2013 Hall of Fame "Ballot", Part I

This year's Baseball Writers' Association of America Hall of Fame ballot is the most crowded in over 65 years, when 95 players received votes in 1945.

Before we get to this year's fun, here's a glimps at the 1945 ballot:

Rk		YoB	Votes	%vote	WAR
1	Frank Chance HOF	6th	179	72.5%	43.5
2	Rube Waddell HOF	6th	154	62.3%	55.3
3	Ed Walsh HOF	6th	137	55.5%	61.7
4	Johnny Evers HOF	6th	134	54.3%	45.2
5	Roger Bresnahan HOF	6th	133	53.8%	39.1
6	Miller Huggins HOF	5th	133	53.8%	33.8
7	Mickey Cochrane HOF	4th	125	50.6%	48.9
8	Jimmy Collins HOF	6th	121	49.0%	50.1
9	Ed Delahanty HOF	6th	111	44.9%	66.5
10	Clark Griffith HOF	5th	108	43.7%	58.1
11	Frankie Frisch HOF	4th	101	40.9%	68.0
12	Hughie Jennings HOF	5th	92	37.2%	39.7
13	Wilbert Robinson HOF	5th	81	32.8%	11.5
14	Pie Traynor HOF	5th	81	32.8%	33.8
15	Hugh Duffy HOF	5th	64	25.9%	40.1
16	Fred Clarke HOF	6th	53	21.5%	64.2
17	Rabbit Maranville HOF	5th	51	20.6%	39.4
18	Joe Tinker HOF	5th	49	19.8%	50.4
19	Mordecai Brown HOF	6th	46	18.6%	53.0
20	Herb Pennock HOF	5th	45	18.2%	39.8
21	Joe McGinnity HOF	5th	44	17.8%	54.7
22	Chief Bender HOF	6th	40	16.2%	46.6
23	Ray Schalk HOF	6th	33	13.4%	25.0
24	Eddie Plank HOF	5th	33	13.4%	85.3
25	Bill Terry HOF	5th	32	13.0%	52.1
26	Lefty Grove HOF	2nd	28	11.3%	97.4
27	Home Run Baker HOF	6th	26	10.5%	59.5
28	Carl Hubbell HOF	1st	24	9.7%	64.9
29	Addie Joss HOF	5th	23	9.3%	41.4
30	Ross Youngs HOF	6th	22	8.9%	30.9
31	Dazzy Vance HOF	6th	18	7.3%	58.0
32	Dizzy Dean HOF	1st	17	6.9%	43.4
33	Bill Dickey HOF	1st	17	6.9%	52.4
34	Johnny Kling	6th	12	4.9%	22.9
35	Charlie Gehringer HOF	2nd	10	4.0%	76.6
36	Nap Rucker	6th	10	4.0%	45.7
37	Babe Adams	5th	7	2.8%	50.5
38	Lefty Gomez HOF	1st	7	2.8%	34.6
39	Harry Heilmann HOF	5th	5	2.0%	67.3
40	Kid Nichols HOF	4th	5	2.0%	111.6
41	Edd Roush HOF	6th	5	2.0%	43.0
42	Sam Crawford HOF	6th	4	1.6%	69.9
43	Ted Lyons HOF	1st	4	1.6%	65.2
44	Hank Greenberg HOF	1st	3	1.2%	55.1
45	Bobby Wallace HOF	5th	3	1.2%	66.0
46	Bill Donovan	4th	3	1.2%	39.4
47	Hank Gowdy	5th	3	1.2%	17.1
48	Bill Carrigan	4th	3	1.2%	10.9
49	Eddie Grant	4th	2	0.8%	3.4
50	Branch Rickey HOF	2nd	2	0.8%	1.0
51	Jesse Burkett HOF	4th	2	0.8%	60.5
52	Bill McKechnie HOF	1st	2	0.8%	2.5
53	Zack Wheat HOF	5th	2	0.8%	56.9
54	Bobby Lowe	2nd	2	0.8%	16.8
55	Deacon Phillippe	3rd	2	0.8%	31.8
56	Kid Elberfeld	5th	2	0.8%	30.4
57	Casey Stengel HOF	3rd	2	0.8%	18.5
58	Gabby Hartnett HOF	2nd	2	0.8%	50.7
59	Bill Sweeney	1st	1	0.4%	12.0
60	Van Mungo	1st	1	0.4%	31.1
61	Amos Rusie HOF	5th	1	0.4%	65.6
62	Mike Donlin	4th	1	0.4%	28.6
63	Claude Ritchey	1st	1	0.4%	31.5
64	Tony Lazzeri HOF	1st	1	0.4%	46.2
65	Jesse Tannehill	1st	1	0.4%	45.8
66	Harry Davis	1st	1	0.4%	35.5
67	Danny Murphy	2nd	1	0.4%	32.8
68	Pepper Martin	2nd	1	0.4%	15.8
69	Eppa Rixey HOF	3rd	1	0.4%	51.7
70	Duffy Lewis	4th	1	0.4%	17.9
71	Kid Gleason	4th	1	0.4%	6.1
72	Cy Seymour	1st	1	0.4%	30.3
73	Charlie Grimm	2nd	1	0.4%	10.6
74	Donie Bush	4th	1	0.4%	36.7
75	Herman Long	4th	1	0.4%	33.4
76	Jimmy Sheckard	2nd	1	0.4%	46.7
77	Jack Dunn	2nd	1	0.4%	-0.8
78	Heinie Groh	3rd	1	0.4%	46.3
79	Charlie Root	1st	1	0.4%	36.3
80	Howie Camnitz	1st	1	0.4%	13.0
81	Joe Gordon HOF	1st	1	0.4%	54.0
82	Ginger Beaumont	3rd	1	0.4%	28.3
83	Billy Southworth HOF	1st	1	0.4%	19.3
84	Earle Combs HOF	4th	1	0.4%	40.0
85	Bob Meusel	3rd	1	0.4%	24.2
86	Cy Williams	2nd	1	0.4%	34.7
87	Max Carey HOF	4th	1	0.4%	51.1
88	Joe DiMaggio HOF	1st	1	0.4%	75.1
89	Dickey Kerr	5th	1	0.4%	9.1
90	Wid Conroy	1st	1	0.4%	19.0
91	Pat Moran	4th	1	0.4%	5.6
92	Steve Yerkes	1st	1	0.4%	5.6
93	Sherry Magee	5th	1	0.4%	55.8
94	Johnny Vander Meer	1st	1	0.4%	23.8
95	Bill Dinneen	4th	1	0.4%	37.5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/30/2012.

