With the Hall Of Fame election announcement coming on January 9, 2013, it is time to review the ballot, go over the names, and decide who belongs in the Hall Of Fame.

There are twenty four men on the ballot for the first time this year and we will take a look at each one individually prior to official announcements. You can find all of the profiles in the I-70 Baseball Exclusives: Cooperstown Choices 2013 menu at the top of the page.

In this article, we take a look at Curt Schilling

Why He Should Get In
Schilling’s case is one that is defined by his performance in big games and the postseason.  While most of his regular season stats put him as a borderline hall of famer, his postseason numbers are seldom rivaled.  With a 11-2 record, a 2.23 earned run average, an average of over 7 innings per start, a WHIP below one and a strikeout per nine innings over eight, his postseason prowess will have many clamoring for his induction based on the postseason alone.

Why He Should Not Get In
Yes, he was a huge pitcher in the postseason and had monumental success on the biggest stage.  That being said, he does not have the hardware to back up his claim to Cooperstown.  Finishing second multiple times for the Cy Young Award simply makes him the second best pitcher during those seasons.  According to Baseball-Reference, he ranks as a slighly above the average hall of fame pitcher (according to the Jaffe WAR Score System).  However, advanced statistics have yet to play a large influence on hall of fame voters.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

Power and speed.  Two basic elements that the best of professional athletes posses.

When it comes to baseball, the epitome of power and speed manifest themselves in the players that achieve milestones when they can hit home runs and steal bases in the same season.  The man that can steal 30 bases and hit 30 home runs gets recognized as an all-around player.  Over time, a select few have pushed that limit to 40-40.  Matt Kemp has boldly proclaimed that he wants to be 50-50.

Through all of that, however, the two i70 teams have missed out.  Niether the Kansas City Royals nor the St. Louis Cardinals have ever had a player hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season.  Oh, some have come close, but they have narrowly missed.

In the early stages of 2012, the Cardinals have a player, a former Royal no less, that is on pace for a 30-30 season.  No one would have predicted a 30-30 season for Carlos Beltran in 2012, but he grabbed the interest of this writer and caused me to dig a little deeper.

There are 38 members of the 30-30 club in Major League Baseball, twelve of which exist in the American League with the balance of 26 in the National League.  Funny enough, if you dig through the numbers, two players achieved the feat on five separate occasions.  The two most prolific of the group?  Father and son, Bobby and Barry Bonds.

To examine the two i70 teams, we have to take a step back and look at players that have finished with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, a feat much more common in baseball though elusive with our favorite clubs.

For as long as the Cardinals have existed, it took quite a while before they found someone that could blend speed and power together.  It was 1967 when future Hall Of Famer Lou Brock would first reach the measurements of balance, clubbing 21 home runs and stealing 52 bases.  Known much more for his speed, it would be the only time his power numbers would be great enough to include him in such a list.

It was the Western Missouri team that would reach our list the next two times as the Cardinals would not find themselves back in this discussion until 1992.  In 1978, however, the Royals Amos Otis would put the boys in blue in the discussion with a 22 home run and 32 stolen base season.

From there we fast forward to the one Royal that many would expect to be on this list, though he will make one appearance.  In 1988, one of the best all around athletes to ever grace the powder blue of the Kansas City Royals, Bo Jackson would hit 25 home runs and 27 stolen bases.  Bo was a fan favorite for many years in Kansas City, and 1988 might have been the reason why for many fans.

The year 1992 would put another Redbird on our 20/20 board, and the most prolific Cardinal to achieve the feat.  Ray Lankford would reach the board, stealing 42 bases and hitting exactly 20 home runs.  Lankford would prove to be impressive at reaching 20/20 and narrowly missing 30/30 throughout his career.  Lankford would reach our chart in 1995 (25HR/24SB), 1996 (21HR/35SB), 1997 (31HR/21SB), and 1998 (31HR/26SB).  His 1998 season, obviously overshadowed by teammate Mark McGwire, would be the closest any Cardinal has ever come to reaching the 30/30 plateau.

