Randy Johnson Makes First Appearance On 2015 Hall Of Fame Ballot
By Tony Fischer
The Baseball Writers association of America has released the 2015 Ballot with a familiar name headlining the potential 2015 class. Randy Johnson makes his first appearance on the ballot and will face some stiff competition for his bid to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Pedro Martinez is also on the ballot for the first time along with John Smoltz and Garry Sheffield. The fist timers join the ballot with some heavy hitters who have been waiting for their nod. Steroid era sluggers Barry Bonds (2nd Year) , Sammy Sosa (2nd year), Mark McGwire (8th year) and Roger Clemens (2nd year) are all waiting for the Baseball writers to reconcile their place in baseball history. Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza round out the worthy candidates that could take votes from the Big Unit.
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Randy Johnson is certainly worthy of first ballot consideration. 303 wins, 4875 strikeouts and 5 Cy Young Awards (1 AL, 4 NL) highlight the left-hander’s career stat line.
Johnson played for 6 teams in his major league career but he was arguably the most dominant in during his 8 years in Arizona. The Big Unit recorded 118 wins as a Diamondback while posting a 2.38 ERA and a 1.068 WHIP when he won 4 consecutive Cy Young awards (1999 -2002) while wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform.
His best season came at the age of 37 when he won both the Cy Young award and the World Series MVP. In the Diamondbacks 2001 World Series victory over the New York Yankees, Johnson went 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA and .0692 WHIP.
Randy Johnson appearance is bad news for another former Diamondback coach. Alan Trammel is entering his final year on the ballot and the appearance of Johnson and Martinez all but kills his chances of getting into the Hall the traditional way. Trammel will likely have to wait for the veterans committee to elect him.