Chicago Tribune HOF Ballot is Laughable

7 Ballots were cast and here is the vote total:

Player	Votes
Roberto Alomar	7
Tim Raines	5
Burt Blylevan	5
Jack Morris	4
Lee Smith	4
Barry Larkin	4
Don Mattingly	2
Alan Trammell	2
Larry Walker	2
Harold Baines	1
Dave Parker	1
Edgar Martinez	1
Jeff Bagwell	0
Rafael Palmeiro	0
Mark McGwire	0
Kevin Brown	0
Fred McGriff	0
John Olerud	0

 

Not a single vote for Bagwell?  No vote for Palmeiro or McGwire.  Harold Baines has a vote.  Lee Smith has 4 out of 7 votes.  Tim Raines is at least getting some respect. 

I definitely have a bone to pick with Dave Van Dyck’s ballot.  I don’t have a problem with a small ballot.  Heck, I love them.  I wish that I had the ability to look past some of the lesser cases and only vote for the top 1%.  Mark Gonzales tried to do that with his ballot and he had the best ballot of anyone on the Chicago Tribune staff.  He only listed three names:  Alomar, Blylevan, Larkin.  I’m okay with that because those three could be considered the best on the ballot outside of Bagwell. 

BBA Hall of Fame Results

The BBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance) was formed in 2009 as an internet version of the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) and was created to vote on and produce awards in a similar fashion.  As a member of the BBA we are given ballots for all major awards and the Hall of Fame.  154 ballots were cast and here are the final voting results:

Roberto Alomar, 75.97%
Bert Blyleven, 75.97%
Barry Larkin, 70.78%
Jeff Bagwell, 62.34%
Edgar Martinez, 59.09%
Tim Raines, 54.55%
Mark McGwire, 44.16%
Lee Smith, 38.96%
Alan Trammell, 35.71%
Don Mattingly, 33.12%
Larry Walker, 31.17%
Fred McGriff, 27.27%
Jack Morris, 25.97%
Rafael Palmerio, 20.78%
Dale Murphy, 16.23%
Dave Parker, 12.34%
Harold Baines, 10.39%
Kevin Brown, 9.09%
John Franco, 7.14%
Tino Martinez, 5.19%
John Olerud, 5.19%
Al Leiter, 4.55%
Bret Boone, 3.90%
Juan Gonzalez, 3.90%
Marquis Grissom, 2.60%
Benito Santiago, 1.30%
Bobby Higginson, 0.65%
Charles Johnson, 0.65%
Kirk Rueter, 0.65%
Carlos Baerga, 0.00%
Raul Mondesi, 0.00%
BJ Surhoff, 0.00%

The BBA has correctly predicted 14 of 16 awards voted on since it’s inception.  I am glad to see Alomar and Blyleven get their due but very sad that us internet bloggers found a way to keep Bagwell, Raines, and a few others out.

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…