Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk wonders why Jerry Green voted for Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire on his Hall of Fame ballot but not Barry Bonds. Here’s Green:

Statistics do matter. The numbers 3,000 and 300 are critical, regarded as traditional stats. No joke, I remain a traditionalist. To me, for a batter, 3,000 hits make a Hall of Famer. For a pitcher, 300 victories.

Ten votes are sufficient. Three or four will make it, when the Hall of Fame announces the results on Tuesday.

My ballot consisted of 10 ballplayers I deemed worthy: Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Gary Sheffield and Alan Trammell.

He explains not voting for Smoltz, but not for Bonds. The HOF Ballot Collecting Gizmo shows Bonds and Clemens even at about 43%. It also show McGwire close to falling off the ballot. My guess is that Green made a strategic decision to try to keep McGwire on when Bonds would clearly be around for another year. Either that, or Green just doesn’t like Bonds. He wasn’t a likable personality in his playing days.

That said, there does seem to be a difference of opinion about Bonds and Clemens versus Sammy Sosa and McGwire. I would guess it comes from Bonds and Clemens being legitimate Hall of Fame candidates before their alleged PED use started, while McGwire and Sosa seemed to build their greatness totally on the alleged (and in McGwire’s case, actual) use of PEDs.