****Remember, try this without research. Release your inner James Joyce and show us your stream of consciousness as you decipher the answer. Add to that the teachings of Myagi: patience. If you don’t get the answer right away, give your brain a chance to work if for no other reason than to stay in the discussion. You may not have THE answer, but you might prompt another reader by asking the right question.

By Chas

I was one of the great ones. That’s right, I have a plaque in Cooperstown.

I’m one of two Hall of Famers who was born in Baltimore. The other guy is a way bigger deal. You know, an icon…one of those guys with multiple nicknames, a larger than life figure who played most of his career in a stadium they supposedly built for him.

I was a pretty special player too. So much so I was signed right out of high school and made my major league debut at the age of 18. The next year I was a full-time starter, and the following season I finished second in MVP voting.

As it turns out, I never won an MVP,but I finished in the top 10 in the voting nine times, including three top 3 finishes. Every time I finished in the top three, I was beaten out by Yankees. Even when I finished third, the top two vote-getters were those damn pinstripers.

I did earn my share of accolades, though. What do you think about 10 Gold Gloves and 15 All-Star selections? Not too bad, huh? Of course, the ultimate honor was a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction. There aren’t that many people who can say that.

I didn’t make very many postseason appearances, however. You can probably guess why. I played my entire career for one team, and we happened to be in the same league as the Yankees. I did finally make it, though, kind of late in my career. We had a phenomenal season, led by a starting pitcher who accomplished something that hadn’t been done in over 30 years, and hasn’t been matched since.

In the World Series, our ace was twice out-pitched by their ace, a guy who had a pretty historic season himself and who would enter the Hall of Fame the year after me. But, a different pitcher for our team came back on two days rest to out-duel said Hall of Famer in a game-seven matchup that earned him the Series MVP. It was his third complete game victory in the Series, a truly historic performance.

If not for that player, I had an MVP-worthy performance (11-for-29, 6 runs, 2 HR, 8 RBI) myself. But, as usual, I was outshined.

I came pretty close to being the first player to ever collect over 3000 hits and 400 home runs solely in the American League, but Carl Yastrzemski later earned that distinction.

I wasn’t outshined on the day I got into Cooperstown, though. Well, I was inducted alongside another legendary player, but it was his 11th year on the ballot. Like I said, I was voted in my first year on the ballot. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Who Am I?

I read from a pretty reputable source recently that, historically, there are about 35 players active at any given time who go on to become Hall of Famers. So, I thought it would be a fun discussion to try and predict who the current 35 or so would be.

For the purposes of this exercise, active is defined as any player who played in 2010, so while we know that a couple of the guys I listed below have already decided to retire, they still fall into the pool of candidates.

Here are 30 that I came up with for an initial list. By no means am I trying to say these are the “no-brainers.” In fact, at least a few of them are based on the prediction that they’ll continue to produce in a way that will result in a Hall of Fame career. Obviously, in order to come up with such a list, there have to be some very young guys on it.

I also thought it would be useful to list the players by position. You’ll probably notice that there are generally 2-4 for each position, except starting pitcher, so this initial list has some balance, as I think it should.

C Ivan Rodriguez
C Joe Mauer
1B Albert Pujols
1B Ryan Howard
1B Miguel Cabrera
1B Joey Votto
1B Prince Fielder
1B Adrian Gonzalez
2B Chase Utley
2B Robinson Cano
SS Derek Jeter
SS Hanley Ramirez
SS Troy Tulowitzki
SS Omar Vizquel
3B Alex Rodriguez
3B Chipper Jones
3B David Wright
3B Evan Longoria
3B Ryan Zimmerman
LF Manny Ramirez
LF Carl Crawford
LF Ryan Braun
CF Ken Griffey Jr.
CF Jim Edmonds
RF Ichiro Suzuki
RF Vladimir Guerrero
RF Jason Heyward
DH Jim Thome
DH David Ortiz
SP Roy Halladay
SP Johan Santana
SP CC Sabathia
SP Tim Lincecum
SP Felix Hernandez
SP Adam Wainwright
SP Justin Verlander
RP Mariano Rivera
RP Trevor Hoffman
RP Billy Wagner

A couple other things worth noting:

1. For the most part, these are predictions about who will make the Hall of Fame, rather than players I think are or will be deserving.

