BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot Counter

UPDATED AS THEY COME IN!

% on 85 Full Ballots

  98.8 - Rickey Henderson
  82.4 - Jim Rice
  76.5 - Bert Blyleven
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  68.2 - Andre Dawson
  48.2 - Jack Morris
  36.5 - Lee Smith
  28.2 - Tim Raines
  25.9 - Alan Trammell
  23.5 - Tommy John
  20.0 - Mark McGwire     

After 98 Partial/Full HOF Ballots  (85 Full & 13 Partials)

94 - Rickey Henderson                              
75 - Jim Rice
66 - Bert Blyleven  
60 - Andre Dawson
46 - Jack Morris
31 - Lee Smith
24 - Tim Raines
22 - Alan Trammell
20 - Tommy John
20 - Mark McGwire
 7 - Dale Murphy
 5 - Don Mattingly
 5 - Harold Baines
 4 - Dave Parker
 1 - David Cone
 1 - Matt Williams
 1 - Mark Grace
 1 - Pete Rose (Write-In) 

NBC: Blyleven: Waiting on the Hall’s call

Well...at least Bert has all the comforts of home while he’s waiting…

Of course time is running out (after 15 years a player comes off the ballot) but I know Bruce Sutter wasn’t elected until his 13th year on the ballot. And over the last three or four years there have been a lot of positives like some writers and baseball analysts more clearly bringing to light the lack of run support I had especially early in my career. My first eight years in the majors where frustrating because I lost so many close, low scoring games. I’ve seen it written that had I had average run support over those eight seasons, I would have won 340 games in my career.

Over the years I have mellowed a lot and come to realize that those with ballots from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America are going to vote the way they want and getting angry over it wasn’t helping me. Is venting the right thing to do? I don’t know. I guess every player’s personality is different.

People have asked me should the procedure for being elected to the Hall of Fame be different. They have asked if the writers shouldn’t be the ones voting. Should it be the players or a group of Hall of Famers? My answer is no. The writers earned the right to vote for the Hall of Fame so even though I’m frustrated I say leave the process the way it is. It’s been that way forever so leave it alone.

Nats Draw Line With Dunn, Hudson

Though the Washington Nationals’ pursuit of its top free agent targets—Adam Dunn and Orlando Hudson—has not been called off, the team is discouraged about its chances of signing either, one well-placed source said yesterday. For now, Dunn and Hudson are asking for contracts larger than Washington anticipated. And larger than Washington is willing to pay.

That leaves Nationals officials with two options. Either they wait for Dunn’s and Hudson’s demands to drop—both, for the moment, are said to be asking for longer and pricier deals than those signed earlier this week by Milton Bradley (three years, $30 million) and Pat Burrell (two years, $16 million)—or, they dedicate the rest of their offseason attention to trades and lesser free agents.

“The demands of those players,” one source said, referencing not only Dunn and Hudson, but also free agent pitcher Randy Wolf, “have them concentrating more on trades now.”

Thanks to Strohsmayer Lansky.

Josh Byrnes chats online with fans

angrytick: Hello Mr. Byrnes. I think the No. 1 priority in all D-back fans’ minds is to lock up Brandon Webb long term.

Byrnes: We have two more years of contractual control on Webby. Fortunately, that is a fair amount of time to make the best decision for both parties. Three years ago, we signed Webby to a five-year contract, and he has performed at an extraordinarily high level throughout this contract. We will certainly take great care to make the best decision for him and our team construction heading into the next decade.

HavasuFan: Will there be any emphasis on patience behind the plate this season? With the exception of Connor Jackson, it seems many of our hitters have never met a first pitch they didn’t like. That results in players breaking strike out records.

Byrnes: Good question. Actually, our BB totals were very strong. Unfortunately, our SO totals were too high. In a perfect world, there is a relationship between BB/SO/HR output in players. For practical purposes, many of our hitters are learning at-bat management and balancing aggressiveness with patience.

Corky Simpson: I made a mistake not voting for Rickey Henderson

It remains to be seen how close Rickey Henderson comes to being the first unanimous selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but the one sportswriter who publicly disclosed that he didn’t vote for Henderson already has admitted he made a mistake.

