SoDo Mojo's (un)official Hall of Fame Ballot - Will former Mariners make the cut?

Players with 3-6 Votes: Chase Utley, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Bobby Abreu

I will get this out of the way early. Yes, I voted for A-Rod and Manny. Yes, I know both of them cheated by using steroids. Yes, I know it is unpopular here to vote for A-Rod. But I did it anyway. The Baseball Hall of Fame is a museum. It is not the "Hall of Good People". What I care about is on field production, and both A-Rod and Manny have just that. (This rule does not count for guys who get arrested for violent or disgusting crimes, though). You just cannot tell the story of post-strike baseball without these two.

Everybody knows who A-Rod and Manny are. Alex is statistically one of the best players ever in baseball, and Manny is not that far behind him. Manny Ramirez has more career WAR (69.3) than Tony Gwynn (69.2), John Smoltz (69.0) and Edgar Martinez (68.4). He hit 555 home runs throughout his career, and had a .312 career batting average. Manny was a massive part of the curse-breaking 2004 Red Sox team, He won 2 World Series, a World Series MVP, was a 12x All-Star, and won a batting title. Put Manny in the Hall of Fame.

I made my case for Alex Rodriguez earlier this offseason, you can read that whole article here. I know how unpopular A-Rod is, especially here in Seattle. But the fact of the matter is, A-Rod put together a HoF career. You do not have to like him as a person, but his contributions to the game cannot be forgotten. I view A-Rod the same way as I do Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and the other steroid guys. They belong in the Hall of Fame. Note on their plaque that they cheated, or were banned from baseball, and move on.