2. The possible exception to the above note is the PED issue, which is the only factor that might prevent a few of these guys from getting in. However, I really do think those above with that particular cloud hanging over their heads will eventually be inducted.

Who’s going to be the first to share your opinion? Who am I missing? Who am I crazy for including on this list? I know there are quite a few other guys who belong in the discussion, but whom I left off, either based on the fact that I think they’ll tail off, or because I’m simply less certain about them than others.

They also sent him the birthplace information for all of the Hall of Famers, but it’s unclear as to why he didn’t follow through with their suggestion to determine this for himself. However, it’s likely that Dutchess County is one of no more than a few counties that can boast of having as many as two native sons in the Hall. It might take a little time and be a little tedious, but I’ll eventually do the research to figure out the answer for myself.

The two Hall of Famers in question are Wappingers Falls’ Dan Brouthers, one of the greatest hitters of the 19th century, and the Columbia-educated Eddie Collins of Millerton. Recently, I went on a mini-tour of the various tributes to the two greatest players that Dutchess County has ever produced, and I thought it might be interesting to share that with you here.

The first stop was the final resting place of “Big Dan” Brouthers, St. Mary’s Cemetery in Wappingers Falls. Brouthers was actually born in the nearby town of Sylvan Lake, but his family moved to Wappingers when he was just a youngster. Widely considered to be the Babe Ruth of the 19th century, he played 18 seasons in the majors from 1879 to 1896—plus a brief comeback at age 46 in 1904—and is still 9th all-time with a lifetime batting average of .342.

St. Mary’s isn’t a large cemetery, but it still took the assistance of a web site called Find A Grave to locate his grave stone.

The next stop was just down the street to a field dedicated to Brouthers. I first discovered this field about 20 years ago, when I umpired a Little League All-Star game there. It was surprising to me to learn that this field existed less than 10 miles from where I grew up, and I had no prior knowledge of it. The field was dedicated in 1971 with an impressive monument to the first Hall of Famer from Dutchess County.

You’ll have to visit a site called BallparkReviews.com to see what I’m talking about, because unbelievably, the field and the monument were no longer there. It may not be so obvious if you compare the following photo to the one on the site, because they’re taken from opposite directions, but I assure you this is the former location of Brouthers Field. An email inquiry to the mayor of the Village of Wappingers Falls has yet to receive a response. I’ve since learned of the existence of the Sports Museum of Dutchess County, so maybe someone there can help solve the mystery of what happened to the Dan Brouthers monument.

Dan Brouthers was the reigning major league leader in career home runs in 1887, the year that Eddie Collins was born about an hour northeast of Wappingers—as far as one could travel from there without leaving Dutchess County—in Millerton. Eddie “Cocky” Collins, so named not for his arrogance, but for his extreme level of confidence in his sheer ability to play the game, is generally considered to be—along with Joe Morgan and Rogers Hornsby—one of the three greatest second basemen in history.

Collins is also known for being one of the clean players on the 1919 Chicago White Sox, commonly referred to as the Black Sox for the fact that eight players—including Joe Jackson—conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series, and were subsequently banned from baseball. In 1964, the good people of Millerton honored their hometown hero by dedicating the local park to him, building a beautiful stone archway at its entrance. This was the final stop on a day of paying tribute to the two players who share the distinction of being considered, in my opinion, the pride of Dutchess County.

