buddy at times looks FAT in the locker room....the reason? B/c we'll go out after and eat whatever in the world we want and it shows on him....anyways, yes Andruw has used roids

[SuperJon]

Chipper's inflated numbers from the juicing era make him far from a lock.

Are you serious? You can't be. There's no way you're that ignorant. Do you watch the game of baseball? Have you kept up with Chipper Jones at all? Chipper's numbers and the obvious fact that he wasn't on steroids make him playing in the juicing era that much more impressive. He's playing better now after all of the juicing is out of the game (for the most part) than he did during the juicing era. He's one of the top three (arguably top two) switch hitters ever to play the game. Not to mention he was able to switch positions at the prime of his career and play in the outfield, and then move back to third base. He even played some first base in there if I'm not mistaken, and a few games at shortstop. He's easily a Hall of Famer.

[TDDance234]

I have to agree with SJ here.

It's going to be real hard to prove that he was ever on the steroids. He looks exactly the same now as he did when he first began in the early 90's. He is probably the best switch hitter in the past 20 years. IMO, he's easily a first ballot HOF.

However, It's going to be hard for the voters to pass up the story of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz all going in the HOF together. The case for Smoltz is there--he's the owner of the highest win percentage in playoff history, the saves, and the Cy-Young. The success of going from starter to closer back to top-of-the-rotationn starter is as impressive as they come.