{"id":13081,"date":"2017-11-21T05:15:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T11:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=13081"},"modified":"2021-12-29T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T21:39:10","slug":"2018-hall-of-fame-ballot-the-holdovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/2018-hall-of-fame-ballot-the-holdovers\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 Hall Of Fame Ballot \u2013 The Holdovers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"baseballhof\"<\/a>The BBWAA released their ballot for the Hall of Fame class of 2018 yesterday. The results of the vote are due to be revealed on January 24th, with induction taking place next July. After Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez were elected in last year\u2019s voting, the new ballot contains 14 holdovers along with 19 newcomers, which may continue the logjam caused by\u00a0the current BBWAA rules\u00a0which limit the number of votes on one ballot to 10 and the ongoing refusal by some writers to vote for players tainted by PEDs,\u00a0leaving too many qualified candidates fighting for limited spots.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at the returning candidates today before moving on to the newcomers.<\/p>\n

Barry Bonds<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 5
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 53.8<\/p>\n

The all time home run champion saw his vote percentage rise for the third straight time last year, so the PED bias holding him back may be subsiding.\u00a0 Having hit the halfway point in his election cycle, whether he has enough time to get up to 75% remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Roger Clemens<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 5
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 54.1<\/p>\n

Roger Clemens, he of the 354 career victories and 7 Cy Young awards, also found himself with a third consecutive rise after his fifth run through the voting process. \u00a0For some odd reason, perhaps by having played for more teams, Clemens continues to get marginally more support than his fellow PED poster child Barry Bonds.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Guerrero<\/b>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong>\u00a01
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 71.7<\/p>\n

The former Expo and Angel should have no issue getting in this year, considering he was only 15 votes short last year.<\/p>\n

Trevor Hoffman<\/b>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 2
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 74.0<\/p>\n

One of only 2 pitchers with over 600 saves, Hoffman missed election last year buy a mere 5 votes. \u00a0I would expect him to break through this year.<\/p>\n

Jeff Kent<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 4
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong>\u00a016.7<\/p>\n

The 2000 NL MVP managed a slight increase in vote percentage last year, but has a long way to go and not a whole lot of time left, so the future does not look good for him.<\/p>\n

Edgar Martinez<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 8
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 58.6<\/p>\n

The longtime DH for the Mariners saw another big jump last year, but has only 2 elections left and may not have enough time to build up to the necessary 75%. \u00a0His long career as a DH in the Pacific Northwest may be holding him back.<\/p>\n

Fred McGriff<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 8
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong>\u00a021.7<\/p>\n

Another player with a small increase in vote percentage from the year before, McGriff seems to be destined to be on the outside looking in, thanks to PED users, the 10 person vote limit, and his missing 7 home runs, leaving him short of 500 for his career.<\/p>\n

Mike Mussina<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 4
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 51.8<\/p>\n

Mussina, who retired with 270 wins, could have hung on for a few more years to reach 300 victories and a guaranteed election to Cooperstown. \u00a0Instead, he will likely struggle to distinguish himself in the face of the other pitching talent about to come up for election.<\/p>\n

Manny Ramirez<\/b>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 1
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 23.8<\/p>\n

The numerous PED suspensions at the end of Ramirez’s career look to be holding him back, at least in his first year on the ballot.<\/p>\n

Curt Schilling<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 5
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 45.0<\/p>\n

I certainly never thought of Schilling as an all-time great while he was still playing, but many people view him as an obvious Hall of Famer. \u00a0His post-season success, with three different teams, certainly helps his case. \u00a0His totals, however, moved in the wrong direction last year, perhaps in part due to his numerous suspensions from ESPN and social media gaffes.<\/p>\n

Gary Sheffield<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 3
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong>\u00a013.3<\/p>\n

Another case of PED use derailing what would otherwise be considered a sure-fire HOF career.<\/p>\n

Sammy Sosa<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 5
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 8.6<\/p>\n

Sammy Sosa should view this election as a success if he manages to stay on the ballot for another year.<\/p>\n

Billy Wagner<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 2
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong>\u00a010.2<\/p>\n

The former Astro and Phillie closer earned little support in his first year on the ballot, and saw his percentage fall in year two.<\/p>\n

Larry Walker<\/strong>
\nYears on ballot:<\/strong> 7
\n2017 Percentage:<\/strong> 21.9<\/p>\n

Walker seems to get a lot of support in certain corners of the Internet, which is somewhat surprising to me given his years playing in the thin air of Colorado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BBWAA released their ballot for the Hall of Fame class of 2018 yesterday. The results of the vote are due to be revealed on January 24th, with induction taking place next July. After Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez were elected in last year\u2019s voting, the new ballot contains 14 holdovers along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[110,113,395,2933,6014,2780,1672,1535,1317,259,1537,5150,44,4059,391,4167,1547,2451,124,4169,79,59,254,396,397,55,4161,6179],"class_list":["post-13081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-angels","tag-astros","tag-barry-bonds","tag-bbwaa","tag-billy-wagner","tag-curt-schilling","tag-cy-young-award","tag-edgar-martinez","tag-espn","tag-expos","tag-fred-mcgriff","tag-gary-sheffield","tag-hof","tag-ivan-rodriguez","tag-jeff-bagwell","tag-jeff-kent","tag-larry-walker","tag-manny-ramirez","tag-mariners","tag-mike-mussina","tag-mvp","tag-peds","tag-phillies","tag-roger-clemens","tag-sammy-sosa","tag-tim-raines","tag-trevor-hoffman","tag-vladimir-guerrero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13081"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13086,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081\/revisions\/13086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}