Jim Thome of the Minnesota Twins is all set to join Alex Rodriguez in the 600 home run club with 577 career homers till now.

However, his contributions were and will be possibly subdued by baseball sluggers relying on anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs to make a name in the world of baseball and Baseball Hall of Fame voters.

From bats.blogs.nytimes.com:

Thome, however, may not be. His case will say a lot about the value of home runs to modern Hall of Fame voters.

Thome has never been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, though his career spanned the steroids era, when home runs were relatively common. If dominance against his peers defines a Hall of Famer, Thome may fail the test.

He has never received a single first-place vote for M.V.P. of his league, and his highest finish in the balloting was fourth, for the Phillies in 2003. That was his only season as the league leader in homers, with 47. He had one season as the league leader in on-base plus slugging, with a 1.122 mark for Cleveland in 2002.

Thome became a first baseman in 1997, yet for all of his production, he never won a Silver Slugger award at the position. Then again, some first basemen who won instead of him are noted steroid users, including Jason Giambi and Rafael Palmeiro.

The most logical thing for Baseball Hall of Fame voters will be to ignore the use of steroids since it relates to the era before testing.