I don’t mean to be rude but it’s time for many of my fellow Hall of Fame voters to get their thumbs out of their butts and use their heads for a change.

A player needs to be named on 75 percent of the ballots, and voters this year are able to select up to seven players. Frankly speaking, anyone who doesn’t think Tuffy Rhodes is the best available player is a moron.

Here is a list of NPB’s 10 best players who are not in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame based on career win shares:

Name	Status	2019 pct	High Pct	Career Win Shares
Ichiro Suzuki	Not eligible			581
Kazuo Matsui	Not eligible			378
Kosuke Fukudome	Active			367
Kazuhiro Kiyohara	Not on ballot	NA	22.6	365
Masahiro Doi	Not on ballot			355
Shinnosuke Abe	Not eligible			349
Taira Fujita	Not on ballot			322
Tadahito Iguchi	Not eligible			321
Takashi Toritani	Active			321
Michio Arito	Not on ballot			310

As I mentioned this time a year ago, Masahiro Doi slipped through the eligibility cracks because of his long coaching career and it remains uncertain if he will get another chance. Kazuhiro Kiyohara has not been included on the ballot since the vote for the 2016 class following his drug conviction, while Taira Fujita and Michio Arita were apparently passed over because of their poor relationships with the press during their stints as managers of the Hanshin Tigers and Lotte Orions, respectively.

Below are the top 10 players who are eligible to be inducted this year in the players division. Tuffy Rhodes not only had the best career of any foreign player in NPB history, but he also won an MVP award and became only the second batter to hit 55 home runs after Sadaharu Oh. Hiroki Kokubo comes close to him in career value because he played until he was old enough to manage Japan’s national team — the same goes for the next two guys on the list. In terms of peak value, the only player who can compare with Rhodes in terms of sustained high performance is catcher Kenji Jojima.

Name	Times on ballot	2019 pct	High pct	Career WS
Tuffy Rhodes	6th	29.6	39.6	298
Hiroki Kokubo	2nd	32.1	32.1	296
Norihiro Nakamura	1st			290
Takeshi Yamasaki	2nd	11.3	11.3	287
Takuro Ishii	3rd	24.8	24.8	281
Atsunori Inaba	1st			279
Kenji Jojima	3rd	15.1	15.1	270
Tomonori Maeda	2nd	29.6	29.6	243
Alex Ramirez	2nd	40.4	40.4	230
Kenjiro Nomura	7th	37.2	39.6	227

Here are the top five in last year’s balloting:

Name	2019 Pct	Career Ws
Kazuyoshi Tatsunami *	77 .4	302
Shingo Takatsu	60.6	113
Masahiro Kawai	50.7	137
Shinya Miyamoto	41.2	187
Alex Ramirez	40.4	230

The voters clearly got the best available player not yet in the Hall of Fame a year ago, but after that it was a mess. Takatsu, at least, at one point was Japan’s career saves leader. Ramirez won two MVP awards and was clearly the best of this bunch, but his career value last year was seventh among the available candidates, and five of those others finished behind him in the voting.

Here are the top 10 players who are eligible to be inducted this year in the experts division,. The Hall of Fame does not publish old records of voting, so these are based on the results I’ve received attending press conferences announcing the votes.

Name	Times on ballot	2019 pct	High pct	Career WS
Koichi Tabuchi	At least 7th	64.7	64.7	301
Hideji Kato	At least 5th	23.0	32.0	290
Masayuki Kakefu	2nd	30.8	30.8	286
Isao Shibata	3rd	26.3	26.3	275
Atsushi Nagaike	At least 7th	17.3	23.6	240
Hiromu Matsuoka	3rd	7.5	13.1	238
Mitsuhiro Adachi	At least 5th	14.3	23.0	221
Shigeru Takada	1st			177
Masayuki Dobashi	At least 7th	24.1	26.8	171
Yoshinori Sato	1st			166

The top five in last year’s expert division vote were:

Name	2019 pct	Career WS	Other notes
Hiroshi Gondo *	76.7	97	Success as coach, manager
Koichi Tabuchi	64.7	301
Randy Bass	63.2	132	2 Triple Crowns, MVP
Masayuki Kakefu	30.8	286
Keiji Osawa	30.1		Success as manager

Rhodes is not an all-time, hands-down, no-question Hall of Famer. But the few players who had better careers than him who are not in the Hall of Fame, Kiyohara, Doi, Arito and Fujita, are bizarre exceptions. None of the players on the ballot have close to his credentials, and in this age of information, one would hope that would make a difference.

Of the 19 players who led their league in 10-plus offensive categories and won six or more Best Nine Awards are out of the Hall of Fame? Three. These are Rhodes, Masayuki Kakefu and Atsushi Nagaike. Kakefu had a longer career than Rhodes with less peak value but he was a quality player and deserves to make it through the expert’s division.