I used to do a small write up every year on the players who received zero votes on the Hall of Fame ballot, but last year I just couldn’t work up the momentum to get it done (2021 into 2022 was not my best year). Once is an accident but twice is a trend, so I wanted to get it done this year. I’m sure we’ll revisit the 2022 guys at some point.
Matt Cain - Cain was a very good pitcher for his first eight major league seasons, posting an ERA+ of 127 in 236 games (all but one of them starts) from 2005-12. His final five seasons were a different story, with a 78 ERA+ in 106 games, including ten out of the bullpen.
Still, there were moments of brilliance, including three All-Star team selections (2009, 2011, 2012), World Series championships with the Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014 (though he didn’t appear in the third postseason run), and a perfect game against the Houston Astros on June 13, 2012.
Jacoby Ellsbury - As a Red Sox fan, the first word that comes to mind when Ellsbury is mentioned is “fast.” I’m not looking it up at the moment (this is a very on the fly, off the top of my head with a dash of Baseball Reference episode of the Bizarro Hall) but pretty sure he did the usual fast guy stuff: infield hit on a routine ground ball, scoring from second on a wild pitch, rounding the bases so fast time ran backwards. It was his thing and he used it to lead the American League in steals three times, with a high of 70 in 2009.
Of course, the second thing that comes to mind is overrated, and it’s largely based on his 2011 season (second place MVP finish, 30 homers and 30 steals, 146 OPS+, his only All-Star Game and Gold Glove), which I’m pretty sure led to a big contract with the Yankees after the 2013 season. That contract, unfortunately, put him on the Carl Crawford Career Path. He averaged about 25 steals over four seasons but never hit more than 16 homers.
He also stole a base in the 2007 World Series, which actually irritated me because it meant everyone got a free taco at Taco Bell, and while I love Taco Bell tacos, I also lived down the street from Taco Bell at the time and it took me forever to get home that day.
Andre Ethier - Ethier was a talented player who I thought was better than he was. It was genuinely surprising to look up his stats and see just one thirty homer season and a couple All-Star appearances on his resume. My brain might be confusing him with Matt Kemp to a degree. Like Matt Cain with the Giants, Ethier played his entire career with one team, the Dodgers.
JJ Hardy - Hardy was a below-average offensive player for most of his career, though he did have a little pop (five 20 homer seasons, with a high of 30 for Baltimore in 2011) as a shortstop. He could also field a little, with three straight Gold Gloves from 2012-14. Coming into this, I would not have guess that he had more career home runs than Andre Ethier (188 to 162).
Jhonny Peralta - A shortstop like J.J. Hardy, Peralta hit more home runs (202, including five seasons with 20-plus and 11 straight with at least ten) but doesn’t have the defensive hardware to compare. Where Hardy is fifth all-time in fielding % as a shortstop, Peralta ranks 13th (which still seems pretty impressive to me but what do I know).
Jered Weaver - Weaver was a guy who probably could’ve picked up a couple votes and nobody would’ve batted an eye. He was one of baseball’s best pitchers from 2010-12, finishing in the top five of the Cy Young voting all three years, leading the American League in strikeouts in 2010 and wins in 2012. He won 18 games in 2014 but his ERA+ was 100, which pretty much answers the question of why wins have fallen out of favor over the past few years.
Jayson Werth - Werth won a World Series with the Phillies in 2008 and made another appearance in 2009, hitting 24 and 36 home runs, respectively (the first of four straight 20 homer seasons). I always think of him as a disappointment for the contract he signed with the Nationals after the 2010 season and I guess he didn’t live up to expectations in Washington, only playing four full seasons out of seven and hitting 20-plus home runs three times. He was a much better base stealer than I remember, with 132 for his career, two 20-20 seasons, and a career 85% success rate.
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