The history above, lends me to believe we could see a sort of similar result this year, with no-one receiving the required 75% of the vote for enshrinement. With a maximum of ten players one may vote for, and somewhere between 11 and 15 viable candidates, we may not see 3/4's of the voters agree on anyone.

Like a radio station one of our parents may listen to, this year's ballot has a collection of stars from the 80's, 90's, and today.

In alphabetic order, and without numbers, here are the players on this year's ballot:

Sandy Alomar Jr.

If anyone has a chance to make it
this time around, it's Craig Biggio.

Jeff Bagwell
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Jeff Cirillo
Royce Clayton
Roger Clemens
Jeff Conine
Steve Finley
Julio Franco
Shawn Green
Roberto Hernandez
Ryan Klesko
Kenny Lofton
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire
Jose Mesa
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy

Schilling's W%, ERA, and K/BB ratio give
him an outstanding case for Cooperstown.

Rafael Palmeiro
Mike Piazza
Tim Raines
Reggie Sanders
Curt Schilling
Aaron Sele
Lee Smith
Sammy Sosa
Mike Stanton
Alan Trammell
Larry Walker
Todd Walker
David Wells
Rondell White
Bernie Williams
Woody Williams

I've been looking forward to this ballot for so long, that I envisioned writing up an obscenely long post for why we should or should not vote for each player on the list. Instead, we are going to try to keep this as short as possible, while hopefully providing one or two facts and opinions you may not find elsewhere. Over the past several weeks, however, I've noticed that you, dear reader, have greater choices for earnest Hall of Fame analysis.

Some of the best options include: Buster Olney's blog, Jay Jaffe's Hit and Run, Joe Posnanski's blog, Joe's twitter, or Joe's day job. Of course, we can also check in on any of the 575 writers who actually have a ballot to see how they voted, and why. Darren Viola has been doing an outstanding job of keeping records of writer's ballots as they are posted online. Darren shares his findings on his twitter: @RRepoz.

Barry Larking was a
considerate and classy
inductee last June.

Last year, we would have voted for Jeff Bagwell, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, and Larry Walker. Larkin was elected last year. With this year's ballot being so crowded, there's no guarantee that the other five guys will be on our "ballot" this year.

Let's quickly take a closer look.

The "It's an honor to be on the ballot, but it's a relatively easy No" group includes: Todd Walker, Jose Mesa, Sandy Alomar Jr, Mike Stanton, Jeff Conine, Royce Clayton, Roberto Hernandez, Aaron Sele, Ryan Klesko, Rondell White, Woody Williams, Shawn Green, and Jeff Cirillo.

We are left with 24 on the ballot with room to vote for 10.

A few other players who have a relatively interesting story to tell, but will ultimately fall short of a vote from us include: Lee Smith (478 Saves), Steve Finley (304 HR's, 320 SB's), Reggie Sanders (also over 300 steals an homers, not to mention a 115 OPS+, which is higher than Biggio, Trammell, and Lofton), and Julio Franco, who played until he was 48 and ranks 21st on this ballot by bWAR, between Don Mattingly and Jack Morris.

This leaves us with 20 players for a maximum of 10 votes.

You know what? We're about to get to the more controversial players and have some tough choices to make. This is going to take us a little too long for a "quick" post. Let's get to this in the next day or two...

TO BE CONTINUED...