Can you believe that the BBWAA gave our blog voting rights for this year’s MLB Hall of Fame ballot?
Just kidding. They haven’t made a decision that ill-informed since, um, electing Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. But I’m going to pretend we have a vote this year and explain the decisions on our ballot.
Please, blog, may I have some more?This is the 6th post in a series on the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot. My first post on Jeff Bagwell covered the criteria I am using for analyzing HOF players. The next four posts covered Bert Blyleven, the middle infielder trio of Alan Trammell, Barry Larkin, and Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martinez, and Tim Raines + Mark McGwire.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
This is the 5th post in a series on the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot. My first post on Jeff Bagwell covered the criteria I am using for analyzing HOF players. The next three posts covered Bert Blyleven, the middle infielder trio of Alan Trammell, Barry Larkin, and Roberto Alomar, and Edgar Martinez.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
This is the 4th post in a series on the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot. My first post on Jeff Bagwell covered the criteria I am using for analyzing HOF players. The second and third posts covered Bert Blyleven and the middle infielder trio of Alan Trammell, Barry Larkin, and Roberto Alomar.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
This is the 3rd post in a series on the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot. My first post on Jeff Bagwell covered the criteria I am using for analyzing HOF players. The second post covered Bert Blyleven.
The next players I’d have on our ballot are three middle infielders: Alan Trammell, Barry Larkin, and Roberto Alomar.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
This is the 2nd post in a series on the 2011 Hall of Fame ballot. My first post on Jeff Bagwell covered the criteria I am using for analyzing HOF players.
The next player on our hypothetical ballot is Bert Blyleven.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
This is the first in a series of posts reviewing players on the 2011 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot. Here is some background on how I analyze players for the HOF:
Much like the Earth and many a good joke, the views on Hall of Fame worthiness have two poles.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
It’s the beginning of a new year. Time to reflect on the year that has passed. Time to make resolutions in the new year. Time to hope the Baseball Hall of Fame voters make a resolution to vote better.
Last year’s nomination was a mixed bag for us. Only one of our 5 nominations made it in (Rickey – the other four were Bert Blyleven, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, and Tommy John) and one of our ‘nays’ made it in (Jim Rice). For those who missed our HOF analysis from last year, we do our best to create objective parameters for measuring success at a specific position/role. Rather than focus on just a player or just those that are on the ballot, we look at all players that filled a specific type of role and analyze everyone outside the Hall of Fame to unearth any perceived injustices. Last year’s analyses were on (with returning nominees in parentheses):
Starting Pitchers (Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris)
Leadoff Hitters (Tim Raines)
Middle of the Lineup Hitters (Mark McGwire, Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker)
This entry is going to focus on middle infielders since there are two prominent middle infielders that are on the ballot for the first time (Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin) and one returnee for review (Alan Trammell). We’ll review Fred McGriff and Edgar Martinez at another time (betting they’re not going to make it this year).
Please, blog, may I have some more?
While ESPN gets 11 Hall of Fame ballots, Razzball doesn’t even get one. Perhaps our invitation was forgotten by the same voter who forgot to add Rickey Henderson to the ballot (but remembered Matt Williams)?
Anyway, here is my ballot. Click on the player names for my analysis:
Yes: Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Bert Blyleven, Tommy John
Yes if they were actually on the ballot: Dick Allen, Reggie Smith
No: Obviously anyone not mentioned above. But here are links to players that I reviewed in some depth…Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Harold Baines, Jack Morris
Apologies to Alan Trammell and Lee Smith as I didn’t get around to doing middle infielder and reliever posts. My guess is that I’d have ended up voting ‘No’ on both.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
In this series of Hall of Fame nomination-based posts, we’re going to focus on specific roles/positions. We’ll be reviewing both players on the HOF ballot as well as non-HOFers who we feel deserve re-consideration.
This third post focuses on starting pitchers – with Bert Blyleven (61.9%), Jack Morris (42.9%), and Tommy John (29.1%) the three with the highest % of votes from last year’s nomination. Before we even look at their stats (and those of other non-Hall of Famer contemporaries), we need to set the criteria by which to judge HOF-worthiness. The criteria by which starters have been judged has been preoccupied by counting stats – primarily Wins but also Strikeouts tend to be considered (think Ryan, Carlton, part of Blyleven’s argument). Let’s first review modern pitchers in the HOF to determine what criteria seems to define excellence – with a bias towards those that factor out the bias of era, park, and team performance.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