The 1995 season would see another first and only for our two teams as Brain Jordan would put together arguably his best campaign as a Cardinal, hitting 22 home runs and stealing 24 bases.  If you are paying close attention as you read this article, you will realize that this impressive season for Jordan matched up with a solid one for Ray Lankford, giving the Cardinals two players in the same season to reach the 20/20 board.  The only time in the history of either club that two players would reach the board for the same team.

It might have been the only time that two players from one team made it, but 1999 would be the first season that a player from each team would achieve the marks we are tracking here today.  Possibly the one name that surprises the most on the Cardinal side of things, Fernando Tatis would hit 34 home runs and steal 21 bases to put himself on this list.  On the other side of the state, the Royals most prolific player would make his first appearance on the list.  Current Cardinal Carlos Beltran would hit 22 home runs and swipe 27 bags in his first of four 20/20 seasons for the Kansas City Royals, making 1999 the only year that a player from Kansas City and a player from St. Louis would make our board.

Beltran would go on to prove that his 1999 season was no fluke, reaching the milestone in 2001 (24HR/34SB), 2002 (29HR/35SB) and 2003 (26HR/41SB).  His 2002 season would be the closest anyone would come while wearing a Royals uniform.  We will revisit Beltran’s numbers in a minute.

The following season in 2004 would see Reggie Sanders, while wearing the Birds On The Bat, join the club hitting 22 home runs and stealing 21 bases.  Sanders is the most recent Cardinal on our list.

Finding the most recent Royal does not require a long journey into the vault.  The player affectionately known as “Frenchy”, Jeff Franceour joins our group just last season.  In 2011, Frenchy barely did well enough to be a part of our discussion, hitting 20 home runs and stealing 22 bases.

In all truth, the Royals had the best opportunity to break the 30/30 barrier with the guy that inspired the discussion in the first place, Carlos Beltran.  You see, Carlos holds a unique distinction in MLB history when talking about the 30/30 club.  He is the only player in the history of the game to have a 30/30 season in a year in which he played in both leagues.  He is one of only two players, Bobby Bonds being the other, to be traded during his 30/30 season.

The 2004 season would see the Royals trade their budding superstar to the Houston Astros in a three team deal that would gain the Royals John Buck and cash from the Astros as well as Mark Teahen and Mike Wood from the Oakland Athletics.  During that season, Beltran would hit 15 home runs and steal 14 bases for the Royals prior to the June 24th trade.  After the trade, Beltran would compile 23 home runs and 28 stolen bases for the Houston Astros.  His combined numbers of 38 home runs and 42 stolen bases not only put him on the 30/30 list, but would put him extremely close to joining the 40/40 list.

This season, Beltran finds himself healthy for the first time in a while and back on top of his game.  On pace to rejoin the 30/30 club and become the first of the i70 players to do so, Beltran will have to continue to remain healthy and play as well as he has in April.

20 Home Run and 20 Stolen Bases, Royals and Cardinals
Player/Year	HR	SB	Player/Year	HR	SB
Lou Brock/1967	21	52	Amos Otis/1978	22	32
Ray Lankford/1992	20	42	Bo Jackson/1988	25	27
Ray Lankford/1995	25	24	Carlos Beltran/1999	22	27
Brian Jordan/1995	22	24	Carlos Beltran/2001	24	31
Ray Lankford/1996	21	35	Carlos Beltran/2002	29	35
Ray Lankford/1997	31	21	Carlos Beltran/2003	26	41
Ray Lankford/1998	31	26	Jeff Francoeur/2011	20	22
Fernando Tatis/1999	34	21
Reggie Sanders/2004	22	21

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.
Follow him on Twitter here.

The 2011 season did not start the way Joakim Soria wanted it to.

Through April and May, he gave up 16 earned runs over 23 innings. He was 3-3 with 5 blown saves in 12 opportunities.

