Will Carlos Beltran make the baseball hall of fame?
 

Centerfielder Carlos Beltran becomes HOF eligible next year. He holds impressive statistics. However, the Houston sign stealing scandal may derail his chances. If so, for how long? Or can it be overlooked?

What are your thoughts?

Beltran statistics
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...eltrca01.shtml

I think he'll have a fight on his hands. I would say his stats alone would merit serious consideration BUT being that his championship is tainted and baseball clearly hasn't welcomed him back (no other managerial offers to speak of) I think he'll have to wait a few years.

I would wager on him getting in eventually though. In my opinion he was a much better player than the other borderline outfielders (Dawson, Larry Walker, Billy Williams, etc.).

I don't see any trend of forgiveness among the writers unless your name is David Ortiz, so for now, I lean no.

Yeah, gonna be tough for him.

Played almost 20 years and was pretty consistent during that time leading to solid career stats (2,725 hits, 435 HRs), but his peak wasn't that great.
Unlike other borderline Outfielders, he never lead the league in anything, and the highest he ever finished in MVP was 4 (although he probably deserved higher).

The sign-stealing scandal with Astros is definitely a problem for him.

If het gets in, it may take a long time.

I think it will get in. That “scandal” seemed like it has mostly blown over and others will not be hurt when they retire (ie Altuve)

That said I do not think he will get in on his first try but with in the first 5 years he will get in

I guess it would be hard to excuse the cheating and then make excuses like he was playing against other cheaters during his prime.

He’s a compiler and the face of an outrage. He’s not going in in the short term, I think. He probably does eventually from a vets committee.

Unless they are suddenly going to let Jackson back into baseball, and the HOF, no one else known to have been involved in cheating should ever be allowed in, or even considered. The hypocrisy is disgusting otherwise.

The good news if he stays out is I don't have to deal with his ridiculous rookie card (or lack thereof) situation.

Haha I’m in a similar boat in that I got him at spring training when he was on Kansas City but have since lost the baseball.

95 SP > 95 Topps in this case.

That's what I have in the current collection but it's a minor league card, not sure I can justify that if he goes Hall.

1996 SPX then. It’s worth like $1 or less so that will be nice.

Negative that. I must have an RC. Problem is, he doesn't have one as I define it, so I guess next best thing is the minor league from the rookie year?

If his 1995 doesn’t count because it’s a minor league card how does his 1996 not then count as the rookie, as the first card in a major league uniform to accurately portray him? He didn’t debut for years after both cards.

The 95 SP has him in a MLB uniform. If that’s not enough, the 1998 cards from his actual debut year are plentiful.

If he doesn’t have one under your rules, then you’re all set and good to go already ;)

Or, buy the 1995 Juan Lebron and the “Carlos Beltran”. Remove the gold print on the Lebron, and carefully cut and glue “Carlos Beltran” onto it.

Yeah a custom card may be the solution.

If there is any card Topps should reprint and make a change on for their next Archives type set, it's this one.

If forced to take a 95 TT, I would actually take the LeBron card because to me the picture is more important than the words. The market of course thinks otherwise.

What's great is the Bowman's Best makes the same mistake.

I didn’t know the Best did that too. Reminds me of the Jim Taylor crap show where they pictured Linebacker Jim of the Cardinals in both 1959 and 1960 instead of packer Jim. You’d think the red uniform would be a giveaway.

The T3 Frank Baker is Jack Barry.

People still pay a pretty penny for a select few Irv Young cards too.

Forgot about that. That is a great point.

To paraphrase Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, if I say it's a rookie card, it's a rookie card.