Maddux, Glavine, Thomas elected to Baseball Hall of Fame; Biggio just misses

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Right. And that's why I don't understand the outsized consternation about this. Who hasn't made it, eventually, that deserved to make it? The names I can think of are largely borderline guys: Dick Allen. Dwight Evans. Tim Raines, who will get in eventually. Maybe a Luis Tiant.

There are a lot of reasons voters wait on guys. The biggest one, by orders of magnitude: Because they can. Electing someone to the HOF is a big decision, and people like to procrastinate on big decisions. Or they like to let someone else make the big decisions. The BBWAA is not some particularly dunderheaded voting body. It is demonstrating an inherent human bias in favor of inaction over action, no different than - and this is proven - umpires who are less likely to call a pitch a strike when the result would be to ring a guy up than when the result would merely be strike 1 or strike 2.

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

You are trying to justify it by saying it is as acceptable as an umpire failing to make what he thinks is the right call?

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Not exactly.

I'm saying that the rancor directed at the BBWAA as some sort of particularly misguided institution is misplaced. What we are witnessing is human nature playing itself out, as evidenced by comparable behavior in comparable situations in other endeavors, including umpiring.

Is it a bad result that deserving players sometimes have to wait for election? I guess that depends on whether you believe that there is some stigma that attaches to a player not elected to the HOF on his first or second or third try, and whether you believe that it's a problem that, as follows, there are "levels" to the HOF, and this is how the levels are created.

P.S. To clarify, I don't think that the umpires, for the most part, consciously believe they are making the wrong call in those situations. I think they are unconsciously acting out a kind of status quo bias to keep the at-bat alive and "let the players decide."

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Actually, the pitcher throwing a strike did decide it. I just don't think that comparison helps your argument at all. In fact, it seems to do the opposite. If the umpire knows a pitch is a strike, he should call it a strike. If a voter thinks a guy is a Hall of Famer, he should vote for him.

When you start getting into other bullshit, that's when people do the wrong thing.

I think misusing votes is disrespecting the process, whether it ultimately keeps a guy out or not. When you have large enough groups misusing their votes, such as the voters who are more worried about making sure they punish every PED user out there, then perhaps it could keep a borderline player out.

Obviously, the schmuck who refuses to ever vote for any player in his first year of eligibility to ensure that no player ever gets 100 percent of the vote isn't going to keep Greg Maddux out of the Hall of Fame, just as those same fools didn't keep other no-brainers out in the past. But it is part of an overall problem with the process. We put a high value on the Hall of Fame, so how the voters handle the process matters.

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

I am hypothesizing that the umpire doesn't know the pitch is a strike - he convinces himself that it's not one, because of status quo bias.

And the HOF voter hasn't decided that, say, Craig Biggio is a HOFer, then decided not to vote for him. He has simply tabled the decision in Craig Biggio to a subsequent year. Why? Because he can.

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Whether it's a conscious thing or not, the umpire in your example is making the wrong call. That's not a good thing.

I can understand a voter saying he or she needs more time on a player. I don't agree with it, but I get it.

What I have an issue with is other considerations such as keeping players from getting 100 percent of the vote or punishing even those suspected of PED use, regardless of whether there is evidence or not. Both are inappropriate uses of the vote whether they ultimately keep anybody out or not.

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Out of 17 ballots I've seen, 159 of the 170 slots have been filled. And six of the ones that haven't are on that terrible Juan Vene ballot.

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

I wonder how many voters are saying "I'd vote for Maddux, he deserves to be a unanimous choice, but he doesn't deserve to be the 1st unanimous choice."

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Not many, I'd venture.

Tom Seaver was left off of five ballots. Three of them were blank ballots returned to protest Pete Rose's exclusion from the ballot.

Tom Seaver: 311-205, 2.86 ERA (127 ERA+), 4,783 IP, 3,640 SO, 3 CYs, ROY
Greg Maddux: 355-227, 3.16 ERA (132 ERA+), 5,008 IP, 3,371 SO, 4 CYs

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Hope you're right. I'm wondering if those 5 voters ever told Seaver, personally, why they didn't think he deserved their HOF vote?

Those 3 that protested Rose's exclusion they should have resigned rather than screw others.

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Maybe those two just made an oversight? In 500-plus ballots, it would be an upset if there was not an oversight.

Two guys out of 500-plus voters is strong evidence to me that there is not a cabal of guardians at the gate protecting against a unanimous pick. There might not even be a single voter who cares about that. You read sites like Deadspin and Fangraphs, and they state as uncontroverted fact that there are voters who don't want a unanimous pick. But no one that I can find has ever been quoted saying so.

They can't find one guy?

 

Re: 2014 BBWAA Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Even if they find that guy, like you said earlier, there aren't any glaring omissions from the Hall. The only potential controversial outsiders are borderline guys anyway. The system isn't broken. At least prior to the Steroids Era. As for the steroid guys, I see multiple arguments with merit. For inclusion and exclusion. Which is going to lead to exclusion.