2016 Baseball Hall of Fame Nominees

no. The only ballots that count are the ones that are sent in. There were 475 sent out. For sure, there are at least six that aren't sent in. The belief is the final number will be around 450 ballots returned.

 

In regards to Sosa, he really only has the home runs (and to an extent, the RBI, hits and runs that come with them) for a Hall of Fame resume. A lot of his other stats don't really match up with a HOF career and if you believe he gained a good chunk of those homers due to cheating in whatever way (PEDs, corked bat, etc) then he's just a very good player whose stats wouldn't measure up.

 

Another fun ballot -- Marty Noble votes for Griffey and Jeff Kent, adding Kent to his ballot this year.

 

With two days to go:

At 33.7 percent reported (158 of 469 ballots):

Griffey is still at 100 percent
Piazza is at 86.7 percent
Bagwell is at 79.7 percent
Raines is at 77.8 percent
Hoffman is at 61.4 percent (by comparison Lee Smith is at 30.4)
Schilling is at 59.5 percent
Mussina is at 53.2 percent
Bonds is at 49.4 percent
Clemens is at 48.7 percent
Edgar is at 46.8
Trammell getting a nice last-ballot kiss at 46.2

Over those same ballots, Edgar has gained 26 votes, Mussina has gained 23, Bagwell has gained 21, Trammell has gained 18 and Raines has gained 12.

Wagoner has gotten 16 votes (10.1 percent) and I think is pretty safe to stay on the ballot. Walker and Sosa still need a handful of votes to stay on ballot. Every other holdover guy already has enough to stay on the ballot. Edmonds has four votes.

Alas, the Bagwell getting in this year dream is officially dead. He's lost six percent over just the last 35 ballots. He needs a big surge to have a shot. I think we are looking at Bagwell-Raines in 2017 with no first-timers going in, although Pudge has the best shot. (I think he goes in 2018 with a first-ballot Chipper).

 

75% to get in?

 

Yes.

 

I don't really buy the "all he did was hit home runs" argument, which I've heard in regards to McGwire as well.

If that was a basis for keeping someone out of the Hall, Harmon Killebrew, Ernie Banks and Ralph Kiner would have never gotten in.

It's the PEDs, plain and simple.

 

Well, and the corked bat - he got caught using that in a game. I imagine that makes him different in the minds of plenty of voters vs. Bagwell (and the whisper campaign against him) or Bonds and Clemens (who have strong circumstantial cases against them).

Sosa's case basically breaks down to six years, from 1998 to 2003, when his OPS+ was about 162, he won an MVP, and he finished Top 10 in the balloting all six years. He also had some good to very good years from 1992 to 1997.

 

BBWAA president Derrick Goold's ballot:
Goold: 10 who deserved a Hall of Fame vote : Sports

 

The difference with McGwire is that 1. he was a home run hitter from his rookie season on, it didn't come out of nowhere, 2. he walked a ton, while Sosa did not, and 3. he played an average to gold glove winning defense, while Sosa was at best an average defender.

Sosa's career numbers are as follows: 1,475 runs, 2,408 hits, 379 doubles, 609 homers, 1,667 RBI, 234 steals, 929 BBs, 2,306 Ks, .273 AVG, 3.44 OBP, .534 SLG, 128 OPS+, 58.4 WAR

There is only one category there that screams Hall of Fame. And if you believe he cheated to get those home runs, it knocks down the runs, hits, homers and RBI categories even more.

 

That's 80% of a really good ballot.

 

Has anyone bragged yet about not voting for Griffey?