MLB Hall Of Fame: Does Gary Sheffield Have A Chance? Former Yankees, Dodgers, Mets Outfielder May Get Buried Despite 500 HRs

In about a week the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting will be revealed, and we will see who makes up the Cooperstown class of 2015. After no candidates were selected in 2013, the 2014 class inducted pitchers Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and first baseman Frank Thomas. This year's ballot is stacked, with sure-things like Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, good candidates with chart history like Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio, and disgraced superstars like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. But one name that consistently gets overlooked is Gary Sheffield's.

Gary Sheffield has Hall of Fame numbers. But he is linked to the BALCO scandal that played a role in bringing Bonds down, and his ties to performance-enhancing drug use has made him an afterthought, according to Bleacher Report. He won't receive the required 75 percent of the vote to become a first-ballot elect, but will he even hang around on the ballot?

If not, he would be the second player with 500 career home runs to prematurely lose eligibility. Rafael Palmeiro has basically been blackballed because of his proven drug use, his 3,000 hits and 500 home runs be damned. But for various reasons, Sheffield's accomplishments are even less public knowledge.

Let's take a look at them:

500 homers: Sheffield hit more than 30 home runs eight different times and more than 40 home runs twice, according to Baseball Reference. He drove in more than 100 runs eight times, including three consecutive seasons twice (1999-2001, 2003-2005).

.292 batting average/.393 on-base percentage: Both rival the totals of Bonds, the undisputed best hitter of the past 40 years, at least. Sheffield led the league in hitting in 1992 as a 23-year-old, and hit .298 in his age-37 season.

MVPs: Sheffield never won an MVP, but finished in the top five three different times, placing as high as second in 2004. That year, Sheffield hit .290 with 36 home runs and 121 RBIs for the New York Yankees.

Sheffield's career was crippled by injuries. He played fewer than 100 games in a season six times. If he stayed healthy, he had the potential to post a first-ballot career. Now it's not a guarantee he'll ever been elected.