• Ballot: Which players would you vote for on the Hall of Fame ballot?
• Vote: If they don't get in this year, will the new first-timers ever get in?

In the grand scheme of things, Shane Reynolds was a pretty good pitcher. The guy went 19-8 with a 3.51 ERA for the Astros in 1998, at a time when a lot of hitters looked suspiciously like Magnus ver Magnusson. If you stack up every human being who has ever thrown a baseball, there's only the tiniest fraction that threw it better.

None of which stops us from laughing at seeing his name, like those of Mike Jackson and David Segui, on the newest Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.

Tim Raines, Bert Blyleven and Andre Dawson, the guys pictured up there, return for another year, while Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez and Fred McGriff appear for the first time. With seemingly little potential for an induction speech to match Rickey Henderson, we'll spend our time hoping McGriff gets in and has the Tom Emanski cap on his plaque.

Kenny (Scottsdale, AZ)

I've asked you this before, but since Alomar's candidacy is up now it's more relevant. Is the fact that Alomar is not associated with one team hurting his chances to be a slam dunk HOF? In other words, if Alomar had played 14 years for the Cubs would we even be having this discussion?

Rob Neyer

I think that's hard to say, Kenny. But Barry Larkin's fate might tell us a little something.

Mike (Ohio)

I'm sure you've talked of this and I missed. Does Edgar Martinez deserve to get into the Hall?

Rob Neyer

I've talked of this, but it's been a while and I honestly can't remember how I finished. At this moment, I'm an agnostic. Which I can be, since I don't get to vote. What bothers me is that most of the discussion I've seen doesn't grapple with the basic issue, which is that Edgar had almost zero defensive value. Full transcript