Bagwell Gets FanSided Hall of Fame Vote, Williams Falls Short

The writers of FanSided’s MLB network recently took the opportunity to vote on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, and only Jeff Bagwell, who got 77.3% of the vote, garnered enough votes to exceed the necessary 75% threshold. As for everyone else, here is how the voting broke down:

Barry Larkin – 72.7 %
Tim Raines – 63.6 %
Edgar Martinez – 47.7 %
Lee Smith – 45.5%
Don Mattingly – 40.9%
Alan Trammell – 40.9%
Jack Morris – 38.6%
Dale Murphy – 36.4%
Mark McGwire – 29.5%
Larry Walker – 29.5%
Fred McGriff – 25.0%
Rafael Palmeiro – 18.2%
Bernie Williams – 11.4%
Juan Gonzalez – 6.8%

Jeremy Burnitz. Bill Mueller, Tim Salmon, Terry Mulholland, Phil Nevin and Brad Radke each received less than 5% of the vote, and Eric Young, Tony Womack, Ruben Sierra, Javy Lopez, Brian Jordan, Vinny Castilla received no votes at all.

The number for Bernie isn’t exactly surprising. In fact, Chris Jaffe at the Hardball Times predicts that Williams will end up with approximately 12% of the vote, which is right in line with the FanSided results. On the other hand, Baseball Think Factory has the results of ballots that writers have already made public, and based on that information Bernie is only pulling in around 2.2% of the vote.

Either way, we know that Bernie will not be making it to the Hall this year (and most likely will never make it). Indeed, there is a good chance that no one on the ballot will make the cut this year. FanSided put Bagwell over the top and came close to putting Larkin in the Hall, and Baseball Think Factory’s numbers also seem to indicate that Larkin is garnering a lot of votes. But neither are shoo-ins and outside of them the only other real possibility to meet the election standard is Jack Morris.

While listening to MLB Radio earlier this week I was struck by an interview with one of the A’s beat reporters: when questioned about her Hall of Fame ballot she simply replied that she had not voted for anyone. Her rationale was that if proponents of a certain player felt the need to “make a case” for that player that he does not belong in the Hall. For her, a player must be a no-brainer to receive a Hall of Fame vote. If you have to stop and weigh a player’s merits, that player does not deserve to be in the Hall, according to that particular writer. Of course, Hall of Fame voting is completely subjective, and any number of factors weigh into the decision, not the least of which is the admission of (and suspicion of) steroid use. Hence the lack of support for guys like McGwire and Palmeiro.

The official announcement next week will certainly be interesting, and a vast majority (if not all) of the players on this year’s ballot will face an uphill battle if they are ever going to make it to Cooperstown.

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