Deserving Hall of Famers, Top Stories, Sad Stories, and Other Bullets

Dec 31, 2016

Thanks for a great year, my friends. I know that 2016 wasn’t all things to all people, but at least Cubs fans can share in The Year It Happened. To us, 2016 will always means something more. Something irreplaceable. I’m ready to barrel forward into 2017, but I will maintain affection for 2016 probably for as many new years as I have left.

Have fun with friends and family tonight. Be safe. Make good choices. I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Hall of Fame ballots are due today, and we’ll find out in a couple weeks who has made the cut. This is definitely an interesting way of visualizing some of the Hall of Fame debates:

Why I support Bagwell & Walker for HOF. Snapshot of top @baseball_ref WAR earners at each position since 1988 (today's game). HOF in bold pic.twitter.com/Cstszosaif
— Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) December 29, 2016

Stray thoughts: Mike Mussina still doesn’t get enough love, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are LOL, Adrian Beltre is awesome, and Mike Trout (age 25) isn’t that far off the center field list, at 48.5 WAR already.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Sammy Sosa just misses there in right field, at 58.4 WAR.

Hardball Talk counted down the top 25 stories of the baseball year, and the top spot was of course claimed by the Cubs’ historic title run. And, in the horrible yin-yang balance of 2016, the very next spot is taken by the death of Jose Fernandez.

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Anyone wonder what the most read post was this year at BN? Well, I got curious: it was the post about the possibility of Kyle Schwarber playing in the Arizona Fall League, and thus possibly playing in the World Series. Next was the death of Jose Fernandez, third was the surprise return of Dexter Fowler, fourth was one of the bigger reveals about the Cardinals hack, and fifth was the Aroldis Chapman trade.

The sixth fastest pitch that yielded a home run this season was thrown by Michael Lorenzen, and it was 99.5 mph. Why do I mention it? Because Jake Arrieta took it out to right center for a homer. Yup, the sixth fastest-pitched homer of the year was hit by Arrieta.

Bill Murray was partying with noted Cardinals fan Jon Hamm during the World Series at Murphy’s Bleachers when Murray took exception to Hamm’s hat. And out into the alley the hat went.

Some of the fun and crazy bits from the year in baseball.

“Highly-rated” Kindle books are on sale to close out the year.

Yeah, his lefty pitches are vastly better than my righty pitches (though I guess that’s not saying much):

Yu Darvish throwing a nasty curveball and slider … as a LEFTY. (via his Instagram: https://t.co/QSc3ctpnuu) pic.twitter.com/UmnXjCWr29

— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) December 31, 2016

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written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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