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.

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…