These former MLB players deserve more love from Hall of Fame voters

Who will make this year's Baseball Hall of Fame class? We don't quite know that yet (results will be announced Tuesday), but there are a number of players who we're pretty sure won't make it. Either they're not getting enough support on public ballots or they're staring at a too-significant deficit from their previous year's vote totals, among other factors. For many of these players, that's justified — there's no shame in lasting long enough to make a Hall of Fame ballot — but for others, we're not quite sure it's fair. We asked some of our experts to make their best cases for players who really should be getting more love from the voters.

Bobby Abreu was a five-tool player in the truest sense — a patient hitter with power who acted as a perpetual stolen-base threat and could alter a game both with his arm and with his glove. But his career has also been defined by glaring slights, such as:

Only two All-Star Game appearances.

Only one Gold Glove.

8.7% support for the Hall of Fame.

The final bullet represents the percentage of Baseball Writers' Association of America ballots Abreu appeared on last year, in his second year of Hall of Fame eligibility. The year prior, he just barely reached the 5% threshold required to remain a candidate. This year, with 42.1% of ballots revealed, Abreu has pulled in only 11.5% of the vote, according to the data compiled by Ryan Thibodaux.

Abreu is admittedly not a surefire Hall of Famer. But his case is a lot closer than it appears, and he deserves far more consideration than he has been granted. From 1998 to 2004, Abreu ranked fifth in FanGraphs wins above replacement, behind only Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Scott Rolen and Andruw Jones. He played in at least 142 games in 14 straight