I believe there is an innovator or pioneer category. Harry Chadwick is not associated with any franchise but he is in the Hall because his writing on the game went a long way toward codifying its rules and structure. James can possibly fit in that category though I doubt he gets in during his lifetime. Too many old school baseball people would not vote for him and his brutal, blunt honesty makes him look like a jerk sometimes which probably makes it easy for people to not vote for him. Dr. Jobe should certainly be regarded as an innovator as the surgery he invented has saved the careers of probably thousands of pitchers. Dr. Jobe might strike a chord with a player-dominated veterans committee, the membership of which may personal know of pitchers whose careers Dr. Jobe's surgery saved.
I have a feeling Schilling doesn't get in until the Veterans Committee gets a crack at him. Schilling bashing the media in his political rants probably makes the BBWOA less willing to vote for him since, after all, they are members of the media themselves. A veterans committee would be less inclined to punish him--and, in fact, many of them are probably on the right end of the political spectrum themselves.