Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Ivan Rodriguez elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, former Reds miss out

Cooperstown, NY — The BBWAA announced the results of their Hall of Fame voting process on Wednesday afternoon, and all five former members of the Cincinnati Reds who were on the ballot failed to be elected. Each of Lee Smith, Edgar Renteria, Mike Cameron, Orlando Cabrera, and Arthur Rhodes were eligible for election - Smith in his 15th and final year on the ballot, the other four all on the ballot for the first time - yet those knuckle-dragging baseball writers just couldn’t find a way to get these guys some plaques next to Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, or Willie Mays. Heck, Cabrera alone has more career home runs than Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith, Luis Aparicio, Randy Johnson, and Greg Maddux...combined!

Of course, this is from the same organization that has one ‘B’ too many in its own acronym, so what’d you really expect? Sad!

Jokes aside, Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame today, and it's hard to argue against any of their elections.

Bagwell's list of accomplishments include a Rookie of the Year Award, the 1994 NL MVP, 449 dingers, 1529 ribbies, awful facial hair, and 79.6 career bWAR - almost all of which has screamed "Hall of Famer" since he became eligible back in the 2011 voting.

Raines, for his credit, is 6th all time in stolen bases, but his career reached far beyond his ability to swipe a bag - with over 2600 career hits, over 100 career triples, an asonishing 1330/966 career BB/K ratio, a .385 career OBP, and 69.1 career bWAR to his name, he's pretty well established as the second best leadoff hitter in recent memory.

Pudge Rodriguez can stake his claim as the greatest catcher of all-time (non Johnny Bench edition), which obviously makes his election as a 1st ballot entry pretty well justified. A 13 time Gold Glove Award winner, Pudge won the 1999 AL MVP with the Texas Rangers, amassed a mammoth 28.7 career dWAR and 68.4 career bWAR, and was as feared for his arm behind the plate as he was with a bat that clubbed over 300 dingers in his 21 seasons as a big leaguer.

Falling just short of election were former Cincinnati Reds draftee and minor leaguer Trevor Hoffman (74% of ballots), outfielder Vladimir Guerrero (71.7%), and hitting maestro Edgar Martinez (58.6%), though each seem pretty well poised to be elected in the very near future at this rate. Also of note were the gains made by both Roger Clemens (54.1%) and Barry Bonds (53.8%) - both of whom saw large increases from previous years.