Walker's jump is almost too good to be true. This is the same player who dropped from 20% to 10% in his first four years on the ballot. Those were crowded ballots, and now the writers are starting to catch up with the backlog of great players, but it's still an amazing story.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 08:10 (five years ago) link
mussina's gonna miss by one vote, isn't he
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 22:57 (five years ago) link
when do they announce?
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 22 January 2019 22:59 (five years ago) link
right now
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:00 (five years ago) link
they should make dan shaughnessy announce it
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:03 (five years ago) link
I'm watching MLB's introductory film, and it looks like Mussina made it.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:14 (five years ago) link
Mussina!!!
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:19 (five years ago) link
He did get in.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:19 (five years ago) link
Mariano got 100%
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:21 (five years ago) link
Whoa--100%! Thank god that's over with.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:22 (five years ago) link
Walker (54%) and Vizquel (42%) really moved towards each other--not good.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:23 (five years ago) link
So Bonds and Clemens didn't crack 60%, Placido Polanco got a vote!!!
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:24 (five years ago) link
it looks like Walker made up approximately half of the additional vote total he'd need to get in next year. He missed by 173 in 2018, missed by approx 87 or 88 this year. Plus I think the cleared-up ballot helps him out considerably. Lots of writers suggested they'd vote for him if they had more room, others are "willing to listen".
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:29 (five years ago) link
sorry, TWO votes for Polanco.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:30 (five years ago) link
Walker ended up farther back than I thought he'd be...I was expecting at least 60-65%. But the light ballot and last-year push should be enough next year (more writers will be advocating for him all year like Posnanski's been doing). What did Helton get? I missed that.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:34 (five years ago) link
Mariano Rivera 425 (100%) 1Roy Halladay 363 (85.4%) 1Edgar Martinez 363 (85.4%) 10Mike Mussina 326 (76.7%) 6Curt Schilling 259 (60.9%) 6Roger Clemens 253 (59.5%) 7Barry Bonds 251 (59.1%) 7Larry Walker 232 (54.6%) 9Omar Vizquel 182 (42.8%) 2Fred McGriff 169 (39.8%) 10Manny Ramirez 97 (22.8%) 3Jeff Kent 77 (18.1%) 6Billy Wagner 71 (16.7%) 4Todd Helton 70 (16.5%) 1Scott Rolen 73 (17.2%) 2Gary Sheffield 58 (13.6%) 5Andy Pettitte 42 (9.9%) 1Sammy Sosa 36 (8.5%) 7Andruw Jones 32 (7.5%) 2Michael Young 9 (2.1%) 1Lance Berkman 5 (1.2%) 1Miguel Tejada 5 (1.2%) 1Roy Oswalt 4 (0.9%) 1Placido Polanco 2 (0.5%) 1
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:39 (five years ago) link
(vote total, percentage, year on ballot)
Walker went from 34.1% to 54.6%. The same next year would of course put him at 75.1%.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:40 (five years ago) link
That is a long uphill climb for Helton, but he starts with James and Posnanski as advocates.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:41 (five years ago) link
Bonds' percentage has gone up in five straight years. McGriff got a nice bump to nearly 40 percent that probably bodes well for his chances on getting elected via the Baines route.
Jeter's unanimous election is a virtual lock now. He might even get 110% of the votes, because he was just that special as a player.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:42 (five years ago) link
historically, there's always a very big push in the year before players are elected, but the final push is several points more. That was the case for Mussina and Edgar.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:43 (five years ago) link
Bonds went up 2.7% vs Clemens' 2.2%. That's like a yearly L.A. rent control increase.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:44 (five years ago) link
Posnanski says that McGriff is a lock the minute he shows up on whatever VC ballot he fits. At which point the Delgado situation reemerges--it never ends!
― clemenza, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:47 (five years ago) link
Andruw Jones went up 0.2% over last season. Manny 0.8%.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:52 (five years ago) link
who the hell voted for placido polanco
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 23:56 (five years ago) link
I'd bet probably a beat writer from Philly or Detroit.
Polanco played a long time and was a solid middle infielder. The guy added up 10 more WAR runs than Ray Durham or Brandon Phillips in just about the same amount of games. I was mildly surprised Polanco's career batting average was .297.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 00:01 (five years ago) link
Polanco is possibly a more arguable vote than Michael Young. That dude had six (emptier than you think) 200-hit seasons, was basically a Steve Garvey type with a far lower WAR, all minus the essential key party vibe.