Corky Simpson, a retired Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen columnist, told the Bay Area News Group Thursday that unlike the bold stand he took in the 1992 AP college football poll, he ``simply goofed’’ leaving Henderson off his Hall of Fame ballot and wishes he had a chance to do it all over again.

``Rickey deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and if I had my ballot back, he’d have a shot at unanimity—and I wouldn’t be hated by quite so many people,’’ Simpson said.

...``First things first, would I vote for Rickey if I had it to do all over again? Damn right, I would,’’ Simpson said. ``I had no idea my ballot would cause such an uproar.

``I’ll bet it was worse than when 98 people failed to vote for Catfish Hunter some 22 years ago,’’ he added. ``The blogosphere would have exploded if it had been around when 43 people failed to vote for Mickey Mantle, 23 for Willie Mays, 36 for Jackie Robinson, nine for Hank Aaron, 31 for Roberto Clemente, 57 for Yogi Berra, 23 for Stan Musial, 20 for Ted Williams and 28 for Joe DiMaggio.’’

And don’t get me started with the nickers at Home Run Derby…

Before football, Florida coach Urban Meyer made minor try at baseball

No warm, way-back-when yarns of playing infield with future stars Ron Gant and Mark Lemke. No tender, coming-of-age tales about riding a rickety bus, making do with US$5 in meal money at McDonald’s.

Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1982 ahead of Jose Canseco and Bret Saberhagen, the Florida Gators football coach spent two seasons in the low minors.

His stats tell part of the story: a .182 batting average, 17 errors in only 44 games. Meyer fills in the rest, and it’s easy to hear a teenager’s torment.

“I was completely overwhelmed,” Meyer said before his No. 1 Gators faced No. 2 Oklahoma for the BCS championship Thursday night. “I came from a small town where they threw the lob ball to you and they gave you a big aluminum bat. Then they give you a wooden bat and you see an 88 mile-an-hour slider.”

“I didn’t draw much from that experience other than I was very unhappy. I wanted to quit and I had great advice from home not to quit, in a very direct manner,” he said.

In fact, Meyer’s dad put it this way: Go ahead and walk away if you want, but you won’t be welcome in this house ever again.

“It can be a torturous game,” Lemke said last week.

He hit two triples though!

Flickr collection of Tiger Stadium photos

Stumbled across this surreal and sad collection of Tiger Stadium photos today. Why is it surreal? Well, it is because amongst all the depressing photos of the half-demolished palace, there are photos of it back in the day.

Rosenthal: Forget OBP, Dawson’s still a Hall of Famer

They’re driving me insane
Those sabermen inside my brain

The sabermetric police, they live inside of my head

People want to talk about his OBP? Please, someone call off the sabermetric police. And soon.

Bert Blyleven
Andre Dawson
Rickey Henderson
Tim Raines
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell

AJC: ‘Frustrated’ Chipper Questions Braves’ Dealings with Smoltz

Q. You worried now about how things might end with you?

A. I don’t know how it’s going to end with me. This is my last year under contract with Atlanta. And this last 24 hours certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by me. I haven’t been offered an extension. If we’re 15 games out in July or August, I doubt they’re just going to let me become a free agent and get nothing in return.”

Q. So you’re preparing yourself to be traded?

A. It’s not beyond the realm of possibilities.

Q. Were you expecting the Braves to make you an offer for an extension this winter?

A. I was told that it was going to happen by the Braves.

Q. Do you think it still might?

A. We’ve got over a month until spring training. Yeah, it could certainly happen. I’ve just been chalking it up to the Braves have bigger fish to fry. But it seems like somebody keeps coming along and eating all our fish.

‘MLB 09 The Show’ (ALL) Cover Athlete Signed- It is Pedroia!

“Dustin Pedroia has made a tremendous impact on an already storied Boston Red Sox organization and was an integral part to their 2007 World Series victory,” said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President, Product Marketing, SCEA. “We are excited to have him become part of our MLB franchise, represent MLB 09 The Show, and join the impressive roster of MLB stars who have served as previous cover athletes.”

kevin already has his copy on hold!

