I don’t have a vote for Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that you don’t have a vote either.

As such, we’ll consider today’s piece nothing more than a fun experiment in wishful thinking, rather than any sort of “think piece” that requires dutiful examination of facts.

First and foremost, I’m going to ensure that I stick with the official voting rules: I’m only allowed to pick a maximum of 10 players for my ballot, all of the players must be eligible and on the Baseball Writers Association of America official ballot for 2015, and…well, really that’s about it.

Gee, this hardly seems like the type of thing that requires someone to have worked in baseball writing for 10 years. It’s almost akin to voting on anything else that has facts to be used as the basis for voting, but that’s neither here nor there.

Secondly, now that I’ve hammered out the rules this is where I’m allowed to turn into the morality police, or use my vote as a chance to – *sigh* – “protect the integrity” of the game, or use this as an opportunity to make a stand against an individual player because he never gave me good sound bites when I tried to interview him, or whatever the heck it is that the BBWAA guys do when they get their ballots in the mail.

Despite all of those intriguing options, I think that I’m going to bypass all of that nonsense and simply pick the 10 best players on this ballot.

Well, to be more precise, I’m going to pick the nine best players and Alan Trammell who deserves a spot in the HOF and is in his last year of eligibility, so he gets a nod over a few guys with time to spare.

Admittedly, this year’s ballot has closer to 15 players who are, in my humble opinion, deserving of enshrinement in Cooperstown. You could conceivably make good arguments for at least 20 of these guys. The ballot is getting very crowded as the BBWAA continued to play “gatekeeper” with any players linked to PEDs (and some who aren’t linked, but played at the same time) and that traffic jam could cost some great ballplayers their well-deserved spot in the Hall of Fame.

That having been said, in keeping within the confines of the rules, I’ll limit my voting to 10.

Without any further ado, here’s my 2015 HOF ballot:

My Top Ten

Barry Bonds
Pedro Martinez
Roger Clemens
Randy Johnson
Tim Raines
John Smoltz
Craig Biggio
Mike Piazza
Jeff Bagwell
Alan Trammell

Okay, I totally lied.

I can’t stick with just the top ten. As such, here’s how I’d rank the next 10 guys.

Just Missed the Cut

Curt Schilling
Larry Walker
Mike Mussina
Jeff Kent
Edgar Martinez

Borderline

Gary Sheffield
Fred McGriff
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Sammy Sosa

Obviously, I’ve got a solid crop of guys with PED ties in here. I’ve got some guys who fall into a lot of people’s borderline category. I’ve got some guys who people will say were merely products of the era and/or ballparks they played in. That having been said, I stick with my selections.

I now anxiously await your commentary.