Damn, looking at the alltime bWAR list, Clemens’ career was better than Kershaw and Scherzer’s added together.
Clemens: 138.7 bWAR, 4917 innings
Kershaw: 69.1 bWAR, 2455 innings
Scherzer: 66.2 bWAR, 2537 innings
And by my quick math, Clemens had bWar of 92.6 from 84-97, and from I can tell McNamee said 1998 was the first injection year (I don't know if that was pre or post season, but his bWar in 98 was 8.1).
But that 92.6 puts Clemens above notable HoF such as : Spahn, Pedro, Nolan, Gibson, Halladay (bWar 65). I didn't go past there.
Neither of Kershaw nor Scherzer are going to catch 92 and both are likely to be HoF.
Clemens had a HoF career before the roids in 1998.
Im sure BB and Arod are similarly strong.
The refusal to vote for these guys is actually incredible. Clemens first half of his career , before roids, would slot in at #13 in HoF pitcher bWar, out of 84 pitchers. Oh and he had plenty of memorable moments, RoY, TWO 20 strikeout games, pitching triple crown (97) (another in 98).
If Clemens had dropped dead on Jan 1 1998, he would have been in the HoF years ago.
edit - links
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clemero02.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_pitching.shtml