Braves CEO ‘shocked’ by Smoltz’s decision

“John is a great guy. He follows his own head, and I just don’t know what’s going on with him right now,” Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk said today. “We’ve offered less of a guarantee, but we’ve offered a substantial guarantee. Coming off an injury like this, we feel like it’s the right thing that we should be doing (in regards to our offer).

“We’ve offered him a package that would get him in the $10 million range, if he were to pitch a full season and pitch well. For him to walk away from that and to go to another place, I’m just shocked and surprised.

“I read today in something that his agent said the other set of incentives (from the Red Sox) were “more attainable.” If John Smoltz pitches like John Smoltz pitches, I think (what we offered) is attainable. If he’s not healthy, it’s not going to happen.”

According to a person familiar with the situation, Smoltz would have been required to pitch 200 innings next season to reach the maximum incentives in the Braves’ offer. Incentives in the Red Sox proposal are more easily attainable.

Smoltz made $14 million last season and had a 2.00 ERA in five starts before throbbing pain in his shoulder forced him to the disabled list.

This Braves off season is just bizarre. The Braves are acting like the jlinted Bride with each new signing related to them in some fashion.

Yankees swing for bling in new plan

More than a quarter of the $370 million in taxpayer financing in the Yankees’ latest demand would go to shiny new toys like giant video screens and upgraded luxury suites, documents show.

Nearly $95 million is for “scope modifications” - items not in the team’s original plan when it got $942million in tax-exempt bonds via the city.

The city says the project will more than pay for itself by revitalizing a rundown area of the Bronx.

Yesterday, critics of the stadium’s public subsidy, including Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, (D-Westchester) struck out at the baseball team’s latest demand. It comes as tax revenue is dwindling and Mayor Bloomberg has ordered all agencies to trim their budgets.

“When we’re broke and we can’t fund the MTA and we can’t fund schools, to give the Yankees another $400 million is bizarre,” Brodsky said.

Bloomberg testily refused to respond to the criticism. “I just don’t have enough time to answer every one of Brodsky’s complaints,” he said.

Punk band rocks through ‘Meet The Mets’ cover (Video)

If this is punk...I’m handing in my Greg Groovie and the Muffdivers button!

Braves target Lowe after losing Smoltz

The Atlanta Braves, about to lose franchise icon John Smoltz to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, have emerged as bidders for free-agent right-hander Derek Lowe, contending with their NL East rivals, the New York Mets, for the sinkerballer’s services.

The Braves had shown scant interest in Lowe, instead focusing on trade talks for Padres right-hander Jake Peavy that fell apart more than a month ago and are unlikely to be reignited. They acquired right-hander Javier Vazquez from the White Sox, then turned to free-agent righty A.J. Burnett, but when the Braves wouldn’t guarantee a fifth year, Burnett signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the New York Yankees.

The Braves, one of the few teams left with money to spend this offseason, have zeroed in on Lowe, who reportedly had been seeking a long-term deal for $16 million a year but whose price appears to have dropped now that he no longer has the leverage of the Yankees as potential bidders.

The Mets reportedly offered Lowe a three-year deal for $36 million, and talks are ongoing, but the Braves’ interest is significant, according to a source close to negotiations.

Surprise Find: A 139-Year-Old Baseball Card

A “find” of a baseball card from the earliest days of professional baseball

Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.

She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. “Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati,” the card said, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.

It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it’s her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.

It’s what Bernice, 72, and her husband Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their antiques store in the Fresno, Calif., Tower District full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.

She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.

Reusse: Twins general manager becomes ‘Mr. Invisible’

McCallum what you want...he still wins!

Bill Smith kept track of the nickels when he was Terry Ryan’s right-hand man in the baseball operation. He carried the nickname “Mr. No,” based on his response to most spending requests during which he had authority.

Now in his second season as the boss, Smith is working on another nickname: “Mr. Invisible.”

The Twins can rattle off excuses for going undercover during free agency, but some of us blame it on Smith being shell-shocked after the failure of last winter’s more forceful approach.

