Worst. Ballot. Ever.

In a year with a very strong Hall of Fame ballot that is crowded at firstbase, news editor at ESPN Barry Stanton turned in a Hall of Fame ballot that looked like this:

• Edgar Martinez
• B.J. Surhoff
• Tino Martinez
• Jack Morris
• Don Mattingly

That, in all honesty, might be the worst ballot ever. I am shocked that Harold Baines, John Franco, and Lee Smith were not also voted for. Heck, you can have ten votes, why not add Lenny Harris and Kirk Rueter?

I love the Edgar vote.  I can live with the Morris vote.  The others?  Well, if this were a year that had one or two deserving candidates and he voted for them out of courtesy so they would not get 0%, then I’m ok with that.  This is not one of those years, though.  This is a year where some voters are finding it hard to limit their votes to the maiximum number of ten.

To vote for Martinez, Mattingly, and Surhoff over Jeff Bagwell is ridiculous.  Check out the WARgraph:

I find it inexcusable to leave Bagwell off if you plan on voting for corner guys.  Bagwell is not the only one that deserves a vote over these three and there are at least two pitchers that deserve a vote over Morris. And this is not to say these players were bad, they were actually very good, but not Hall worthy, especially not over their contemporaries on the ballot.

There is no ryhme or reason to his voting.  It’s almost as if he did this to say “hey, I put my time in the industry and I will do what I want, how I want, and no one can do anything about it.  Up yours Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame.”  I do not know Stanton, and I have never really heard of him before this ballot, so I find it hard to pass judgment, but this is what I feel his ballot said to me and to all of us.

This ballot is a disgrace to the BBWAA and they should consider throwing it out or claiming it got lost in the mail.

2011 HOF Ballot

Here is a quick look at the stacked 2011 Hall-of-Fame ballot and who I would definitely vote for, who I would definitely leave off, and who is borderline (in order from top-to-bottom):

Yes	No	Borderline
Roberto Alomar	Dale Murphy	Alan Trammell
Jeff Bagwell	Jack Morris	Barry Larkin
Bert Blylevan	Dave Parker	Edgar Martinez
Mark McGwire	John Franco	Larry Walker
Tim Raines	Juan Gonzalez	Fred McGriff
Rafael Palmeiro	Don Mattingly	John Olerud
	Harold Baines	Kevin Brown
	Tino Martinez
	Bret Boone
	Raul Mondesi
	Bobby Higginson
	Al Leiter
	Marquis Grissom
	Benito Santiago
	Lee Smith
	Carlos Baerga
	Charles Johnson
	Kirk Rueter
	B. J. Surhoff
	Lenny Harris

My “Yes” group is the group I would vote for 100% of the time, no questions asked.  The “No” group is the group that I would say no to 99% of the time.  I may give a vote once or twice to a couple of the guys if I was given 1000 votes but that’s about it. 

My “Borderline” group is a group that has compelling cases for but, me being a “Small Hall” guy, I am on the fences.  Yes, The borderline group, even some of the no group, are better than some guys already in the HOF but that is not an argument for someone to be enshrined.  The only thing that accomplishes is watering-down the HOF, and I am not about that.

If I were a Small-Hall guy I would probably vote for my borderline group, but I am not a Small-Hall guy.  As it stands now I would probably vote for Trammell, Larkin, and Martinez.  I plan on making a case for each in the “Borderline” group soon.  Stay tuned…

Utley Robbed in MVP Voting

(Photo by: Chuck Solomon/SI)

Albert Pujols was unanimously named the National League MVP, and rightfully so. He was the most valuable player in the league. The BBWAA voters did a decent job this year of giving the hardware to the right players. Pujols, Joe Mauer, Tim Lincecum, and Zack Greinke were all no-brainers to me and the two rookies of the year (Chris Coghlan and Andrew Bailey) were not bad selections even though they were not my selections. But, where the voters did go wrong was when they tried to quantify the value of Chase Utley, who finished 8th in the NL MVP voting.

Here is the chart from the BBWAA (sorry I couldn’t fit the entire chart here):

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Points
Albert Pujols, Cardinals	32										448
Hanley Ramirez, Marlins		15	5	3	3		2	3	1		233
Ryan Howard, Phillies		6	8	7	5	1	3	1			217
Prince Fielder, Brewers		5	9	7	3	1		3	1	3	203
Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies		3	6	5	5	5	1	1			172
Andre Ethier, Dodgers		2		3	2	5	4	5	3		113
Pablo Sandoval, Giants			1		2	5	5	6	1	4	89
Chase Utley, Phillies			2	2	1	5	4		3	1	84
Derrek Lee, Cubs		1			3	3	2	2	5		66
Matt Kemp, Dodgers				2	1	2	3	1	1	2	49
Ryan Braun, Brewers					3	1		2	4	6	43
Adrian Gonzalez, Padres				1		1		3	2	5	30
Todd Helton, Rockies			1	1		1	1		2		28
Chris Carpenter, Cardinals					1	2	1		2	1	25
Adam Wainwright, Cards					1			2	1	2	16
Matt Holliday,Cardinals				1			1		2		15
Jayson Werth, Phillies					1		1				10
Shane Victorino, Phillies							2				8
Tim Lincecum, Giants							1		1	2	8
Yunel Escobar, Braves					1						6
Mark Reynolds, D-backs								1	1	1	6
Joey Votto, Reds							1				4
Yadier Molina, Cardinals								1			3
Miguel Tejada, Astros								1			3
Huston Street, Rockies									1		2
Justin Upton, D-backs									1		2
Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals										2	2
Jeremy Affeldt, Giants										1	1
Chris Coghlan, Marlins										1	1
Brad Hawpe, Rockies

As you can see, Utley is not even close in the voting. Granted, no one should be close to the unanimous Pujols, but zero 2nd place votes is simply ridiculous. He was easily 2nd on my imaginary ballot thanks to these overlooked stats: .282/.397/.508 with a wOBA of .402, 31 homers, 23 stolen bases (zero caught stealing), only grounding into 5 double plays, a UZR/150 of +11.3, a fielding percentage of .985, and 7.6 WAR, all while playing a middle infield position. What did those stats get him? Well, he was already snubbed for a Gold Glove award and now he has been completely left off of 14 ballots.

This year the voters have taken a step forward in evaluating players by selecting six deserving players for the major awards. But, they still have a very long way to go when Ryan Howard finishes 3rd, Matt Holliday receives four votes including a 4th place vote, and Jeremy Affeldt is getting votes that Chase Utley should surely be getting first.

-stats from fangraphs.com