I like the idiocy tag. What a joke.

Kenny Lofton and Bernie Williams off the ballot now. FAIL.

So maybe everyone can write and talk about baseball now, rather than this "who-is-better-than-whom" nonsense?

Amen, Mark.

Cross posted from the Gizmo:

Biggio -2, Piazza -2.5, Raines -7, Bagwell even, Morris +8

Unbelievable.

Bernie?

Shooty, would you have found space to vote for him on a 10 player ballot? I know I couldn't, not on one as stacked as this.

This is dumb. Can it be March now? Ugh. And people are sitting around happy for screwing over many, many deserving people.

Congrats are in order to the BBWAA. They got what they wanted.

The Hall of Fame? Not so much.

Hopefully something good can come of this, which would be relieving the BBWAA of a right and a privilege for which it has no appreciation in any sense of the word.

Shooty, would you have found space to vote for him on a 10 player ballot? I know I couldn't, not on one as stacked as this.

Plenty of ballots didn't go to 10 names. The steroids haters could have easily found room on their ballots for Lofton or Williams. The blank ballot morons did no one any favors.

Disgraceful.

How does Biggio do so much better than Piazza/Bagwell?

What a load of crap...

Good summer to plan a trip to Cooperstown if you don't like crowds or plan to make reservations.

The good news is that Morris barely inched ahead (66.6% to 67.7%) and appears very unlikely to make it next year.

The bad news is that Maddux, Thomas, Mussina and Glavine (and Jeff Kent) are joining the logjam.

Fuck you, BBWAA!

How does Biggio do so much better than Piazza/Bagwell?

Because all of the writers think Biggio is "clean", and think (assume) Piazza/Bagwell are "dirty".

Pretty sad, all around.

How does Biggio do so much better than Piazza/Bagwell?

He wasn't a home run hitter, therefore he couldn't have been a roider /sarc

Coke to slothinator

How does Biggio do so much better than Piazza/Bagwell?

Hints of roids, non-power hitter, harder to measure skills(such as defense) etc.

The BBHoF deserves this. In spades.

Ridiculous.

Presumably all of these players will have lower vote percentages last year. I still think at least one person will get in next year, but then again I thought exactly one would get in this year.

We remain pleased with their role in evaluating candidates based on the criteria we provide.”

My, what low standards you have!

Predictions on whether/how the HOF will respond? This looks utterly silly for the institution.

The good news is that Morris barely inched ahead (66.6% to 67.7%) and appears very unlikely to make it next year.

I'm to the point that I would have been happy to see both Morris and Biggio go in, reducing the logjam somewhat.

How does Biggio do so much better than Piazza/Bagwell?

Bacne forearms mumble mumble.

Well, I clicked on the link and among other things I learned that the HoF induction this year will include honoring those who were elected during WWII and who due to "wartime restrictions" never received a formal recognition. This includes Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby. Good to know it took 70 years to decide they should get such an honor.

They will also be honoring THE ENTIRE CLASS OF 1945. Good to know that after 70 years they don't know any better than to sweep this group under the rug.

Predictions on whether/how the HOF will respond? This looks utterly silly for the institution.

Something banal and supportive of the process. Don't expect much.

Predictions on whether/how the HOF will respond? This looks utterly silly for the institution.

Not much. They may increase the ballot size, but I don't think they'll do much more than that. And with Maddux going in next year and others to follow, they won't be in this position again for awhile.

Why can't the HOF overhaul the entire system. Just use a weighted vote, with a combination of writers, baseball executives and/or coaches, and fans.

each groups votes weigh 1/3 equally.

It would be a more complicated tabulation process, but completely worth it in my opinion.

Can somebody check to see what the "bounce" is for a player between year one and two? I think a lot of the non-Piazza votes are guys who wanted to keep him out on the first ballot.

Lofton only got 2 more votes than Sandy Alomar Jr. Aaron Sele got a vote.

Clemens and Bonds were lower than I'd thought: 37%. They were polling at 47%, I believe. And I predicted before the gizmo that they would get 45-55%.

Walker, McGriff, and Murphy did better than I expected: 20%.

McGwire, Mattingly, Sosa, Palmeiro still on the ballot.

Presumably all of these players will have lower vote percentages last year. I still think at least one person will get in next year, but then again I thought exactly one would get in this year.

I don't see it. Biggio goes in next year, even with the logjam.

Has anyone done the math on the ballots yet to figure out how many ballots and how many votes(and votes per ballots) were done?

Edit; 569 ballots cast. 3756 votes cast, 6.6 votes per ballot.

Just stupid...

I don't care what one's opinion on PEDs, sabermetrics, or whatever are -- there were worthy candidates on this ballot who ought to meet any reasonable criteria.

Stupid.

Are they still going to have that special TV show with interviews with the inductees? Is Shirley MacLaine available?

No irretrievable mistakes, at least.

This "not good enough for a first-ballot" ######## is tiresome.

In the St. Paul newspaper the voter (forget the name) wrote a big spread last Sunday about all of this. Noted that Bagwell and Piazza were rumored to have used steriods. There can be no doubt that such "rumors" kept enough BBWAA nazis from voting for these 2 guys to keep 'em out.

