2015 Hall of Fame Ballot

[HoustonGM]

It's that time of year again. The 2015 Hall of Fame ballot is out, packed as ever.

A full 18 players are HoF worthy, in my opinion. Bolded are the 10 I'd vote for given the ballot restriction.

Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
John Smoltz
Gary Sheffield
Craig Biggio
Mike Piazza
Jeff Bagwell
Tim Raines
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Alan Trammell
Mike Mussina
Jeff Kent
Mark McGwire
Larry Walker
Sammy Sosa

[actionjackson]

I too would vote for 18 players, in fact we have the same 18, just not the same 10:

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
Curt Schilling
Jeff Bagwell
Mike Mussina
Larry Walker
Mike Piazza
Alan Trammell
John Smoltz
Edgar Martinez
Tim Raines
Craig Biggio
Mark McGwire
Sammy Sosa
Gary Sheffield
Jeff Kent

The ballot has become insanely crowded and it's a shame that a lot of these guys will wind up on future Veteran's Committee votes because the BBWAA couldn't or wouldn't do their job, but whatever, I've wasted enough energy on this ridiculous traveshamockery.

[dps]

It's that time of year again. The 2015 Hall of Fame ballot is out, packed as ever.

A full 18 players are HoF worthy, in my opinion. Bolded are the 10 I'd vote for given the ballot restriction.

Randy Johnson
Pedro Martinez
John Smoltz
Gary Sheffield
Craig Biggio
Mike Piazza
Jeff Bagwell
Tim Raines
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Alan Trammell
Mike Mussina
Jeff Kent
Mark McGwire
Larry Walker
Sammy Sosa

Yeah, I pretty much agree with you on the 18, but I picked a few different in the ten.

I'll admit that not putting Bonds in the ten is just because I simply don't like him. It had nothing to do with PEDs or the like; I didn't like him even before the allegations, even back in his Pittsburg days. I would vote for him if there were ten or fewer worthy candidates, but there's going to be a backlog for a while.

[MichelleWie]

Was just looking at Delgado's stats. Very similar to Sheffield. Only difference was injuries ended his career early and he didn't get to hang around and accumulate more stats like Sheffield did and get to the magic 500 HR number. I'm surprised there's not more support for him out there.

[actionjackson]

Was just looking at Delgado's stats. Very similar to Sheffield. Only difference was injuries ended his career early and he didn't get to hang around and accumulate more stats like Sheffield did and get to the magic 500 HR number. I'm surprised there's not more support for him out there.

Sheffield had 2290 more PA than Delgado did, which is 26.5% more. That's not an insignificant amount plus Sheffield had a 140 OPS+ and a 141 wRC+, while Delgado had a 138 OPS+ and a 135 wRC+. So, Sheffy was anywhere from 2% to 6% better offensively than Delgado over 26.5% more PA. It may not sound like much, but it's enough to put Sheffield in and keep Delgado out. They were both horrible defenders. Wow! Sheffield also stole 253 bases at a 70.9% clip (slightly below where you want to be, but impressive nonetheless).

[MichelleWie]

Sheffield had 2290 more PA than Delgado did, which is 26.5% more. That's not an insignificant amount plus Sheffield had a 140 OPS+ and a 141 wRC+, while Delgado had a 138 OPS+ and a 135 wRC+. So, Sheffy was anywhere from 2% to 6% better offensively than Delgado over 26.5% more PA. It may not sound like much, but it's enough to put Sheffield in and keep Delgado out. They were both horrible defenders. Wow! Sheffield also stole 253 bases at a 70.9% clip (slightly below where you want to be, but impressive nonetheless).

Yeah I guess..I'm sure it also hurts Delgado that he somehow only made two All-Star games. Amazing sometimes how the line between very good and HOFer can be so close.

[dps]

It also hurts Delgado that he wasn't as good as he was supposed to be back when he was a prospect. I suppose the same could be said about Sheffield, but it's true to a greater degree with Delgado. He was originally a catcher, remember?

[HoustonGM]

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/bust...lloffamevoting

Insider only, but essentially Buster Olney is abstaining from voting because there are 15+ candidates on the ballot that he thinks belong in the Hall of Fame, and he's concluded that submitting a ballot without some of those players is doing a disservice to them, as his ballot would effectively be counted against multiple players he wants to be in.