I thought that right field was a loaded position, but the tough decisions there paled in comparison to those I had to make determining what pitchers would make my all-lifetime team. Starting pitchers were particularly difficult, as I could have made a top ten list and still left Hall of Famers off of it. Or, I could have chosen three right-handers and three left-handers, but instead I opted to just go with six starters in total.

Starting Pitcher
1. Roger Clemens
2. Greg Maddux
3. Tom Seaver
4. Randy Johnson
5. Pedro Martinez
6. Steve Carlton

As I said before, on-field performance is strictly what these selections are based on, and it’s hard to argue that Clemens–with his seven Cy Young awards–is not the best starting pitcher of his generation. Maddux’s career included an incredible run of seven consecutive seasons with an ERA+ of 160 (60% better than average) or higher. Seaver only accomplished that twice, but he did finish in the top five in Cy Young voting eight times. Johnson and Martinez have arguably been more dominant at their peaks than anyone here, but their injury plagued careers keep them out of the top three. Carlton beats out Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro, Jim Palmer, Fergie Jenkins, Don Sutton, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Tom Glavine, Mike Mussina and John Smoltz for the final spot.

Relief Pitcher (pre-1988)
1. Bruce Sutter
2. Rich Gossage
3. Dan Quisenberry

Relief Pitcher (post-1988)
1. Mariano Rivera
2. Trevor Hoffman
3. Dennis Eckersley

Rivera is an easy #1, but after that I can understand why Hall of Fame voters seem to be having such a tough time figuring out how to deal with relief pitchers. I honestly didn’t expect this to be such a difficult decision, so I decided to divide them into two categories: pre-1988 and post-1988. That year, of course, was Eckersley’s first season as a full-time closer, which is generally considered to be the beginning of the one-inning save trend.

Like I said, Rivera would be #1 on the list even if I hadn’t split the group in half. I used to think that some could make an argument for Eckersley as the best of the post-1988 bunch. But, then I took a closer look and realized that, as great as he was in his prime, that prime was very short-lived. He makes the list, but I chose Hoffman’s consistency over Eck’s dominant prime. Surprisingly overlooked in discussions of the best active closers is Billy Wagner, whose career ERA+ of 180 is second only to Rivera. Lastly, Lee Smith probably doesn’t quite get the respect he deserves, but in my opinion, he’s still not a Hall of Famer.

The most unsung closer of the pre-1988 era is Quisenberry, and I really believe he deserved much more Hall of Fame consideration than the 3.8% of the vote he received in his first, and only, year on the ballot. His career percentage of save opportunities converted (81.6) is better than Sutter (74.8), Gossage (73.5) and Rollie Fingers (75.8); and his ERA+ (146) outshines that Hall of Fame trio as well: Sutter (136), Gossage (126), Fingers (119). All four of them averaged over an inning and a half per relief appearance, so they’re on a pretty level playing field when it comes to comparing their saves percentages. Incidentally, the post-1988 crew have much better success rates, but they all average about a half inning less per outing. I intend no disrespect to Fingers by bumping him from the list in favor of Quisenberry, because it could have been any of them. If he was a little closer to 300 career saves, I’d have no reservations ranking Quiz #1.

To be more specific, I consider 1974 to be the year that I became a true baseball fan. So, to be eligible, a player has to have played at least ten years during the period of 1974 to 2008. Since there were a couple of gray areas with regard to positions, I generally considered each player’s entire career at the position at which he played the most games.

As exceptions, I considered Andre Dawson as a center fielder, although he actually played more games in right, due to the relative weakness of the position, but also because he had just as many of his best seasons there. Also, since Pete Rose played four or more seasons at five different positions, and actually didn’t play his first season at his most frequently played position–first base–until his 17th year, I decided to call him the game’s ultimate utility player. So as not to create an exclusive category for that, I thought it would be appropriate to combine it with the otherwise under-represented DHs.

So, with minimal analysis–although don’t believe for a second that a lot didn’t go into these decisions–and starting with the position players in this part one, I’m going to offer my picks for the top three players of my lifetime at each position.

