Baseball HOF Voting

[MxT13]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Hall_of_Fame_balloting,_2011

Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar were voted in today to join Pat Gillick as the 2011 inductees. I agree with the decisions, but quite frankly I can't believe that many sports writers left out Alomar on the first ballot.

It seems as though Barry Larkin is the next one in. I certainly hope Jeff Bagwell and Edgar Martinez get some more love in the future. You can't ignore 449 home runs, and I think it's ignorant to suspect steroid use in Bags' case. Edgar, on the other hand, is arguably the best DH to play the game (well, at least half of it). For me that would be like leaving out the best Right Tackle in football, he needs to get in because of the importance that position holds in the American League.

[BlackOps]

The voting process is terrible. A lot of these guys don't even cover baseball full-time, and a lot of those who do are clueless old hacks. Based on previous standards for HOF voting and personal preferences, I would have voted for all of these guys:
Alomar
Blyleven
Larkin
Bagwell
Raines
Martinez
Trammell
Walker
McGwire

Steroids aren't an issue for me. The Hall has inducted gamblers, spitballers, amphetamine users, and just about every single other form of cheating there's been in baseball. This is my generation, the one I grew up in. I want my heroes to be in the hall. It doesn't make sense to change the voting pattern. These guys were the best amongst their peers, and deserve to be recognized for it.

Now, I feel it does matter to an extent. I look at Rafael Palmeiro's career path and without steroids I feel there's a pretty good chance that instead of seeing a slight uptick in his performance entering his 30s he would've fallen off much quicker. I voted in McGwire because he never tested positive for steroids, more importantly there was nothing to test positive for when he was using them. The owners, GMs, coaches, commissioners office, and sportswriters all turn a blind eye and the players get blamed? The players tried to make themselves better players and improve their abilities and instead of taking some of the blame for what went on, the players are regarded as scumbag cheaters for this.

EDIT: wow the end of that last paragraph is terrible. I apologize to the English language.

I think the easiest way to accept steroids the way I have is to just assume everybody did it. Why the hell isn't there suspicion around Griffey or Bagwell? It doesn't make sense that two of history's best hitters just happened to play during this era and just happened to not do steroids and just happened to still be better than everyone who did steroids. I think it's easier for me to ask these questions because even if these guys did it, my image of them would not change. I love Griffey regardless because his name was on Ken Griffey Baseball on N64 and his enthusiasm helped me grow to love baseball more than anything. Bagwell is awesome because of his awesome numbers and awesome game he had in the first live baseball game I had ever seen. Anyway, counterpoint to your point is that it's ignorant to suspect with some and not others. It's ignorant to have allowed cheaters into the hall in the past and not now. You could easily argue that McGwire wasn't good enough for your hall of fame (he and Palmeiro are very close, but Bagwell is well ahead of them and should be unanimous), but I disagree heavily with people who admit everything passes their test except for steroids.

[ozzie]

Yay! Bert finally made it in, I can't believe he didn't last year.

Larkin had like 62% of the voting or something and you only need 70 so I'm sure he'll make it in next year.

[Nyi28nhl]

I don't understand how John Franco doesn't even come close. He has more saves than any other left handed pitcher in MLB history. It truly is a backwards and horrible system - I'll have more to say on it later when I get home from work.

[BlackOps]

I thought there were interesting people at the bottom of the list as well: Kevin Brown (steroids probably do make him fall short. He was a hell of a pitcher though, and I don't think enough people will remember that about him.), Al Leiter (If Jack Morris gets any consideration, he should as well.), and John Olerud (I think Keith Hernandez should be in for his glove, and this is another guy who had a great glove. On top of that, he was an INCREDIBLE hitter who consistently walked more than he struck out. Definitely a guy who should be remembered.)

This is a fun little sabermetric tool, basically it'll graph players based on their career value, it's especially fun to compare guys around HOF time. As you see in this one, a guy like Mattingly falls off much earlier than Hernandez and Olerud. Despite this, he still gets 13.6% of the vote while Olerud won't ever be on the ballot again after his first season. Hernandez was off the ballot in nine years. Why? (To be fair, one is because his peak was better) Because he's a damn clutch Yankee! A True Yankee™! Just some of the things that irk me about the hall. A lot of people vouched for Jack Morris over Blyleven despite clearly not being as good because of his postseason clutchness (Blyleven was actually better than Morris in the postseason, but that one big game/story overshadows sportswriters.)

You can also see that Hernandez' and Olerud's career paths are that of a normal player, Mattingly's is of a guy who got injured ending his longevity, and McGwire's is uhh... that of a steroid user. He gets a huge boost in his 30s, while the two normal paths level out with age.

[BlackOps]

Here's yet another interesting bit about this HOF voting. Of those guys we talked about, Brown, Olerud, and Franco all come close to the top of the list of best players who were booted off the ballot first time around. I had thought the hall was making progress, maybe they're just assuming everyone near the era did steroids and are taking their votes away accordingly. Shame.

[Nyi28nhl]

It really is a backwards system. Part of the problem is the writers seem to like to become a part of it by deciding who deserves to get in on the first ballot. I heard interviews where voters said certain guys deserved to get in, but not on the first ballot. What kind of crap is that? You're either a hall of famer, or you're not. Regardless of what ballot number you get in on.

And then the system works backwards. When people start not voting for guys with the mentality that they should have to wait for a later ballot, those guys don't end up on the later ballot because they got below the minimum required vote. It truly is a shame.