Boston Red Sox: Jon Lester and 10 Players Who Should Make It to the Hall of Fame

The Boston Red Sox are one of baseball's greatest franchises. They have won more World Series championships than all but two AL teams, play in the oldest stadium, are part of the sport's best rivalry and have seen a long line of legends don their uniform.

Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk and Carl Yastrzemski head a list of Hall of Famers who have played for the Sox, but there are many greats who have not yet had their chance at earning a plaque in Cooperstown.

Here we take a look at the current and recently retired Red Sox who could or should one day receive baseball's greatest honour, as well as some who have been unjustly overlooked.

Adrian Gonzalez

With his power, opposite-field stroke and the fact he plays in a hitter's ballpark in a potent lineup, Adrian Gonzalez has the potential to hit in the region of 40 home runs a season. Over the life of his contact, doing that would put him in the elite 500 home run club.

Even if he cannot produce at that spectacular level, his other numbers should still be among the best in the league. In many ways, 2011 was the best year of Gonzalez's career, as he led the league in hits, posted a .338 average, had a .957 OPS and drove in 117 runs.

Carl Crawford

Last year, Carl Crawford had a terrible season. But if we can put that down to the pressure of playing in Boston and of trying to live up to a huge contract he knows he probably doesn't deserve, we can dismiss it and focus on what his numbers look like for the rest of his career.

From 2003 to 2010 (i.e., taking out his 63-game rookie campaign and last year), he had a batting average of .299, 99 triples and over 400 stolen bases. At his best, Crawford epitomises a style of baseball that, for the most part, died out a long time ago. If he can ever reclaim that, and do it for another decade without breaking down, he could finish his career with brilliant numbers. And that's not even mentioning his brilliant defense.

Dustin Pedroia

Dustin Pedroia has started his career in a similar way to how former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra started his in the late 1990s. Not with .370 batting averages, of course, but with consistently strong seasons that made you think that he would one day be in the Hall of Fame.

Nomar broke down physically after being traded away at the deadline in 2004. If Pedroia can avoid injury and have a long, healthy career, there's no reason to think he won't end up in Cooperstown.

Pedroia is one of only three men to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in his first two seasons, doing so in 2007 and 2008, respectively. He has also won a Silver Slugger Award and two Gold Gloves.

Jacoby Ellsbury

Had you asked people this time last year if Jacoby Ellsbury was a candidate for Cooperstown, you'd have been laughed at. He was coming off a season where he had played just 18 games and even in the years before that, he had only proven himself as a decent leadoff hitter who was great at stealing bases.

One year later, everything is different. Ellsbury came up second in the AL MVP race last year to Justin Verlander. His stolen bases came down to 39, but that still ranked among the league's best. Everything else, though, was through the roof.

He set career bests in batting average (.321), home runs (32), RBI (105), walks (52), OBP (.376) and slugging percentage (.552). If that season wasn't an aberration, and he is capable of producing at somewhere near that level for his career, a plaque in the Hall of Fame isn't out of reach.

Curt Schilling

I previously wrote about Schilling's Hall of Fame candidacy, comparing him to longtime Yankee Andy Pettitte. I'll summarise that article here.

Curt Schilling played on some monumentally horrific Philadelphia teams before joining Arizona and, eventually, Boston, but he still managed to win 217 games. He posted an ERA below 3.30 in eight different seasons, but it was the postseason where he really shone.

On his way to winning World Series championships in 2001, 2004 and 2007, Schilling developed a reputation as one of the all-time great playoff pitchers.

In 19 playoff starts, he went 11-2 with a 2.23 earned-run average and a WHIP below 1.00.

Pedro Martinez

Pedro Martinez is, without question, one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game of baseball. His .6865 winning percentage is the seventh-best mark of all time.

From 1997 to 2003, he had one of the most dominant stretches in history. Pedro won the Cy Young Award three times, came in second twice, won 20 games twice, led the league in ERA and WHIP five times and only once had an ERA above 2.40.

His career WHIP is fifth-best all time and he is one of only three players to maintain an average of 10 strikeouts per nine innings for an entire career. Not even Nolan Ryan managed that. He's an absolute lock.

Jonathan Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon has pitched in the big leagues for seven seasons. He is already ranked 37th all time in saves. His 219 saves rank eighth among active players. After a few subpar seasons in 2009 and 2010, Pap took a big step towards his earlier form last year with far fewer walks and an 8.7 K/BB ratio.

A free agent for the first time this offseason, Papelbon left Boston to join the Phillies with a four-year, $50 million contract.

Dwight Evans

Dwight Evans only stayed on the BBWAA's Hall of Fame ballot for three years, from 1997 to 1999, before being eliminated after receiving below five percent of the vote. The closest he ever came to reaching the 75 percent necessary to be elected to the Hall was 1998, when he polled a lowly 10.4 percent.

But while he never came at all close, the argument for Evans is reasonably strong. In 20 seasons, all but one of which were with the Boston Red Sox, he hit .272/.370/.470. In the 1980s, Evans had more extra base hits (605) than anyone else in baseball.

It was with the glove, though, that Dewey made his name. His eight Gold Gloves underrated his defensive prowess. That's probably fitting, though, as Evans is one of the most underrated players in the game's history.

Luis Tiant

Luis Tiant has to be in the Hall of Fame. He just has to be.

In 19 MLB seasons, he went 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA. Those numbers are good, but not necessarily elite. What is remarkable is that of his 484 starts, he completed 187 of them. That means that he threw a complete game in over 40 percent of his starts. He is 21st all time, and 11th in the live-ball era, in shutouts.

If you still don't think El Tiante deserves to be in the Hall, consider that almost every statistic is eerily similar to that of Catfish Hunter, who cruised into Cooperstown. Their win totals are only five apart, their losses just six apart, even their innings pitched (which total 7,000) are separated by under 40. Their ERAs differ by just 0.04 and their WHIPs by 0.06.

The only difference between the two is the number of rings they wear.

Jon Lester

Jon Lester has had a great start to his career. In each of his four full major league seasons, Lester has made over 30 starts, pitched at least 190 innings, won at least 15 games and had an ERA below 3.50. His career record is 76-34, which is good for a .691 winning percentage. That is the third highest in the history of the game, and the second best in the modern era.

Yet the general consensus is that he has more to give. Every year the 28-year-old lefty is touted as a prime Cy Young Award candidate but has only received votes on one occasion, finishing fourth in 2010. It seems, though, that it is only a matter of time before he finally has a truly dominant season. After that, who knows what he could achieve?