Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez
If your analysis of these candidates is based purely on numbers, these guys are in. The voters who judge by that standard (and that standard alone) is why they’ve gotten about 35 percent of the vote in previous ballot cycles.
The obvious problem is getting beyond the numbers and into the pharmaceuticals. That’s what kept Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro out, and it’s what has Ramirez and Rodriguez stuck in the 30% range for all these years.
Manny is now in his ninth season on the ballot, so his time is running out. A-Rod is only in his fourth, so if somehow viewpoints change, he could theoretically still get in. Either way, voting on these two isn’t objective; it comes down to a referendum on steroids and performance enhancing drugs in the game.