[Mick]

Rose
Jackson
Bonds
Clemens
Rodriguez
Sosa

All six of them deserve a place in the Hall.  They were outstanding players.

Note:  If we are going to nitpick over their off-field behavior, we should take a long, hard look at the existing enshrines who had significant character flaws.  

Note2: I am an advocate of judging players by what they accomplished between the white lines.

When the issue is steroids, are we really just "nitpicking their off-field behavior"? There's a reasonable argument that when it comes to steroid users, "what they accomplished between the white lines" was influenced -- some might say tainted -- by the performance boost they got from steroids.

But putting that issue aside for the moment, I'm curious about how you distinguish among Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro, and Sheffield. Some numbers:

                        Avg   Hits   HRs  RBIs   OPS   WAR
Sosa............... .273  2408  609  1667   .878   58.6
McGwire......... .263  1626  583  1414   .982   62.2
Palmeiro......... .288  3020  569  1835   .885   71.9
Sheffield......... .292  2689  509  1676   .907   60.5

It is noteworthy that Clemens, Pettite, Gagne, Brown and other pitchers used PEDs as well. Makes the steroid batting accomplishments even more impressive...

[Mick]

Rose
Jackson
Bonds
Clemens
Rodriguez
Sosa

All six of them deserve a place in the Hall.  They were outstanding players.

Note:  If we are going to nitpick over their off-field behavior, we should take a long, hard look at the existing enshrines who had significant character flaws.  

Note2: I am an advocate of judging players by what they accomplished between the white lines.

When the issue is steroids, are we really just "nitpicking their off-field behavior"? There's a reasonable argument that when it comes to steroid users, "what they accomplished between the white lines" was influenced -- some might say tainted -- by the performance boost they got from steroids.

But putting that issue aside for the moment, I'm curious about how you distinguish among Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro, and Sheffield. Some numbers:

                        Avg   Hits   HRs  RBIs   OPS   WAR
Sosa............... .273  2408  609  1667   .878   58.6
McGwire......... .263  1626  583  1414   .982   62.2
Palmeiro......... .288  3020  569  1835   .885   71.9
Sheffield......... .292  2689  509  1676   .907   60.5

It is noteworthy that Clemens, Pettite, Gagne, Brown and other pitchers used PEDs as well. Makes the steroid batting accomplishments even more impressive...