...One and two are sorry excuses, since Smith is millions under what this generation of Pohlads would be willing to have for a 2009 payroll, and the Twins have missed on enough expensive first-rounders that an elite setup guy such as Cruz would be worth sitting it out this time.

Five weeks from spring training, Smith’s second offseason needs to gather momentum to reach abysmal.

1-8 Morning WBC News: Fuentes, Byun-Hyun Kim, etc.

(Link: Brian Fuentes article)

Despite being a new member of the Angels, Brian Fuentes has accepted a invite for Team USA. I wouldn’t be shocked if this were to change.

Byung-Hyun Kim is looking to recover his form in the WBC.

Finally, Charlie Montoyo will be a coach for Puerto Rico.

Davidoff: Pettitte not happy with Yankees right now

Super Happy Fun Land!

Andy Pettitte is extremely unhappy with how his negotiations have gone with the Yankees, and the lefthander might be softening on his opposition to rejoining the Astros.

What once seemed a fait accompli - Pettitte returning to the Yankees for a 12th season in pinstripes - now appears increasingly in jeopardy, although the two sides continue to communicate and they ultimately rank as each other’s first choice.

...Now, however, the Yankees seem to head Pettitte’s enemies list. The Astros have done very little this offseason, vowing financial restraint in light of the national economy. Yet Pettitte has a strong relationship with Houston ace Roy Oswalt, who in turn has a good relationship with Astros owner Drayton McLane. The Astros could stretch their payroll to make room for the Houston resident Pettitte.

Then The Yankees Rolled In

George Bailey is no match for Hank Steinbrenner:

Bailey, down on his luck and desperate, decides to jump off a bridge so his family can collect on his life insurance. Just before, an Angel-second-class named Clarence gets assigned the job of helping Bailey see that his life is worth living. Clarence is excited for a chance to earn his wings.

Then the Yankees rolled in, signed the entire legion of Angels in heaven to exclusive contracts and purchased an exclusive license from God Almighty for a moratorium on all new angel wings. In anger, Clarence watched George Bailey jump into the cold waters of Bedford Falls, and then Clarence jumped in and held Bailey’s head under the water until he was fully and completely dead.

Primer Dugout 1-8-09

Happy Birthday to Bruce Sutter.

Dewan: Top ten reasons to like what the Cubs are doing this winter

Paul Shaffer makes my crawling skin crawl. That is all.

#7—Milton Bradley may have been a DH for Texas last year, but he can play a decent outfield. He’s played all three outfield positions in the last three years. His plus/minus over that time is zero, meaning he’s an average outfielder; not below average. He’ll be fine in right field for the Cubs.

#6—Without Bradley the Cubs would have to play two of these three: Felix Pie, Reed Johnson and Kosuke Fukudome. Pie’s OPS (On Base + Slugging) for next year projects to be .756, Johnson projects to .735, and Fukudome projects to .802. One of the two lineup slots will be replaced by Bradley’s projected .879 OPS, and the Cubs will benefit by adding lots of offense.

#5—Steve Stone (best analyst in baseball—bar none) said Bradley’s numbers were padded in Texas. Sure enough, the Texas ballpark run factor for the last three years is 107 meaning 7% more runs are scored in Texas home games than road games. Wrigley field’s factor is 110 and even BETTER than that of Texas so, while we are projecting less than the .999 OPS Bradley just had in his caree

NBC: Robinson: Don’t deny Rice the Hall of Fame

Good luck, 49ers! Punt, pass and catch yourself chewing flammables...he’s all yours now!

What do we glean from these numbers? Blyleven had statistical quality, excelling in so many areas that measure pitchers. (Strikeouts are not mentioned here although it is the number most often quoted in support of Blyleven.

Personal bias: I have never understood nor has anyone rationally convinced me how strikeout totals validate the relative worth of a starting pitcher. Why did these stats fail to translate into more wins? I was shocked at the low rank for Blyleven in each category tied to games won, especially the years winning half of your starts.

