Sodo Mojo’s Hall of Fame Ballot Series, Part 1

Votes 9&10- Andruw Jones and Sammy Sosa
Andruw Jones is on the ballot for the first time, and if things don’t pick up soon, it could be his last. Jones is one of the best defensive center fielders of all time, winning 10 consecutive Gold Gloves for the Atlanta Braves.
In addition to his defensive prowess, Jones bashed 434 home runs, along with 383 doubles while slashing .254/.337/.486. While not elite ratios, the counting stats along with his defensive prowess make Jones a Hall of Famer in every sense of the word.
Jones’ peak from 1997 to 2006 saw him average 34 homers with an .852 OPS while winning 9 Gold Gloves and 5 All-Star appearances.
For the final spot on my ballot, I had a difficult time picking between several candidates. Ultimately, Sammy Sosa got the nod over Manny Ramirez and Billy Wagner. Sosa gets the nod over Ramirez, simply because Sosa is in real danger of falling off the ballot, while Ramirez is just on his second attempt to crack the Hall of Fame.
While the steroid allegations have hurt his credibility, from 1993-2004, Sosa slugged 537 home runs with a .285/.360/.576 slash line. Sosa won the 1998 MVP award, and finished Top 10 in the voting for 6 consecutive seasons.
In the end, Sosa’s 609 career home runs along with his long peak makes him a Hall of Fame player. The fact that he is currently hovering around 10% of the vote is an abomination.