Nearly every Royals fan was calling for his removal from the closer role (or the entire team, in some cases). There was talk about trading him before his value went any lower, converting him to a starter, or possibly even demoting him.

Many said his career was over and that the Royals needed to start fresh with the younger, more exciting Aaron Crow.

Well, Ned Yost did end up giving Crow the closer role.

However, he made it clear that it wasn’t permanent and that he wanted Soria to work some things out as a middle reliever until he felt more comfortable on the mound.

He ended up pitching 5 scoreless innings in 3 games as a middle reliever, which was good enough for the Royals’ skipper.

Yost immediately gave Soria back the title as closer, which turned out to be one of his best decisions of the year.

Since that point, Soria only has 2 blown saves while giving up 11 earned runs in 35.1 innings. He has also had 41 strikeouts compared to 7 walks in that same time period.

These numbers might seem completely inaccurate to most Royals fans because it feels like he has been much worse over the past three and a half months.

The main reason for this is because his two blown saves since the 1^st of June were the two most heartbreaking losses for the Royals in that span.

The first of the two came on July 30^th against the Indians. The Royals gave Soria the ball with a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 9^th. He gave up a sacrifice fly to tie the game and a walk-off 3-run bomb by Matt LaPorta to end it.

Then came the Tampa Bay Rays game on August 10^th. No Royals fan will forget this one, so there isn’t a need to go into great detail. Crow and Soria gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 9^th to lose 8-7. It was the epitome of a heartbreaker for the Royals and their fans.

Other than those two games, Soria has been almost lights out. It’s hard for fans to see it, but he is back to his old self.

Wanting a trade or a role change for Soria needs to come to a stop. His first two months of this year were horrendous to say the least, but he has definitely regained his form.

Other than perhaps Greg Holland, Soria has been the most consistent pitcher for the Royals this year.

He is still the leader of the Royals’ bullpen and should continue to be as they make their push in the next couple of years.

A good closer is tough to come by, and the Royals have one in Soria.

It’d be a shame to mess that up as they get closer to becoming a real contender.

I-70 Baseball came into existince on July 12, 2010 as the new affiliate site of BaseballDigest.com. The launch brought a modest staff of writers and editors to the world to talk about Cardinals and Royals baseball.

In the short time that we have been around, we have grown tremendously to bring you, our readers, the best content we can on a daily basis. Without fail, we have published a minimum of one article per day, seven days a week, for each team. We have laid out a schedule that brings fantasy reports, series previews, farm reports and commentary to you on a regular basis.

As we have been moving through production, we have identified areas of the site that need some attention. Derrick Docket, our Graphic Designer, has done amazing work adjusting the way things look on the site based on suggestions from our readers, our writers, and our editors.

The goal of this website is to bring you top quality content in a attractive design while being informative and entertaining. Recently, during staff discussions, we identified that the pictures being used to deliver our material were lacking in solid quality. A decision was made to appoint someone to oversee this aspect of the website and ensure that the photography you see on the site is of the same amazing quality as the graphics and writing that you find here every day.

Justin Hulsey was one of the first writers to join the staff here at I-70 prior to launch. A young man from Union, Missouri, Justin is one of the most talented individuals I have come across, regardless of age. I have often said that one of the great benefits of being an editor of the site is getting to read the amazing content from some of my favorite writers before anyone else gets that luxury. Justin is the epitome of that statement as I enjoy his series previews, opinion articles and his weekly Cardinals Farm Report. He has shown great dedication to the I-70 project and ensuring that everything is handled in a manor that would allow us to reach out to more and more fans.

After discussing the needs of the site, it was agreed that Justin would join the executive staff here at I-70 Baseball as our Photo Editor in addition to his writing duties. It is a great pleasure to announce this to our readers and to continue to work with this young journalist with a very bright future.

If you would like to submit photos for use here by I-70 Baseball, you can reach Justin at jhulsey@i70baseball.com