My 2020 Mock Hall of Fame ballot: Former Red Sox players get the call

Explaining the ballot I submitted for FanSided’s mock Baseball Hall of Fame exercise and why two controversial former Red Sox players got my vote.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will announce the results of its 2020 Hall of Fame balloting on January 21. Before we find out who will be enshrined in Cooperstown, FanSided will reveal our Mock Hall of Fame results. As one of the site experts covering the Boston Red Sox in FanSided’s MLB division, I was honored to participate in this exercise.

Our group of writers followed the same rules that the BBWAA are held to. We each received a ballot listing all the eligible candidates and were asked to select up to 10 players. The votes were tallied and percentages were calculated to determine who we believe should make the cut.

FanSided will reveal our results next week but before they do, I wanted to share the ballot that I submitted and provide an explanation for why I made those choices. Just as not every BBWAA ballot is the same, the votes submitted by FanSided writers have their differences.

I suspect that not all of you will agree with each of my choices either. That’s part of the fun of this exercise! To spark debate and give fans a chance to argue in favor or against the worthiness of each candidate.

Let’s go through each of my choices, which include several players with ties to the Red Sox organization.