Roger Clemens celebrates his 300th win and 4,000th strikeout. (Getty Images)

We're almost there. After sorting through 35 lesser candidates -- if we're talking only about on-field matters, that is -- we've arrived at the top two in our Eye on Baseball countdown of eligible players on the 2013 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot.

Baseball Hall of Fame
Ranking the eligibles

It's likely of little surprise to the readers that our top two players are the two biggest names on the ballot, and it's of equally little surprise that the two best players on the ballot are going to have trouble making the Hall of Fame on their first try. This is because of a pesky little "integrity clause," connections to use of performance-enhancing drugs and the fallout from the so-called "steroid era." 

As mentioned in C. Trent Rosecrans' Q&A with Jay Jaffe, the JAWS ranking system (available at Baseball-Reference.com) played a prominent role in our ordering of these candidates, but there's much more to it than that. Your three EOB bloggers -- Dayn Perry, Trent and I -- ranked each of these candidates according to a host of objective and subjective considerations, and then we averaged those rankings to come up with the final order.

And the man we call "Rocket" finds himself in the penultimate spot.

RELATED: Imagining a different Roger Clemens

2. Roger Clemens; SP; Red Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees, Astros; 1984-2007
Year on ballot: 1st
Career stats: 354-184, 3.12 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 4,672 K, 4,916.2 IP, 118 CG, 46 SHO
bWAR, rank among candidates: 133.9, 2nd
JAWS, ranks among candidates: 99, 2nd

Let's say a baseball historian from the 1970s somehow had the pleasure of traveling through time and ended up in 2012. Let's say he was then handed a Hall of Fame ballot and was given all the raw data on the players. Not only would he believe that Roger Clemens was a surefire Hall of Famer, but in all likelihood he'd consider Clemens in the argument of the best pitcher in the history of baseball.

Clemens racked up seven Cy Young awards during his illustrious career. No other pitcher amassed more than five. He won an AL MVP award in 1986 and also gathered two World Series rings. And the accolades go on and on. As do the stats.

Clemens' 354 career wins places him ninth all-time, and he didn't just compile there, because his winning percentage (.658) is 19th best ever. Only Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson have more career strikeouts.

The 3.12 ERA might not seem overly impressive, but remember the era in which Clemens pitched most of his career. It was a hitters' league. Baseball-Reference.com uses Adjusted ERA+ to help with these matters, which is ERA adjusted for ballpark and era. A 100 is league average. Clemens' career ERA+ is 143, meaning he was a whopping 43 percent better than the average pitcher throughout his career. Only nine pitchers sport a better ERA+ in history, with a minimum of 1,000 innings pitched: Mariano Rivera, Pedro Martinez, Jim Devlin, Lefty Grove, Walter Johnson, Hoyt Wilhelm, Smoky Joe Wood, Dan Quisenberry and Ed Walsh.

Perhaps the most telling stat is Wins Above Replacement. Using Baseball-Reference.com's version, only Hall of Famers Cy Young and Walter Johnson have a higher WAR than Clemens. Over on Fangraphs.com, Clemens ranks second behind only Young and is within 2.3 WAR.

So, really, not much more needs to be said in favor of Clemens being a Hall of Famer. If you use my rule, which is that I would only keep players out of the Hall of Fame on the PED issue if they tested positive and were suspended when testing was in place, there's no reason to even bat an eye. Rocket is an obvious yes vote, in this case.

But many don't agree with my stance. In fact, I believe so many voters strenuously disagree that there is little to no chance Clemens gets in this year.

Clemens' name will always be tied in closely with the stained era of PED use. He was mentioned in the Mitchell Report to have been an anabolic steroid user, based upon the testimony of former trainer Brian McNamee. Clemens pretty adamantly denied these allegations before Congress. Stemming from those allegations and his testimony, Clemens was indicted on six felony counts of perjury, obstruction of Congress and making false statements. 

But here's where it gets funny: Clemens was found not guilty on all counts.

So, essentially, Clemens' name appeared more than 75 times in the Mitchell Report, but he won his trial.

Still, the accusations from the Mitchell Report and McNamee as well as those from Jose Canseco (in his first book) and Jason Grimsley (in a search warrant affadavit) linger, and it's probably enough for hard-liners to say Clemens doesn't deserve to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Would we vote for him? Snyder: Yes (2); Rosecrans: Yes (2); Perry: Yes (2)

For more baseball news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnBaseball on Twitter, subscribe to the RSS feed and "like" us on Facebook.