The famed pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves turned Braves Hall of Famer Leo Mazzone joined Kyle Bailey on Wednesday’s edition of the Clubhouse as he weighed in on the 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame votes, and how the season could playout for the Braves.
Leo started with the Elephant in the room with both Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds not making the Hall of Fame on their final year on the active ballot as despite always thinking they should not be in due to them both being linked to PED’s Leo had a recent change of heart as he told Kyle:
“Absolutely Bonds and Clemens should both be in as I have gone back and forth recently as Bonds and Clemens were 2 of the best players I have ever seen. I wasn’t scared of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire, but I was scared to go against Bonds and Clemens.”
Leo did like that David Ortiz was nominated for the Hall of Fame as it seems the emphasis now more than ever is based on what players did in the postseason and Big Papi was one of if not the best postseason hitter in MLB history and with multiple DH’s already being in the Hall, it was a no-brainer to put Ortiz in.
One name that is continuing to go up in the voting process is former Braves Center Fielder Andruw Jones as Leo likes that he is seeing his name garner more attention by the voters as he said post-Willie Mays Andruw has been the best Center Fielder he has seen and he is getting confident that he could make it to Cooperstown in a couple of years.
The conversation ended on the Braves and the chances that they lose Freddie Freeman as Leo seemed confident that Atlanta will be able to keep their face of the franchise, but he worries about that slim chance of something else happening as he pointed out how weird it was to see Tom Glavine play for the New York Mets in the mid-2000s.
