I wouldn't have voted for anyone on the ballot, but all of them are better picks than Baines. I think Garvey would make a very bad selection, but the rest would not lower the standards of the hall or be poor picks, all are just narrowly on the "not quite" line for me.
There are several others, like Pinson, Oliva and Tiant, that could easily fall on either side of the line. Kaat, Vida Blue, McGriff, Dick Allen.
The two that seem to clearly belong to me, who have fallen off the writers ballot, are Minoso and Hodges. Hodges is, or is almost, a hall of famer as a 1st baseman, and after factoring in that he was also a great manager who led the Mets to the WS, he should make it easily just as Joe Torre did. Minoso is a no-brainer in my book.
On the Pre-War side, there are many other borderline guys who could fall either way. Dahlen seems to be the clearly deserving choice, to me.
Ross Barnes and Jim Creighton seem to me the most egregious examples of a players not selected, and with the current ruleset, will not ever be selected.
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