Why can't the HOF overhaul the entire system. Just use a weighted vote, with a combination of writers, baseball executives and/or coaches, and fans.

I would be very surprised if that would produce substantially different results.

I've been listening to the MLB network in the background and can't believe the level of stupidity they are spouting. You've got Harold Reynolds summing up the reason for supporting Morris "Throw out the numbers, he's a Hall of Famer." Al Leiter at least had the sense to come back with something like "Throw out the numbers? Huh, if you throw out the numbers you're a Hall of Famer and so am I. The number have to mean something." Sadly, he turned around and ruined it by giving credence to pitch to the score crap. Dumber than those two is Bob Costas and the nonsense he is spouting as fact. A few weeks ago when Costas said stupid crap during Sunday Night Football many said he should stick to sports. Well, hearing him speak about baseball I'm going to do a 180 and say he should stick to talking about gun control. To top it off they follow up by bring on one of the dumber voters Jon Heyman and he acts astonished that Morris wasn't elected. Heyman is so dense he doesn't realize it was Morris supporters like him that hurt Morris' case by voting against a far better pitcher in Blyleven. If Blyleven went in a couple years earlier Morris may have gotten in.

Guys, let's not get discouraged, just do our part, and work really hard to find people related to Deacon White.

38.8 - 39.2 - new - Schilling

38.8 pitches!

Data. The numbers go: Vote % in 2013 / Gizmo Vote % / Vote % in 2012.

68.2 - 70.1 - new - Biggio
67.7 - 59.3 - 66.7 (+1) - Morris
59.6 - 59.3 - 56.0 (+4) - Bagwell
57.8 - 60.3 - new - Piazza
52.2 - 59.8 - 48.7 (+4) - Raines
47.8 - 38.1 - 50.6 (-3) - Smith
38.8 - 39.2 - new - Schilling
37.6 - 44.3 - new - Clemens
36.2 - 45.4 - new - Bonds
35.9 - 35.6 - 36.5 (-1) - Martinez
33.6 - 37.6 - 36.8 (-3) - Trammell
21.6 - 16.5 - 22.9 (-1) - Walker
20.7 - 20.1 - 23.9 (-3) - McGriff
18.6 - 18.6 - 14.5 (+4) - Murphy
16.9 - 14.4 - 19.5 (-3) - McGwire
13.2 - 8.8 - 17.8 (-4) - Mattingly
12.5 - 13.4 - new - Sosa
8.8 - 12.9 - 12.6 (-4) - Palmeiro
3.3 - 2.1 - 9.6 (-6) - Williams
3.2 - 3.1 - new - Lofton

The small gains for Raines and Bagwell are impressive in the context of a ballot on which more returners lost a few votes. Murphy got the traditional final-year bump. Williams got the traditional second-year collapse for a marginal candidate.

Raines and the (presumed) roiders underperformed their Gizmo projections while Morris and Smith over-performed theirs. We're definitely seeing a small but real bias among published ballots toward the opinions of the BTF majority.

The Gizmo once again missed significantly low on Larry Walker and Don Mattingly. My guess is that a lot of the ghost voters just look up stats in an encyclopedia and vote for Walker based on un-adjusted Coors stats. Hell, I'll take it. (With Mattingly, it's all about the ridiculous percentage of retired BBWAA members who worked in NYC.)

My first reaction was, "Good - maybe now the BBWAA will reconsider the role of sportswriters in the election process." Then I read this from the Hall of Fame's president, Jeff Idelson:

"We remain pleased with their role in evaluating candidates based on the criteria we provide.”

Ugh. We'll see how pleased he is - and perhaps more importantly, how happy all the local businesses in Cooperstown are - with the crowd, or lack of it, at the induction ceremony this year.

Surprised to see that Larry Walker joins Mattingly, Morris and Lee Smith among those with disproportionate support from the old farts who don't publicize their ballots.

Larry Walker? Wouldn't the response from Mattingly fans be "Sure his stats look nice, but take him out of Coors and he's Ray Lankford" or something?

Then I read this from the BBWAA's president, Jeff Idelson:

You mean the Hall's president.

Was there any change to the voting process after no one was elected in 96?

No irretrievable mistakes, at least.

Well, Lofton is no gimme -- and Bernie is probably not a Hall of Fame -- but Lofton, at least, I think deserves a lot more than being a one-and-done afterthought discussion.... which is what he turned into.

The steroids haters could have easily found room on their ballots for Lofton or Williams.

Why would they? Bernie played with Roger and Andy. They're not mad at certain players, they're blackballing an entire era.

Larry Walker? Wouldn't the response from Mattingly fans be "Sure his stats look nice, but take him out of Coors and he's Ray Lankford" or something?

Just repeating myself, but this presumes that the ghost voters (a) know what a park factor is, (b) remember that Larry Walker played in Colorado, and (c) put (a) and (b) together.

The steroids haters could have easily found room on their ballots for Lofton or Williams.



Why would they? Bernie played with Roger and Andy. They're not mad at certain players, they're blackballing an entire era.

OK, then Trammell.