Personal bias 2: I like Blyleven and hope he is elected. Thus, I acknowledge the last voters standing in Blyleven’s path may be wrestling with that very question. Why didn’t he win more games? Run support is the oft-cited answer (my Elias Sports Bureau sage, Rob Tracy, told me Blyleven had one of the lowest career run support totals in history.) Then I think of Tom Seaver, a pitcher whose first 11 seasons were with the run-challenged Mets, preaching that if a starter gets one run of support, he must pitch a shutout. If he gets two runs, he must hold the opponent to one. There does seem some validity to that concept when talking about the game’s greatest honor.

BPro: Jacques: Euphemistically Speaking, the MLB Network

Derek Jacques finds fault with the MLB Network...all without ever mentioning the wee ARF escapee sleeping on Joe Magrane’s head.

However, there was a stray phrase in one segment of Tuesday’s Hot Stove that made me do a double-take, and risks dampening my enthusiasm for the network as a whole. The segment was about the Yankees‘ history of spending on high-profile free agents. In it, reporter Greg Amsinger divided the Steinbrenner era into four parts–1973-1981, when the team spent on premier free agents like Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage and Dave Winfield, and won championships; 1982-1995, when the team “join[ed] other franchises in self-restraint and a change of philosophy that led to a title drought in the 80s;” 1996-2000, when the team built from within and used mid-market signings to become a champion again; and 2001-present, when the Yankees have been on a fruitless spending spree with no end in sight.

If the quotes didn’t give it away, it’s the description of that second part that rubbed me the wrong way. Set aside that the description doesn’t quite fit the time period carved out–the Yankees spent freely on the market for all but a short part of that fourteen-year period–the fact is, there’s a very specific term for the “change in philosophy” that caused the Yankees to briefly join other franchises in “self restraint.” It was called collusion, a dark period when baseball’s owners brazenly violated their labor agreement with the players, and had to be ordered to pay nearly $300 million in damages as a result.

I’m hoping that the “c-word” just slipped Amsinger’s mind while preparing the segment. Otherwise, it’s a real unpromising sign of what we can expect from the MLB Network going forward. Collusion wasn’t self-restraint, it was an illegal agreement between baseball’s clubs to restrain each other. More importantly, the collusion era is old news–if the MLB Network is going to put a glossy pro-ownership spin on embarrassing events that happened over 20 years ago, how can we trust them to report reliably on current events?

MLB.com: Hoffman, Brewers close in on deal

The Brewers are nearing a deal to sign free-agent closer Trevor Hoffman, a baseball source close to the negotiations told MLB.com in the wee hours on Thursday morning.

The one-year deal with an option for 2010 would move “Trevor Time” and the all-time leader with 554 saves from San Diego to Milwaukee.

“It’s pretty close. It looks like it’s going to happen,” the source said.

Seattle Times: Baker: The great divide

Starting at the Youcon Territory...Geoff Baker goes off.

There was very little dissension from the pack in those days. You either believed that Ricciardi was a genius, a guy who could have written “Moneyball’’ on his own if Michael Lewis hadn’t beaten him to it, or you were out of touch. In fact, even some of us who questioned Ricciardi early on found ourselves wondering if we really had been left behind. If our views were too clouded by “old school” thinking.

Nowadays, of course, things have changed. Ricciardi is almost universally loathed by the Toronto fan base, still waiting for him to deliver on his “Five year Plan’’—now heading into Year 8. Right-hand man Law and Ricciardi had a much-publicized falling out, with the former heading back to the media world. Ricciardi, while not exactly repudiating Moneyball, has gone out of his way to recast himself as a “scouts GM’’ who values tools as much as any spreadsheet. And why not? After all, his baseball team has stopped trying to portray itself as “The Little Engine That Could”, getting by on $50 million payrolls, and now spends money up near $100 million just like everyone else in the AL East save the Rays.

The first three-plus years of the Ricciardi regime amounted to a pile of B.S....

38 Pitches: Schilling: CHB plays the fool, again

Woo-Hoo!....I haven’t seen a Bostonian this ticked off since Mono Man Conolly’s money belt exploded at Maxwell’s!

