Barry Bloom, of mlb.com, provides background on the ten nominees and lists the members of the voting committee: Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Al Kaline, Ralph Kiner, Tommy Lasorda, Juan Marichal, Brooks Robinson, Don Sutton and Billy Williams; executives Paul Beeston, Bill DeWitt, Roland Hemond, Gene Michael, and Al Rosen; and media members Dick Kaegel, Jack O'Connell and Dave Van Dyck.
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The Ron Santo fan club has been planning a Hall of Fame party for over 30 years. |
Really, though, who knows? Veteran committees can be unpredictable, considering their voting are often guided by the emotional dynamics of personal relationships.
In last year's Hall of Fame Sneak Peek, we expected Pat Gillick and Marvin Miller would get voted in by a different veterans committee, but they only elected Gillick. He joined the BBWAA ballot inductees Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven.
We found last year's voting interesting, particularly with the new blood of accomplished hitters from the Selig Era.
2011 voting results below:
Batting Stats | Pitching Stats | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rk | YoB | Votes | %vote | WAR | |||||||
1 | Roberto Alomar | 2nd | 523 | 90.0% | 63.5 | 116 | |||||
2 | Bert Blyleven | 14th | 463 | 79.7% | 87.6 | -19 | 118 | ||||
3 | Barry Larkin | 2nd | 361 | 62.1% | 68.9 | 116 | |||||
4 | Jack Morris | 12th | 311 | 53.5% | 39.3 | -100 | 105 | ||||
5 | Lee Smith | 9th | 263 | 45.3% | 29.7 | -50 | 132 | ||||
6 | Jeff Bagwell | 1st | 242 | 41.7% | 79.9 | 149 | |||||
7 | Tim Raines | 4th | 218 | 37.5% | 64.6 | 123 | |||||
8 | Edgar Martinez | 2nd | 191 | 32.9% | 67.2 | 147 | |||||
9 | Alan Trammell | 10th | 141 | 24.3% | 66.9 | 110 | |||||
10 | Larry Walker | 1st | 118 | 20.3% | 67.3 | 140 | |||||
11 | Mark McGwire | 5th | 115 | 19.8% | 63.1 | 162 | |||||
12 | Fred McGriff | 2nd | 104 | 17.9% | 50.5 | 134 | |||||
13 | Dave Parker | 15th | 89 | 15.3% | 37.8 | 121 | |||||
14 | Don Mattingly | 11th | 79 | 13.6% | 39.8 | 127 | |||||
15 | Dale Murphy | 13th | 73 | 12.6% | 44.2 | 121 | |||||
16 | Rafael Palmeiro | 1st | 64 | 11.0% | 66.0 | 132 | |||||
17 | Juan Gonzalez | 1st | 30 | 5.2% | 33.5 | 132 | |||||
18 | X-Harold Baines | 5th | 28 | 4.8% | 37.0 | 120 | |||||
19 | X-John Franco | 1st | 27 | 4.6% | 25.5 | -52 | 138 | ||||
20 | X-Kevin Brown | 1st | 12 | 2.1% | 64.0 | -11 | 127 | ||||
21 | X-Tino Martinez | 1st | 6 | 1.0% | 25.7 | 112 | |||||
22 | X-Al Leiter | 1st | 4 | 0.7% | 36.1 | -34 | 113 | ||||
23 | X-John Olerud | 1st | 4 | 0.7% | 56.8 | 128 | |||||
24 | X-Marquis Grissom | 1st | 4 | 0.7% | 25.6 | 92 | |||||
25 | X-B.J. Surhoff | 1st | 2 | 0.3% | 34.4 | 98 | |||||
26 | X-Bret Boone | 1st | 1 | 0.2% | 21.4 | 101 | |||||
27 | X-Benito Santiago | 1st | 1 | 0.2% | 23.8 | 93 | |||||
28 | X-Raul Mondesi | 1st | 0 | 0.0% | 27.2 | 113 | |||||
29 | X-Carlos Baerga | 1st | 0 | 0.0% | 16.0 | 100 | |||||
30 | X-Bobby Higginson | 1st | 0 | 0.0% | 21.4 | 113 | |||||
31 | X-Kirk Rueter | 1st | 0 | 0.0% | 11.5 | -6 | 98 | ||||
32 | X-Charles Johnson | 1st | 0 | 0.0% | 22.0 | 97 | |||||
33 | X-Lenny Harris | 1st | 0 | 0.0% | -0.9 | 80 |
Barry Larkin is knocking on Cooperstown's door, after receiving 62.1% in his second year on the ballot. It will be interesting to see if Jack Morris's case is strengthened or weakened by Bert Blyleven's induction. Lee Smith will likely never get over the 75% hump. Jeff Bagwell should get in this season, or next, as he should have made it last year. Perhaps, a small group of voters are doubting his cleanliness during the Selig Era. For what it's worth, we think Bagwell was clean. Mark MgGwire received the most votes out of any widely suspected steroid user, with 19.8% of the vote, his fifth year of eligibility. Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez barely stayed on the ballot, while Kevin Brown just missed.
Looking ahead to this year's balloting, the Baseball Writers Association of America ballots are due in by December 31st. Players eligible for induction one the ballot are as follows, and voters are able to vote for a maximum of ten players.
Jeff Bagwell
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Bagwell should get in. |
Vinny Castilla
Juan Gonzalez
Brian Jordan
Barry Larkin
Javy Lopez
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Bill Mueller
Terry Mulholland
Dale Murphy
Phil Nevin
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East coast bias likes Bernie |
Brad Radke
Tim Raines
Tim Salmon
Ruben Sierra
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell
Larry Walker
Bernie Williams
Tony Womack
Eric Young
Last year, on our fake ballot, we filled it out, voting for the maximum ten names. Three of the people we voted for are not on the ballot this year. Two of our votes went to Blyleven and Alomar, who got in. John Olerud didn't get enough votes to stay on the ballot, sadly joining a group of players, like Bobby Grich, with excellent Hall of Fame cases but only one year on the ballot.
There's one player we voted for last year, who in retrospect is losing our support this year, Fred McGriff. His rightful place in this discussion deserves more time that we will give it now, as should the debate about changing votes from one year to the next. There is a subtlety there, and I'd be glad to discuss it over a beer with any of you, if you're interested.
No-one in the freshman class gets a vote. Bernie Williams and Tim Salmon had storybook careers, just not ending in Cooperstown.
While I wouldn't vote for him, it would be good to see Dale Murphy get increased support from the voters, in his penultimate vote.
After reviewing baseball-reference's page of 2012 potential Hall of Famers one last time, our final ballot settled on:
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Tim Raines should join his former teammate, Dawson, in the Coop. |
Barry Larkin
Edgar Martinez
Tim Raines
Alan Trammell
Larry Walker
What would your ballot look like? Let us know in the comment section; you can vote for up to ten.
Thanks for reading!
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