Hall of Famers are in bold print.

Catcher

1. Johnny Bench
2. Carlton Fisk
3. Ivan Rodriguez

Honorable mentions: Mike Piazza, Gary Carter
Bench was easy. The remaining four are probably interchangeable, depending on what factors you choose to emphasize.

First Base
1. Eddie Murray
2. Jeff Bagwell
3. Rod Carew

Honorable mentions: Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Tony Perez
Murray is also an obvious pick. Bagwell might not seem as obvious, but to me he is. Carew played more first base than second base in his career.

Second Base
1. Joe Morgan
2. Roberto Alomar
3. Craig Biggio

Honorable mentions: Ryne Sandberg, Jeff Kent
Another no-brainer for the top spot. It might be surprising to some that I consider both Alomar and Biggio better than the slightly over-rated Sandberg.

Shortstop
1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Cal Ripken Jr.
3. Robin Yount

Honorable mentions: Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter, Ozzie Smith
Rodriguez still has 3+ years to go before he’s played more games at third than at short. He’s already surpassed the Hall of Famers Ripken and Yount, and the over-rated Smith.

Third Base
1. Mike Schmidt
2. George Brett
3. Wade Boggs

Honorable mention: Chipper Jones
The presence of three Hall of Famers made these picks pretty easy. Jones has some pretty impressive numbers, though, and may soon make a case for himself.

Left Field
1. Barry Bonds
2. Rickey Henderson
3. Carl Yastrzemski

Honorable mentions: Tim Raines, Jim Rice
Three slam dunk Hall of Famers easily beat out a borderline Hall of Famer and an extremely under-rated player.

Center Field
1. Ken Griffey Jr.
2. Andre Dawson
3. Bernie Williams

Honorable mentions: Kirby Puckett, Jim Edmonds
I’m sure I’ll get some grief for picking Dawson and (especially) Williams ahead of Puckett, but the proof that I didn’t favor Williams just because he was a Yankee is the absence of names like Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly and Graig Nettles above.

Right Field
1. Manny Ramirez
2. Dave Winfield
3. Reggie Jackson

Honorable mentions: Tony Gwynn, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero
This was the strongest position of all, and no…your eyes do not deceive you. Ramirez tops the list, over two Yankee greats.

Utility/DH
1. Pete Rose
2. Paul Molitor
3. Frank Thomas

Honorable mentions: Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines
Thomas should eventually become the second DH in the Hall of Fame. Molitor was the first, and Rose–of course–would be there if not for…well, you know.

Bring it on, gentleman. Looking forward to your comments, and stay tuned for part two…the pitchers.

In this first week, I’m going to ease into things by simply giving a rundown of the major stories that are sure to make this off-season quite intriguing.

Will MLB institute any major rules changes?

With the General Managers Meetings convening this week in Southern California, there is speculation that there will be some discussion regarding two major potential rules changes: further use of instant replay and the move of future World Series to neutral sites. While it seems to me that the former will get more serious consideration, it doesn’t appear that the use of instant replay will extend beyond determining home run calls and fair/foul controversies. As far as moving the World Series to a neutral site is concerned, it’s not happening under Bud Selig’s watch, nor should it.

One less major, but certainly not insignificant, change that it appears will come out of the GM meetings is a new tiebreaker system to determine home-field advantage when a one-game playoff is necessary to decide who gets to the post-season and who goes home. This year, the Minnesota Twins won 10 out of 18 regular season meetings versus the Chicago White Sox, yet Chicago got the home field in their playoff game by virtue of a coin flip. It looks like MLB GMs will vote at next month’s winter meetings in Las Vegas to change this, and to award the home field to the team that won the season series. I’m not sure if this would really qualify as a tiebreaker system, and if it would revert back to a coin-toss if the season series was a tie, but this simple measure is pretty much a no-brainer, in my opinion.

What future Hall of Famers will retire?