The fact that any educated everyday baseball writer would seriously consider and follow through on abstaining from the Hall of Fame vote, while ridiculous ballots like Garry Brown's get counted is completely unacceptable. Hall of Fame voting is broken.

[HoustonGM]

Smoltz, Biggio, Johnson and Pedro elected. Probably the best realistic result we could have hoped for.

[HoustonGM]

Also, on a ballot with 18-20 reasonable candidates, 4 voters found room for Troy Percival. 2 voters found room for Tom Gordon. 2 voters found room for Aaron Boone. 1 voter found room for Darin Erstad. Such voting is incredibly irresponsible and should warrant the revocation of your voting privileges.

[HoustonGM]

At the bottom of the BBWAA announcement, they say:

The Hall of Fame now has 310 elected members, including 215 players, of which 119 have come through the BBWAA ballot.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...l_Hall_of_Fame, the 310 elected members is correct, as is the 119 BBWAA selections, but it counts 244 players. Anybody have a clue as to what the discrepancy is?

[actionjackson]

At the bottom of the BBWAA announcement, they say:

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...l_Hall_of_Fame, the 310 elected members is correct, as is the 119 BBWAA selections, but it counts 244 players. Anybody have a clue as to what the discrepancy is?

I could be wrong, but I think there are 215 MLB players in the HoF. Could the rest be players that played in other leagues like the Negro League, Japanese League, Cuban League etc? I have no idea, just spitballing.

EDIT: Yup, 29 Negro Leaguers in addition to 215 MLB players equals 244 players. The 29 Negro Leaguers: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Monte Irvin, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, Oscar Charleston, Martin Dihigo, Pop Lloyd, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Bill Foster, Willie Wells, Bullet Rogan, Joe Williams, Turkey Stearnes, Hilton Smith, Ray Brown, Willard Brown, Andy Cooper, Frank Grant, Pete Hill, Biz Mackey, Jose Mendez, Louis Santop, Mule Suttles, Ben Taylor, Cristobal Torriente, and Jud Wilson

EDIT 2: Some of these guys were put in by NLC (Veterans Committee based on Negro League Career), some by SCNL (Special Committee on the Negro Leagues and the Pre-Negro League), and some by VC (Veterans Committee)

[HoustonGM]

I could be wrong, but I think there are 215 MLB players in the HoF. Could the rest be players that played in other leagues like the Negro League, Japanese League, Cuban League etc? I have no idea, just spitballing.

EDIT: Yup, 29 Negro Leaguers in addition to 215 MLB players equals 244 players. The 29 Negro Leaguers: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Monte Irvin, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, Oscar Charleston, Martin Dihigo, Pop Lloyd, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Bill Foster, Willie Wells, Bullet Rogan, Joe Williams, Turkey Stearnes, Hilton Smith, Ray Brown, Willard Brown, Andy Cooper, Frank Grant, Pete Hill, Biz Mackey, Jose Mendez, Louis Santop, Mule Suttles, Ben Taylor, Cristobal Torriente, and Jud Wilson

EDIT 2: Some of these guys were put in by NLC (Veterans Committee based on Negro League Career), some by SCNL (Special Committee on the Negro Leagues and the Pre-Negro League), and some by VC (Veterans Committee)

That was what I initially suspected, but I only looked at the inductees from the SCNL/NLC. I didn't realize that there were Negro Leaguers inducted through the VC.

That's.... a really, really stupid group of players to exclude from your count of inductees, especially when you don't specify "MLB players" and include the Negro Leaguers in the overall count.

[HoustonGM]

lol Curt Schilling claims he wasn't elected because he's a Republican and John Smoltz got more support because he's a Democrat...

Set aside the absurdity of his persecution complex, and this comment is still completely idiotic because... well... John Smoltz is pretty clearly a Republican.

[dickay]

lol Curt Schilling claims he wasn't elected because he's a Republican and John Smoltz got more support because he's a Democrat...

Set aside the absurdity of his persecution complex, and this comment is still completely idiotic because... well... John Smoltz is pretty clearly a Republican.

Source? What I heard was that he said he lost votes because he's a republican (and outspoken one at that) which is probably true. We know voters hold back. Toes for dumb things and how outspoken schilling is has earned him a lot of publicity and many shake their heads at it. He's probably correct it cost him votes but show me where he said it cost him entry. And not him joking around with the host, where he seriously said that.