― omar little, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 02:03 (five years ago) link
i don't really mean to poop on placido; he was a good player
not to mention that he matched harold baines in fWAR and beat him in bWAR. but if you have a sub-100 career OPS+/wRC+ you better have been a legendary fielder like ozzie
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 02:20 (five years ago) link
Stoked for Mussina, that's great
― timellison, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 03:51 (five years ago) link
if Twitter had always been around, lotsa players woulda got 100%
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 05:55 (five years ago) link
The threat of being shamed on social media helps in getting voters to toe the line, yeah. But I think there's more to it, in the past, a voter could claim that he never really got to watch players in the other league, giving him a somehat plausible reason for not voting for a clear HOFer. Now there's no excuse for anyone not to be fully informed. We've almost worked through the candidacies of the so-called steroid era stars, so there won't be any more "excuses" to leave someone off.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 06:18 (five years ago) link
such a lot of fuss over a guy who threw one inning a night
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 12:19 (five years ago) link
I thought the longtime no-unanimous-selections was primarily grounded in sportswriters who objected to the early guys--Ruth and Cobb especially--not being voted in unanimously, and if they weren't, they'd make sure that no one would be. I'm not sure what the window on that factor was...from the '40s right through to the '70s? Mixed in with pockets of racism when it came to a Mays or an Aaron.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 12:41 (five years ago) link
even w/ white guys like Seaver or Mantle, they were just being dicks.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 January 2019 12:42 (five years ago) link
That's almost the only explanation as to why, say, a Seaver or Ripken wasn't unanimous--stray voters who held to the silly if-not-Ruth-no-one principle.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 12:44 (five years ago) link
The first question for the Hall of Famers is about Edgar's batting average against Mo. "Why do you have to say that," Mo said jumping up. "Why do you have to say the number???"— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) January 23, 2019
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 20:22 (five years ago) link
.579/.652/.1.053 in 23 plate appearances...
https://www.mlb.com/cut4/edgar-martinezs-amazing-stats-vs-pitchers-in-his-hall-of-fame-class/c-302992870
― clemenza, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 20:54 (five years ago) link
rivera becomes the third hall of famer with zero hits, following jack morris and walter alston (who isn't in for his playing)
rivera: 0-for-3, K, BB, RBImorris and alston were both 0-for-1, but morris did score four runs
trevor hoffman also had more RBIs (5) than hits (4)
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 23 January 2019 21:46 (five years ago) link
James seems to have taken on a new cause: Bobby Abreu.
― clemenza, Thursday, 24 January 2019 00:24 (five years ago) link
So I’m actually (possibly irrationally) annoyed that Halladay isn’t going inas a Jay. Like wtf does his wife have against it?
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 25 January 2019 06:01 (five years ago) link
It's weird--not quite as weird as when Maddux did the same, but still weird. I don't think it's irrational for a Jays fan not to be happy.
― clemenza, Friday, 25 January 2019 12:29 (five years ago) link
plaque cap is not "going in as," for the X000th time
most visitors to Cooperstown are too old to see the caps clearly anyway
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 25 January 2019 12:32 (five years ago) link
Mussina had more value as an Oriole, but i'm not placing bets there
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 25 January 2019 12:33 (five years ago) link
It's still a symbolic thing that registers with hometown fans. Surely you would have been baffled if Seaver had decided he'd be wearing a Reds cap on his plaque.
I won't steal James's poll, but he has a good one up: "If you could put one (but only one) second baseman from the '70s/'80s on the 2020s Eras Committee ballot, who would you choose: Grich, Whitaker, Randolph?" Jaffe has them 8/13/17, and they're separated by under 10 WAR for their careers.
― clemenza, Friday, 25 January 2019 12:43 (five years ago) link
Hall of Fame announces what caps will be worn on plaques of incoming class. No surprise on Edgar after 18 seasons in Seattle: Harold Baines – White Sox.Roy Halladay – no logoEdgar Martinez – MarinersMike Mussina – no logoMariano Rivera – YankeesLee Smith – Cubs .— Greg Johns (@GregJohnsMLB) January 25, 2019
― mookieproof, Friday, 25 January 2019 20:09 (five years ago) link
http://www.naomiklein.org/files/images/NL-10thcover.jpg
― na (NA), Friday, 25 January 2019 20:10 (five years ago) link
makes sense for Smith, he was at his best with the Cubs, his bWAR over his eight seasons w/Chicago compares favorably w/Rivera's first eight seasons w/NY. However his subsequent career does not...
― omar little, Friday, 25 January 2019 20:21 (five years ago) link
Congratulations to Jason Bay, Ryan Dempster, former #BlueJays GM Gord Ash and longtime MLB coach Rob Thomson for making up the 2019 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame induction class. That's a strong group.— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) February 5, 2019
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 15:36 (five years ago) link
Not sure if you can access this or not, but you may want to fill it in if you can.
http://joeposnanski.com/hall-of-fame-polls/
― clemenza, Monday, 18 February 2019 16:46 (five years ago) link
Has there been momentum to include baseball pioneers outside of the US in the past? I'm thinking the first great Cuban, Japanese, Dominican players for example.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 11 March 2019 17:15 (five years ago) link