Your ‘inside’ sources are crap because you and pretty much everyone else had no idea how the 2007-08 off season went and the events that occurred during that time frame. Your ‘hit and run’ journalism is so far beyond tired and boring it’s laughable.

After all these years and all that crap you’re now on the moral high ground? I have yet to hear the full story from anyone regarding both sides of this story so I can wait until then. How is it though that after all these years you can take this stance? You of all people know how sports and contracts work. It’s not, and never will be, like the ‘Real World’ right? It can’t be. You want contracts to be two-sided when far more teams and schools throw loyalty out the window than any number of athletes ever could. Loyalty in your sense of the word is a selfish and personal thing. It’s only ‘loyalty’ if it offends or pleases you.

Looking back on the Rocket’s tenure here I can’t decide when you hated him, when you loved him, when you hated the Sox and when you loved them. You flip-flop more than an epileptic toad.

Do you stand for anything? Truly? I know life’s been a challenge since that ‘group of frauds’ won it all in 2004 and destroyed a thing you’d created, but someone with your talent in writing certainly has better things to do, or at least more meaningful ones right?

Bill Plaschke: Dodgers are playing the Manny Ramirez game perfectly

We knew it would be a tightrope.

We had no idea it would stretch into January.We knew the Dodgers had the money and the attitude.

We had no idea they had the stomach.

They do. It has served them well. The Dodgers have found the perfect balance in this perilous walk toward Manny Ramirez, weathering the hot stove’s blasts, enduring the Boras spin, stepping through thick smoke screens to come within a few yards of a dreadlocked destination.

Now, if they can only keep their balance and finish it.

Finish it by signing Ramirez to the same two-year, $45-million deal they offered him two months ago—just enough to keep him hungry, their fans happy, and the team contending.

Anything longer will turn Ramirez back into a dog. Anything richer will make the Dodgers look like fools.

Nobody will give him more. No other place will love him more. If he can get a better deal elsewhere, fine, but so far, he hasn’t, and here’s guessing he won’t.

Two years, and the Dodgers can ensure he will keep trying, while Ramirez can be assured fans will keep cheering.

Two years, and everyone is happy but five-year-seeking Scott Boras, whose winter commission dollars will be reduced to a gazillion.

Rosenthal: Sources: Red Sox nearing deal with Smoltz

John Smoltz is leaving Atlanta for the most stunning of destinations.

The Boston Red Sox.

Smoltz, 41, is on the verge of signing a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Red Sox, according to major-league sources.

The deal also will include $4.5 million in incentives, giving Smoltz the chance to earn a total of $10 million, sources said.

With Smoltz, who is coming off shoulder surgery, the Red Sox would have six veteran starters.

The team’s rotation currently includes Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield and Brad Penny.

Thanks to Schuck Chilling

MLB: Baldelli will join ‘hometown’ Red Sox

Well...half the DiMaggio deal is in place.

Rocco Baldelli all along had planned to attend Boston’s baseball writers awards banquet on Thursday night, to accept an honor reflecting his courageous battle back from injury.

Apparently, Baldelli will also receive something else: a contract to play for the Red Sox.

A popular option for Boston’s outfield ever since Coco Crisp was dealt away, the Rhode Island-born outfielder has agreed to terms with the Red Sox, according to a Wednesday night report by ESPN.com.

The deal is expected to be announced at the Thursday night social function, which would provide a properly dramatic forum for a man who has dealt with a debilitating illness for years and whom the Red Sox have always regarded a hometown guy.

espn: McClatchy steps away from Pirates

Former Pirates managing general partner Kevin McClatchy has sold his remaining shares in the team, ending a 13-year relationship that began with the newspaper heir ensuring that the club remained in Pittsburgh…
“While this move will mark the end of Kevin’s direct involvement with the Pirates after more than 13 years, he will always remain a part of the Pirates family,” Nutting said in a statement. “He has made a lasting positive impact on the Pirates and our city. On behalf of the entire organization, I personally thank him for all he has done for the cub and the city of Pittsburgh.”

Does this even change anything?