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Today in the mail I received Bill James’ book Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame from Amazon.com. It’s an older book, first published in 1994 and in it, James discusses who should and shouldn’t be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He focuses on older players like Phil Rizzuto, George Kelly, Bill Mazeroski and others and debates the merits of each.
So that got me thinking: what current players will one day be inducted into the Hall of Fame?
I looked at today's players and made my ballot based on who would make the Hall if their careers ended today. Hence, players like Albert Pujols and Mark Prior don’t make the cut, even though they could very well end up in Cooperstown one day.
Onto the list:

Get the Plaques Ready

Roberto Alomar – 2nd Base

It’s easy to forget how great Roberto Alomar was in his prime. But a miserable twilight to his career and the spitting incident with John Hirschbeck seem to have made people forget that Alomar has won 10 Gold Gloves, was a 12-time All-Star, has a career batting average over .300 and was a doubling machine. He’ll be inducted on the first ballot.

Craig Biggio – 2nd Base

Bill James loves Craig Biggio. James rated Bigs the 5th best second-baseman and 35th best player of all time in his New Baseball Historical Abstract due in large part to “little stats”.
For instance, in 1997 Biggio became only the fourth player in major-league history to play a full-season without grounding into a double play. The longtime Astro also is #5 on the career hit-by-pitch list.
Biggio is the prototypical sabermetric player. His boxscore stats aren’t flashy, but he creates runs.
Here’s what James himself has to say about Biggio in his Abstract

"Craig Biggio is the best player in major league baseball today. If you compare Craig Biggio very carefully to Ken Griffey Jr. in almost any season, you will find that Biggio has contributed more to his team than Griffey has. ... (A)part from home runs, (Biggio) did everything better than Griffey (in 1998)."

Bonds is in the Top 2 of Active Players in the following statistical categories:
OBP, Slugging, OPS, Games Played, Runs, Total Bases, Doubles, Home Runs, RBI’s, Walks, Stolen Bases, XBH and MVP awards.
So I’ll let him slide for only ranking 10th among active players for sacrifice flies.

Roger Clemens – Pitcher

Didn’t even need the rings he got with the Yankees.

Ken Griffey, Jr. – Center Field

Junior doesn’t need to get to 500 homers (which he will have by the end of the week) to get in. He was as good as in from the moment he stepped on the playing field in Seattle at age 20.

Randy Johnson – Pitcher

The only question for the Big Unit now is, will he go down in history as the best modern left-handed pitcher ever? Well, probably not. Koufax in his prime was better, and Warren Sphan has better numbers. But Johnson is at least in the debate.

Greg Maddux – Pitcher

Soon to hit 300 wins, but like Griffey and his homers, it doesn’t matter. Maddux’s 1994 and 1995 (35-8, 335 K, 54 BB, 1.59 ERA, 267 ERA+) might be the best two-year stretch of any pitcher in history.

Pedro Martinez – Pitcher

Some say he didn’t pitch enough innings or get enough wins (he is only 166-67 for his career). But you can’t argue with Pedro’s winning percentage (1st in modern history), his hits allowed per nine innings pitched (2nd), strikeouts per nine (2nd), three ERA titles and five Cy Young’s.

Mike Piazza – Catcher

Piazza is the best-hitting catcher in history, and that cancels out his miserable play behind the plate. Keep in mind that for nearly all of his career Piazza has played in Los Angeles and New York in two pitcher’s parks, thus making his career homerun total looks all the more impressive.
Piazza drops a notch or four in my book for not beating the crap out of Roger Clemens after the Yankees pitcher threw a broken bat at him in the 2000 World Series, but his 2001 “Even Though Nobody Has Actually Specifically Accused Me of It, I’m Not Gay” press-conference was such great comedy that I’ll forgive him.

Alex Rodriguez – Shortstop/3rd Base

Yes, if his career ended today A. Rod would be a lock for the Hall of Fame. Even if he gets Griffey-esque injuries over the next few years, he’ll still be considered one of the two best shortstops of all-time along with Honus Wagner. And yes, this makes it all the more ridiculous that two-time Gold Glove winner is being kept out of his rightful position by Derek Jeter.

Ivan Rodriguez – Catcher

What Piazza is to hitting, Pudge is to fielding. He has 10 Gold Gloves to his credit, one MVP award (although Pedro should have won that year) and one more World Series ring than Ted Williams and Ernie Banks.

Sammy Sosa – Right Field

By the time Sammy Sosa finishes his career he could be the all-time homerun champion as well as the strikeout king. He’ll be a first ballot Hall-of-Damer, but I would probably wait until his second year of eligibility to put him in. That corked-bat incident has to count for something. But so does the fact that Sammy has three of the top-six single season homerun totals in history.

Not Quite There

Tom Glavine – Pitcher

Glavine is enjoying a bit of a resurgence this season with the Mets after a miserable 2003. He currently has 257 wins and should he get to 300 he’ll be a lock, but wins are tough to come by playing with the Metropolitans. The modern pitchers with the most wins who aren’t in the hall are Tommy John (288), Bert Blyleven (287 – and he should be in) and Jim Kaat (283). Glavine will deserve induction with another solid year or two, but as of now he’d be on the outside looking in.

Edgar Martinez – DH

Martinez will go down as the best designated hitter of all time. In my book, that and $21.50 will get you a Greyhound ticket to Cooperstown.

Fred McGriff – 1st Base/DH

The Crime Dog will probably be the first test-case for whether or not 500 homeruns guarantees entry into the Hall of Fame. Everybody who has hit 500 is either in the Hall or will be when they are eligible. There is a first time for everything though, and McGriff will find that out the hard way.

Rafael Palmeiro – 1st Base

Before I start, let me say two things about Palmeiro:
1) Raffy has always been one of my favorite players in baseball.
and
2) He will eventually be enshrined in Cooperstown.
The problem is, I don’t think he deserves to be. Sure, he will have all the “benchmarks” for induction: 500 HR’s and 3000 hits (every player who has reached either of those numbers is in the Hall, and only three players (Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Eddie Murray) have ever reached both.)
Those numbers are fantastic. 3000 will always be special, while 500 is becoming less-so, but getting them both is quite a feat. But think about this, was Rafael Palmeiro ever considered the best player in the majors? Or even at first base?
The answer is, no. Raffy only has three Top Ten finishes in the MVP voting, was an All-Star only four times and never really had one huge season.
True, Palmeiro was underrated for most of the ‘90s, but even so, if he wasn’t considered one of the best in any particular year, should he really be among the greatest players of all-time?
Some compare Raffy’s quiet accumulation of numbers to Eddie Murray. And its true that both kind of snuck up on the 500 and 3000 plateaus. But Murray finished in the Top 10 of the MVP voting eight times and made the All-Star game eight times also.
Rafael Palmeiro is one of the better players to ever play major league baseball. I just don’t think he is among the greatest.

Frank Thomas – 1st Base/DH

Great numbers, but too many injuries and too sour a personality. But, if there were a Hall of Fame for great nicknames, then the Big Hurt would have his own wing.