How special would it be for Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz to all be inducted into the Hall of Fame together? Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Probably not. Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz all face decisions about their future, but Glavine, who will turn 43 before the start of 2009, and Smoltz, who will turn 42 next May, will likely have a difficult time retiring following seasons in which they both missed almost the entire second half due to injury. Maddux, less than a month younger than Glavine, has filed for free agency, so it doesn’t appear he’s ready to call it a career just yet.

Randy Johnson is 45, but was still inarguably an above average pitcher in 2008, and posted a 2.41 ERA and an almost 5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the second half. So, there’s certainly plenty of ammunition left in his arsenal, and sitting on 295 career wins, it is unlikely that he’ll retire either.

Barry Bonds still hasn’t officially announced his retirement, and I’m not really certain what Roger Clemens’ status is, but neither played at all in 2008, so their names would appear on the Hall of Fame ballot a year earlier than those who retire this off-season. Of course, there’s another issue hanging over their heads that could seriously affect their chances of enshrinement, but that’s last year’s big Hot Stove story. So, don’t expect that dirty word to find its way into this column.

Frank Thomas and Trevor Hoffman have both filed for free agency as well. While it seems unfathomable to picture Hoffman in anything other than a Padres uniform, it doesn’t appear that he’s ready to call it quits. With the Padres actively shopping staff ace Jake Peavy and shortstop Khalil Greene, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him opt for a chance to play one more season with a contender, even if it’s not in the closer’s role.

Thomas was plagued by injuries last year, including two separate stints on the DL, the last of which cost him the season’s final month. He wasn’t that good when he played, posting a .723 OPS in 240 at-bats, and considering he hasn’t played in the field since 2004, the skills are definitely declining. He still seems determined to play, though, but he may suffer the same fate that Mike Piazza did last year, and be forced to retire due to a lack of interest.

Ken Griffey Jr. wants to retire as a Mariner, so he’s expected to return for another year, although there’s still the matter of working out a deal that will bring him back to Seattle. Mike Mussina’s 20 wins in 2008 provided a huge boost to his Hall of Fame credentials, and considering how well he pitched last year, it appears he’ll look to add to that resume.

So, despite the fact that six Cooperstown locks will be older than 40 entering the 2009 season, don’t count on the Hall of Fame Class of 2014 being nearly as impressive as it could be.

Where will the most prominent free agents land?

Following Tuesday’s historic presidential election, the question isn’t just where Manny Ramirez, Francisco Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and C.C. Sabathia will sign, but also when? Free agent season doesn’t officially open until November 14, when players are free to shop their services to any team, but with such highly paid stars facing the reality of paying more than $40,000 in additional taxes on every million they earn, will there be a rush to sign, and earn signing bonuses, before Barack Obama takes office? Will players look to back-load long-term deals in order to outlast a 4-year term? Don’t worry, I’m not going to focus as much time on answering these questions as I am on discussing the actual signings, but this shift in the balance of power could make for an exciting final month and a half of 2008.

In addition to the big four, A.J. Burnett, Ben Sheets, Derek Lowe, Kerry Wood, Ryan Dempster, Bobby Abreu, and Pat Burrell are among the biggest names looking for a big payout, in what is shaping up to be one of the strongest free agents classes in years.

What else is Cooking?

I was planning on discussing some of the major trade rumors here as well, but in the interests of easing into this, I’m going to save that for next week. Other questions that I’ll be discussing in future installments of this column include, but are not limited to: How will the Yankees respond to their first off-season in the haves/have nots era following a playoff-less October? Will the NL West fold? How bad are the Padres that they’ve already decided that they can’t compete in the weakest division in baseball? Will players be able to survive the financial impact of an Obama tax increase? I’ll probably also do a little dissecting of this year’s post-season awards.

I hope to generate some discussion here, so if there’s anything you’d like to hear more about in future entries, feel free to say so with a comment. Thanks, and I’ll see you right here next week.