Hall of Merit: Mock 2018 Hall of Fame Election Results

BBTF would elect Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Chipper Jones, Mike Mussina, Curt Schilling, Jim Thome and Larry Walker to the Hall of Fame.

Player Name	Votes	Percent
Chipper Jones	59	97%
Jim Thome	59	97%
Roger Clemens	57	93%
Barry Bonds	56	92%
Curt Schilling	56	92%
Mike Mussina	55	90%
Larry Walker	48	79%
Edgar Martinez	45	74%
Scott Rolen	40	66%
Vlad Guerrero	37	61%
Manny Ramirez	31	51%
Sammy Sosa	14	23%
Jeff Kent	6	10%
Gary Sheffield	6	10%
Johan Santana	5	8%
Billy Wagner	5	8%
Trevor ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2010 Ballot

For 2010 each voter should rank the top 15 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 3 January 2018.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If you have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 2 January 2018.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Gonfalon Cubs: Status of the Roster mid-December

Figured it was a good time for a new thread, but it’s also time to take a step back and look at how things stand for the Cubs right now.  The Cubs still have some moves to make, though they could field a 25 man roster today if they absolutely had to. 

Catchers
Contreras, TBD. 

I haven’t seen many rumors linking the Cubs to any backup catcher FAs as of yet.  Obviously, Caratini is an option, but as we’ve gone over before it would appear the Cubs are enamoured/comfortable with his defense ...

Hall of Merit: Mock Hall of Fame Ballot 2018

IMPORTANT: Please read:

This election should follow BBWAA rules, not Hall of Merit rules. However, we hope to see only players that each voter feels belong on their ballots. Leaving 1st-year candidates off your ballot is also frowned upon. IOW, we would like to see an absence of some of the silliness that permeates Hall of Fame voting by the writers.

The election will end Friday on December 22, 2017 (1 PM EST). Results will be posted a short time later.

Please don’t post any vote tallies ...

Primate Studies: Loser Scores 2017

The fine print:

Bill James came up with Loser Scores after the 2010 season, in an effort to measure how the Pirates’ string of losing seasons compared to other lengthy stretches of bad baseball. I’ve updated the totals every year since then.

You compute Loser Scores in this fashion:

1. A team that has a losing season adds to its Loser Score the total of games under .500, plus the number of consecutive seasons that the team has been under .500.
2. A team that has a .500 or better season ...

Sox Therapy: A Container of Milk, A Loaf of Bread and a Dude Who Can Hit Home Runs

Dave Dombrowski heads to Orlando for the winter meetings with a bit of a shopping list.  Despite a fairly set roster (see see vi’s previous post) the Sox’ de facto GM (this title inflation around the league is annoying) has some work to do.

1. D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! - Yup, we need Homers (see what I did there?  Top notch stuff at Sox Therapy).  The market may have gotten a bit more challenging with the Yankees acquisition of Stanton.  I think the Yanks were only interested because Stanton ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2010 Discussion

Giants beat the Rangers 4 games to 1 in the World Series. Vote for 15.

Player Name		SH WS		bWAR
Josh Hamilton		30.2		8.7
Evan Longoria		32.8		8.1
Robinson Cano		35.3		8.1
Adrian Beltre		25.0		7.8
Albert Pujols		32.9		7.5
Brett Gardner		18.7		7.4
Carl Crawford		30.7		7.0
Jose Bautista		32.5		7.0
Joey Votto		30.9		6.9
Troy Tulowitzki		24.9		6.7
Miguel Cabrera		29.9		6.5
Jason Heyward		22.5		6.4
Ryan Zimmerman		22.4		6.2
Carlos Gonzalez		24.9		5.9
Matt Holliday		28.2		5.9
Shin-Soo ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2017 Results

Congratulations to Jose Altuve - the 2017 Most Meritorious Player

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Jose Altuve	117	8	5
Aaron Judge	109	8	2
Giancarlo Stanton	89	8	0
Joey Votto	86	8	0
Mike Trout	84	8	1
Corey Kluber	77	8	0
Charlie Blackmon	62	7	0
Jose Ramirez	52	8	0
Kris Bryant	46	7	0
Max Scherzer	45	6	0
Carlos Correa	37	7	0
Nolan Arenado	34	5	0
Anthony Rendon	20	4	0
Chris Sale	18	5	0
Stephen Strasburg	18	4	0
Justin Verlander	12	2	0
Paul Goldschmidt	11	4	0
Justin Turner	11	4	0
Tommy ...

Hall of Merit: 2018 Hall of Merit Ballot

Welcome to the 2018 Hall of Merit Ballot thread. Balloting is open from now (December 5) through December 18 27, 2016 at 8 p.m. EST.

I’ve posted this the last several of years, but as a reminder:

“This has been an issue in the past, so I’ll repeat it now for clarification . . . the posting of the ballot to the discussion thread for new voters is not just a formality. With the posting of the ballot you are expected to post a summary of what you take into account - basically, how did you ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2017 Ballot

Here are the specific rules for this election:

Candidate Eligibility: Any North American professional baseball player is eligible for the Most Meritorious Player (MMP) award including players on independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to Major League Baseball (MLB) team(s) in that season only. If part of the season was spent outside MLB, that value may be considered as well. However, the player’s on-field contribution should be judged in relation to the ...