2013 MLB Hall of Fame Screechfest

Is Shawn Green even in the Hall of Very Good?

Definitely a near-lock for Hall of Better Than Average.

 

Looking at that ballot I'm wondering if Jill Painter is old enough to have lived in a world without cable TV.

 

Morris jumped eight points from the ballot tracker to the final totals last year. If he gets that much of an old-school boost this year, he's pushing 72 percent.

I think this is going to be really close.

 

Final update of the day before. 159 ballots, which is 27.7 percent of last year.

68.6 - Biggio (would need 321 of the remaining 414 votes. 77.5%)
62.9 - J. Morris (would need 330 of the 414. 79.7%)
61.0 - Bagwell
61.0 - Raines
59.7 - Piazza (Bagwell, Raines and Piazza need 80 percent of the remaining votes)
43.4 - Bonds (Bonds and Clemens need 361 of the 414 votes. 87 percent)
42.8- Clemens
38.4 - L. Smith
38.4 - Schilling
35.8 - E. Martinez
35.8 - Trammell
20.1 - D. Murphy
18.9 - McGriff
------------------- Anyone below can't be elected based on last year's number of voters
16.4 - L. Walker
13.8 - McGwire
13.8 - S. Sosa
13.2 - Raffy
9.4 - Mattingly
2.5 - Lofton
1.9 - P. Rose
1.9 - Bernie Williams
1.3 - D. Wells
0.6 - J. Franco
0.6 - S. Alomar Jr.
0.6 - S. Green

ESPN will release all of their writer ballots — Caple, Stark, Matthews, etc have trickled out already — on Wednesday morning and that should be another 15 or so. I bet with columns in papers and online, the tracker could hit 200 before the announcement.

I hope Biggio sneaks over. It's going to come down to the old-time writers seeing 3,000 hits over playing in the PED era. To me Morris is whatever. I don't think he should be in but either way it doesn't matter. He's off the ballot after next year regardless.

I wish Mattingly would drop off to limit the options. He's never getting in but he just hangs around at the bottom of the holdovers every year and people always want to vote for him.

 

That's unfortunate... I'm a big fan of Jill's. Three of those you can't even defend and Biggio is the only one of those six who has any real chance of getting in ever...

 

Kurkjian just said he doesn't think Clemens and Bonds will be in five years from now... But he voted for both...

I wonder if anything will change with the voting if no one gets in this year.

 

I think that if nobody gets in this year, it will just accelerate the inevitable creation of a new voting formula and stripping the BBWAA of that responsibility. It would be the right thing to do, if only we all didn't know whatever MLB comes up with next will be worse.

 

Then I hope that nobody does get in. Anything that changes this farce would be welcomed.

 

It will be a great day in America if the final report of the vote goes like this: "Nothing to report here. Move on."

 

Why is it some catastrophe if no one gets in this year?

Jack Morris doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.

Craig Biggio probably does, but I can understand the reservations.

Tim Raines not being in is a bit of a joke to me at this point, but I don't think his 60-plus percent total and rising really calls for an overhaul. It's not that great of a travesty. Not like Andre Dawson getting in was.

I'm willing to listen to opposing stances.

 

I don't know that I think that something should happen if nobody gets in, but I think something will happen.

 

If nobody got in because the voters simply didn't think anybody was worthy, that would be fine. But voters don't just do that any more. We've got some who will never vote for anybody the first year of eligibility, in most cases to ensure that no one is ever elected unanimously. Then we've got voters making statements by sending in blank ballots or voting for Dale Murphy. Then you've got the voters determined to punish anybody who used PEDs, often so much so that they will refuse to ever vote for guys who were even suspected. Others will vote for them eventually, but they have to wait.

I saw part of an MLB Network debate on this last night. Somebody (I forget who) raised an excellent point. It's going to be tougher for many of these guys next year with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas on the ballot. He was going on the assumption that all three will get easily and it tough to see more than three get enough votes in a given year.