Heres my 2022 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot; I'm probably a couple years away from a redo of my all time player rankings.
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Alex Rodriguez
Manny Ramirez
Curt Schilling
Jeff Kent
Scott Rolen
Gary Sheffield
Andruw Jones
David Ortiz
Out
Todd Helton
Andy Pettitte
Tim Hudson
Joe Nathan
Billy Wagner
I'm a PEDs don't matter voter; I do see the argument for a distinction between pre 2003 use and post 2003 use as a consideration in approving of careers, but fundamentally, what happened on the field happened, regardless of drugs, both PEDs or speed or otherwise, regardless of segregation, regardless of wartime disparities, regardless of all manner of the reserve clause and territorial signings. Voters are either saying "I want to punish specific users of specific drugs" or they are saying "specific users of specific drugs actually weren't as good as players from 1915" and both positions seem ridiculous to me.
Bonds and Clemens are easy. You should lose your vote for submitting a ballot otherwise.
ARod has the "rules changed in 2003" issue; I disagree with a vote to keep him out, but I understand the argument. To me - they are inner circle Hall of Famers and you can't have a Hall of Fame absent them.
Ramirez and Schilling are in the next tier. Ramirez has the ARod issue - and isn't an inner circle guy, so the need to have him in isn't as pronounced. Honestly - I hate the argument against Schilling. I say this as a devout lefty; a "the Republicans are attempting a fascist coup" lefty - there is literally nothing, not homicide, not genocide, nothing, that a player would be able to do after his career that would impact my evaluation of his career. He's a middle tier guy; so if you have a small Hall, only inner circle players need apply, mentality, it's okay to leave him off for that reason.
I'm not married to the final five slots - this is where my thoughts in a couple years might change given a re-evaluation of my all time rankings. I don't want to just say Ortiz over Helton when I might turn around down the road and say "actually, Helton was better" - so, if I was actually filling out a ballot, I'd take the second 5 on my list and the final five would not make it, but I'm not going to stand on the table for any of those five as opposed to the five left off. I could also see a scenario one day where I want a small enough Hall of Fame that I'd only vote for the top 5 guys and cross my arms and say "that's it, those are Hall of Famers" I don't really have a good handle on what to do with closers, there aren't many better than those two in MLB history, so I don't hate ballots that include them, but they'd be 14-15 on my list.
