2014 Hall of Merit Ballot

Welcome to the 2014 Hall of Merit Ballot thread.

I’ve posted this the last couple 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 come up with this list? This does not mean that you need to have invented the Holy Grail of uber-stats. You don’t need a numerical rating down to the hundredth decimal point. You do need to treat all eras of baseball history fairly. You do need to stick to what happened on the field (or what would have happened if wars and strikes and such hadn’t gotten in the way). You may be challenged and ask to defend your position, if someone notices internal inconsistencies, flaws in your logic, etc.. This is all a part of the learning process.

It isn’t an easy thing to submit a ballot, but that’s by design. Not because we don’t want to grow our numbers (though we’ve done just fine there, started with 29 voters in 1898, and passed 50 eventually), not because we want to shut out other voices. It’s because we want informed voters making informed decisions on the entire electorate, not just the players they remember.”

So if you are up for this, we’d love to have you! Even if you aren’t up to voting, we’d still appreciate your thoughts in the discussion. Some of our greatest contributors haven’t or have only rarely voted.

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Voters should name 15 players, in order. Thanks!

Don’t forget to comment on everyone returning from last year’s top ten. As a reminder those guys are:

Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, Vic Willis, Phil Rizzuto, Ben Taylor, Cannonball Dick Redding.

Gavy Cravath, Luis Tiant and Kenny Lofton were also named on at least ten ballots each and Bobby Bonds and Hugh Duffy had strong support (from fewer total voters) as well.

Newcomers on the 2014 ballot.