I, too, feel the BBWAA needs to stop playing judge and jury on who should get in based off anything other than their on the field play compared to their on the field counterparts.
Bonds may have used PEDs but so did Canseco. I would never consider Canseco a HOFer but Bonds undoubtedly is one of the most dominant players of the game even compared to his contemporaries. Just because someone used PED didn't make them good. It may have helped them drive the ball farther but they still had to make contact. PEDs didn't help Bonds strikeout less. Look at McGwire and Sosa. McGwire's K% (percent of PA that were Strike outs) was at 20.8% and Sosa's 23.3%. Bonds was only 12.2%, that has to do with good contact hitting and plate patience, if this was caused by PED then his number wouldn't be 10% lower. In fact Bonds only had one season with more than 100 strikeouts, and that was his RC season. In 2004 Bonds hit more home runs than he struck out (45 HR, 41 SO).
The problem is people had come up with milestone stats to determine HOF and the PED users skewed this a little bit by hitting more home runs. Yet when you compare them to their contemporaries you get a better picture of who the premier players were/are and Bonds is definitely one of them.
|