Just for the Hall of it ...

Sunday, July 27 2008 @ 05:10 PM EDT

We've done this before, but with Hall of Fame inductions taking place today (yay Goose!) let's take a look at players today who could someday earn Cooperstown induction.

We'll start with the American League ...

I spent a good 12 minutes doing an "exhaustive," completely unscientific scan of current big league rosters to see who might belong on this list. Keep in mind that I have absolutely no inclination to suggest that more than a small percentage of those listed actually will make it to the Hall. And my methodology (or lack thereof) almost demands that I will have missed at least one possible/probable candidate. So jump in and give me a virtual smack across the chops as you demand "How could you possibly forget/include ..."

Here we go ... hang on tight!

Notes:

• Players I think are absolute slam dunks re indicated with an asterisk (*). There are just seven such players currently on an AL roster.
• I did not include managers, umpires or executives, but feel free to "nominate" someone for this list if you feel so inclined.
• Players with minimal service time (sorry Evan Longoria, Chris Davis and Joba Chamberlain) are not listed here under "The Fred Lynn Rule."
• There are two lines listed, those players I think could have a legitimate shot and those who I considered for about two seconds then didn't include in the first group -- these are tagged as "Missing the Cut."
• Just two teams have no players on either line, not even missing the cut. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2008 Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals!
• Two teams had more than any others did on those two lines combined: NYY (thanks to the media influence, in part) with nine and DET with eight. But NYY had more "miss the cut" than DET, though given this year's performance, we may have been a little generous to the Tiger pitching staff.
• Teams are listed in current order of AL divisional standings.

AL EAST

• TBR: Troy Percival
  Missing the cut: Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton
• BOS: Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Manny Ramirez*, David Ortiz
  Missing the cut: Jon Papelbon
• NYY: Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera*, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter*, Alex Rodriguez*
  Missing the cut: Chien-Ming Wang, Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano
• TOR: Roy Halladay
  Missing the cut: Scott Rolen
• BAL: NONE

AL CENTRAL

• CHW: Mark Buehrle, Jim Thome
  Missing the cut: Javier Vazquez
• MIN: Joe Nathan, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau
• KC: NONE
• DET: Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander, Kenny Rogers, Ivan Rodriguez*, Miguel Cabrera, Gary Sheffield
  Missing the cut: Todd Jones, Magglio Ordonez
• CLE: Grady Sizemore
  Missing the cut: Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, Victor Martinez

AL WEST

• LAA: Francisco Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero*
  Missing the cut: Garret Anderson, Torii Hunter
• TEX: Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton
  Missing the cut: Kevin Millwood, Hank Blalock
• OAK: Frank Thomas*
  Missing the cut: Keith Foulke, Eric Chavez
• SEA: Ichiro Suzuki*
  Missing the cut: Adrian Beltre
  

Bauxites, over to you ... who's missing? Who's listed improperly or at least should/shouldn't "make the cut"? Your call!

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